DAY ONE
During the day yesterday it was really pretty. Steady snowfall from about 8:00 am on, but nothing scary. Our neighbor, who were share a driveway with, plowed several times to keep up with the snow. Adam went out to shovel in front of the garage door, and Madison went out with him to play. She made a snow angel, threw some snow, and took a ride on her new sled.
During the day I made sure to make being "snowbound" fun! We were stocked up on supplies, and I was ready to play. I wanted everything to be things that both girls could enjoy, which is tough right now. But I had a list and was ready to go!
We painted. Both girls love to paint, but it gets pretty messy so we don't do it often.
We "cooked". Plain oatmeal and various kitchen gadgets. Both girls LOVED it, and I didn't need to worry about Reagan putting anything in her mouth.
We played with snow inside. This is SUCH A hit at our house.
Finally, we had a glowstick and color bath, once Madison had finished playing outside. A bath BEFORE DINNER! How outrageous!
A whole day in our house and we didn't resort to excessive TV! We watched a bit in the morning and while I prepared dinner, but that was it. What a wonderful snow day!
Around dinnertime the snow really picked up and started getting scary. The wind was intense and the snow was incredibly heavy. Adam decided to go outside and "check it out". I've already gone on record with him that I think this is totally unnecessary. He did it in the hurricane too. I'm not sure what he expects to discover, and even if he did discover something, what would he do about it? I think this is a guy thing.
Anyway, he came in red, snowcovered, and unhappy. He slipped walking up the driveway. He's fine, but based on what hurts and how sore he is, he pulled a muscle and probably bruised/cracked a rib. Definitely good news at the beginning on a blizzard. He also told me that in the hour since we'd come in, we'd gotten another 4-5 inches.
He did rally through, and played about 20-30 games of Hungry Hungry Hippos with Madison while I got Reagan put down and started the clean up.
Girls went to bed, we finished cleaning up (we like to put our best foot forward for storms), prayed for the power to stay on, and hunkered down.
DAY TWO:
We woke up to this.
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| I realize it's really hard to get the perspective, but that used to be our front steps. You can no longer tell we have front steps. |
Tough to tell, because of the drifting, but we're pretty sure it was about 3 feet of snow. The town next to us had FORTY INCHES, so I don't think we were too far off.
We were thinking we'd play outside today, but we realized that was going to be tough. We couldn't get out the doors. We had drifts piled up against the garage.
The day started off well. Both girls woke up smiling and marveled at the snow. Madison helped me make waffles, and we all ate together. Adam was sore and hadn't slept well, but he planned to go outside anyway to attempt to dig out his car and touch up the areas our neighbor plowed.
My plan was to do a few more activities today - I was super smart and split our fun snowbound activities into two days! I figured we'd make some more rainbow rice, we'd build a fort with blankets and read some books, we'd have a dance party, and of course, we'd play outside.
Well somehow, I ended up with this weird heartburn/pulled muscle feeling on my left side. Of course, when I couldn't kill it with Pepcid and couldn't figure out where or when I pulled it, when Adam jokingly said "tell don't tell me you're having a heart attack" my first thought was Oh God, I'm not, right????
Mom: No, I am not having a heart attack. I even checked my pulse. I'm fine. I'm fairly confident it's a pulled muscle. But February is a month when all the magazines talk about women having heart attacks who were young, and risk free, and didn't recognize the symptoms, and it made me paranoid. Especially since we're snowed in.
Well, even though my threat of a heart attack seems to have passed, I still had an unsettling pain, and I was pretty thrown by it. Adam was also still recovering from his fall last night, so he wasn't happy either. The girls sensed that we weren't operating at full strength and went into super clingy/whiny mode. Madison didn't want to make rice. She didn't want to play play-doh. She freaked out when we tipped her chair over to make a fort.
She wanted to watch Rapunzel. While reading Green Eggs and Ham 2 or 3 or 47 times.
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| This is currently the favorite book. She recites it right along with us. |
So we did.
After the movie both girls were absolutely stir crazy. Tearing around the house, tipping over their chairs (sure, NOW Madison didn't have an issue with it), shutting themselves in the bathroom. Adam was outside shoveling, I was still trying to figure out what was going on with my muscle, and I was in no mood to start an activity. I fed them lunch, and both ended up crying halfway through, begging for their naps.
They took nice long naps, which I appreciated. I figured I should get outside and help out with the snow removal. We have a snowblower, but we were having some issues with it, so we were attempting to dig out Adam's car the old fashioned way. Just as we were speculating when our neighbor would be around, we heard him approaching on his tractor.
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| We found the car! |
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| Digging a path so we could dig out the car. So our neighbor wouldn't hit it with the tractor. I love New England. |
His tractor. Because the snow was too deep for his plow.
We did get our driveway done, but our neighbor told us that we'd be staying in, because our street was (and still is as of the writing of this post) completely untouched.
Once the girls were awake, we tried to get them outside. They had a driveway to play in, and could marvel at the walls of snow.
We took 20 minutes to bundle them up, and went out. The wind blew the powdery snow into their faces and both girls immediately demanded to be taken back inside. Madison hates the wind. Hates it. Whenever we're outside and it's windy she freaks out because her hair moves. When we're crossing a parking lot and a breeze blows, she yells at me to "hurry, hurry" and once we're inside says "PHEW. The wind didn't see us". So I guess we should have anticipated she wouldn't enjoy being outside today. Reagan isn't as bothered by the wind, but she has a really hard time moving in her snowsuit, which isn't meant for walkers. So I think she feels stuck. She can't move where she wants to as fast as she wants to.
So we took both girls back inside, got them unbundled, and they watched some Kai Lan while I cooked dinner.
To Recap:
Snow Day One: Picturesque, wholesome, learning based playtime, and family fun.
Snow Day Two: Record amounts of snow, lots of TV, and crankiness.
Tomorrow looks like it'll be Day Three, since our road isn't plowed (and according to the town website, is definitely not a priority to them), church has already been canceled, and I don't think we're going anywhere. Maybe I'll look at that as a blessing and we'll try to round out our snowbound weekend with wholesome family fun.
Or maybe we'll spend the day with Sofia, Kai Lan, and Rapunzel.
Or maybe both! The girls are happy, I'm happy, and I think that's the best we can hope for!
