Snow and Silliness

We had a big snow a couple of weeks ago.  After having a "snow day" on the day before the storm even started, we ended up getting about 10 inches of snow topped by a coating of ice.  School was canceled for the rest of the week...  Lots of snow days! 

The day after the storm, the kids went out to play.  The snow wasn't great for sledding, but they occupied themselves in our backyard for hours.  Steven worked on his own snow fort, which involved moving as much snow as possible from one part of the yard to another. 

Isabel and Luke worked together to build their own fort, using the snow from the deck mostly.  

Josie went from sibling to sibling to "help".  She really enjoyed playing in the snow.  She stayed out a long time! 

At one point she did a faceplant, though.  Then she decided that it was time to go inside for some hot cocoa...







The kids had fun in the snow that one day, but unfortunately the weather was just not great for playing outside during all the other snow days.  There was an arctic blast of cold air, and the snow was really icy and crusty.  So, we stayed inside a lot during all the snow days.  The kids fought with each other, played the DS, went to extra swimming practices, fought some more...  I even took them all to Costco.  Having a Suburban, I was able to get around town at least! 

It wasn't all fighting in the house.  Josie has discovered the very fun pastime of dress up.  She already knows she's a princess, but it doesn't hurt to dress like one!

And if Josie is the princess, Steven is the Court Jester.  He is very tender-hearted with his baby sister.  After taking this picture, she proceeded to bop him on his head with the toy she is holding...  But she loves her brother!  Really, she does! 

Last week was a much more stable week weather-wise.  No more snow days.  Back to the same winter routine. 

On Saturday we had lots of sports.  Luke, Isabel, and Steven played basketball games. Luke is slowly figuring out how the game works, and he seems to prefer defense to actually touching the ball.  The coach makes sure each player dribbles the ball down the court at least once, but Luke passes the ball away as soon as he can!  In this picture he is getting ready to pass.  Those little guys are so cute!

I didn't get to watch Isabel's game much.  Mac was watching but not taking much in- he had Josie Duty for the morning!  Josie isn't a huge fan of all these sporting events...  Mac did watch Steven's game, and I missed that one due to my turn on Josie Duty...  Mac reports that Steven "ran circles" around the other players.  Steven is in great shape due to all the swimming.  He's having fun with basketball.  If I get decent pictures of Steven and Isabel playing basketball, I'll add them later.

Kate finished up the regular season of swimming on Saturday with a swim meet.  She completed a 200 IM- she'd never swum that event before.  She also did a very fast 50 freestyle leg for her relay team.  Right after her swim meet, we drove straight to her indoor soccer game.  Busy busy Saturday!