Winter Montage

To sum up life in a short statement, let's just say: We've had ONE full week of school since before Christmas.

Mother Nature has thrown snow, ice, sleet, and below zero wind-chills our direction almost non-stop.  We've had snow day after snow day over the course of the last few weeks, which is fun for awhile...but on day 3 in week 3, the party is over and it's time to go back to school.  With an early dismissal on Monday, we found ourselves enjoying life on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday, it was all hands on deck to try to prevent World War III.  Connor and Kylee were nitpicking at each other, Kylee was fed up with Hadley, and I was fed up with all of it.  We were relieved to hear school was back in session on Friday.

But, to back up a little bit....

In early January, we had the opportunity to participate in a service project that involved packing food for an organization called Numana, who provides sealed bags of rice and beans to families in Haiti.  One bag serves 5 people.  The kids were able to dive in and help in the assembly line, which was really cool.  It was also neat to have such a tangible, measurable example how much even the smallest amount of food means to those who are hungry.  Below are pictures of Connor catching rice in the baggies and Kylee "patting down" the filled bags so that they could be boxed up for delivery.

 
With snow has come some outdoor play.  The kids had a great time sledding down the hill in our back yard with the first major snowfall.  With this most recent snow, Connor and Kylee created a "snow family" in our front yard.  Below is a picture of the whole family, including mom, brother, sister, and the dog, followed by a close-up of brother and sister.  I am told there wasn't enough snow to make dad or a baby.

The kids had one day of school last week and on that day, had the highly-anticipated "100th Day of School" kindergarten celebration.  Kylee's class spent the day focusing on the number 100, and each classmate contributed their own unique collection of 100 items to tell about (Kylee was insistent on bringing popcorn kernels...I was thankful she was opting for something cheap).  Parents were invited to join in the fun.  Below are pics from the celebration, highlighting the 100 Day hats and the 100 Fruit Loops/Cheerios necklaces that the kids each created:

We hear that more snow is headed our way this weekend, but are optimistic that it won't be as much as we've had over the previous few weeks.  In the midst of all of it, we feel blessed to have food in the pantry and warm beds to sleep in at night.  And the kids are especially grateful for the bounty of hot chocolate that has been available in our house. :)