snow day!

We are being buried in snow today, and since we're pretty much housebound for a while, I thought I'd update the old blog. With photos, no less!

This is our front walk:

Since the maintenance people typically clear the snow in a thorough and timely fashion, we no longer own a shovel. Today the maintenance people are mysteriously absent -- or maybe they're overburdened by the ridiculous amounts of snow and just haven't made it over to our street yet. Anyway, looking at the walk is making me wish I actually owned a pair of winter boots. I know, I know, upstate NY in the winter -- it's foolish not to own boots. But you know, I'm pretty good at being foolish, as I'll demonstrate further down in the post.

Here is our poor buried car. This is how buried it is after cleaning it off and going out this morning:

But from the back door it looks fluffy and innocent and pretty:



James was home from nursery school today, which I found out only after driving him there this morning. Normally we get a call in the morning if school is going to be cancelled, but today I guess they figured that only an idiot would attempt to drive in these conditions. Ladies and gentlemen, I am that idiot. After navigating poorly plowed roads at a snail's pace this morning, and nearly getting stuck in a completely unplowed section of road, I think it's safe to say that I will never, ever drive James to school again before checking school cancellations.

James was ridiculously disappointed; he cried as we drove away from the dark and empty school. You see, today is Valentine's Day, and it was his mom's turn to be the parent helper, and he made valentines to give to all of his friends, and we baked a special snack of blueberry muffins in heart-shaped cups, and on top of all that it was his show and tell day, for which he made a special valentine for the whole class. What a huge disappointment! We also had a playdate scheduled for this afternoon, and I naturally assumed our friends would not brave the weather to come and play, but thankfully I was wrong -- apparently I'm not the only one stupid enough to venture outside in weather like this. It's a good thing, because I don't think James could have handled any more disappointment. He and his friend are now happily playing some kind of Star Wars/dinosaur hybrid game. With airplanes, and a tropical island.

I think we'll be able to avoid going completely stir-crazy; after all, we've hardly left the house except for school and groceries and library trips in recent weeks. We're pros at indoor play. Our days are pretty well filled with cooking, movies, books, Star Wars, play-doh, and jumping on the bed. One of their favorite things to do lately is to sit behind the cushions on the couch and pretend that they're in a spaceship. Here's a photo of them reading on a particularly long space flight:


So we're having a fun winter so far. I'm not even sick of the snow yet! It's still pretty, and I don't have to go anywhere, so let it snow. I'll probably change my tune if this keeps up for too long, but for now, we're happy.