What an adventure!!!

So.... what did YOU did this past weekend?
Read on to see what WE did!

On Thursday they cancelled school in anticipation of a storm... we were supposed to get freezing rain and 2-4 inches of snow.

Well, instead of that, we got a HUGE ICE STORM!

The first picture shows the icicles that formed underneath the new deck... it was neat to look at!

This second picture is Owen next to our tree-- our "Charlie Brown Tree" that Grandma Lorna sent us!! We put it in the basement and thought it was funny that Owen is almost as tall as the tree is!

So on Thursday they cancelled school, and we had all 7 kids here. It was icy, so what better thing to do than go sledding?? The kids grabbed their sleds and went sledding on the ice- for almost 2 hours! They had a ball. And aside from the freezing rain, which didn't seem to bother them... it really wasn't too cold.
It did end up snowing, but we only got a dusting... and that dusting didn't stay for long at all. BUT-- it did convince the kids to go back out sledding a second time. Of course, that time they got covered in mud because now it was very wet!!

Here are some sledding pictures...















Sarah, Sam, Will, Sami, Colby, and Nick













Going over the jump...eeks! Don't let Mommy see you do that!!













Colby trying to snowboard in the backyard.















On Thursday night, the ice came. Freezing rain and lots of ice. We lost power in the night and woke up to ice everywhere. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was *so pretty*. Ice everywhere, and no lights... with the sun shining bright, it was so cool to look at.












With no power, we only had lanterns and candles to see with. Here is a picture of the kids coloring in the living room by lantern light.


And this bottom picture I LOVE!! The 3 kids by the lantern!!

We actually had so much fun in power outage. We had the woodstove for heat, so we were nice and toasty warm. We all slept in the basement with like a campout. We were able to cook on the woodstove, and Art also brought in the camping stove. So we had soups and sandwiches and hot cocoa and french toast too!!
During the day used the daylight, but it got dark really early... One night we played L, C, R by lamplight (samantha won $2.50). Another night we let the kids watch a DVD (we were really surprised the battery in the portable player wasn't dead!!)
On Saturday we went and got a tree. It was full of ice, so we had to thaw it out in the garage with a portable heater!! And on Sunday we decorated it by daylight... of course, we couldn't test the lights... but it's okay, they all work!!
Aunt Amy invited us over for dinner on Sunday. And Grammy made us meatballs for Saturday. I did some laundry at Grammy's and also was able to shower there (thank goodness!) We didn't lose water, but of course we had no hot water.
We played board games, read books, colored... and cleaned when it was daylight. It's amazing how much you can get done without the TV, computer, and phone to draw your attention away. (Yea we lost phone too).
It was a tad bit of an inconvenience... but it was great!
The boys were supposed to test for tae kwon do on Thursday, but it was cancelled, and rescheduled for Saturday morning... so Art took them to prebowl on Thursday instead. And then instead they scheduled it for Friday, and cancelled that too. And on Saturday all the basketball games were cancelled. So we were basically *F*R*E*E* on Saturday!! On Sunday Will did have a basketball game. They lost, but it was a fun game and believe me, great to watch. I LOVE Will's team this year... they are such a good fit for him!!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have pics of our tree up soon.
Oh and Art is working nights again, so I'm off to figure out dinner (did I mention we have no food because everything spoiled???) and bring Sam to basketball practice. Have a great night!