There's No Day Like a Snow Day

Yesterday we woke up to a winter wonderland... six inches of pristine white snow blanketed our trees, bushes, flower boxes and deck... what a delight! School was cancelled, and despite the fact that this was neither here nor there to our homeschool family, we celebrated as if it was. Slushy roads with no snow plows in sight forced me to cancel playdate plans, and we spent the morning in our jammies.

The kids convinced me to brave the snow a few hours later, and I spent about twenty minutes stuffing them into snow pants, hats, double socks, boots, mittens, and coats, for about nine minutes in the freezing cold snow. It was nine minutes of snow dives off the deck steps, snow angels in the back yard, and three fantastic runs down the driveway on the snow boogie, our trusty sled. In short, totally worth it.

Then we came in and I filed three sweet little sets of rosy cheeks away in my memory as hot chocolate was slurped and lunch was eaten. Bellies full, we settled in to read one of our all-time favorite winter books, Snow Day by Lynn Plourde, which we were fortunate enough to get to borrow from the library on Saturday just before we were surprised with our own unexpected snow day.

Exhausted from the chilly (albeit short) ourdoor adventure, I tucked the boys into their beds for a nap and settled Chloe into her room with Madeline and Little Bear, her current favorite books on tape, and then spent the afternoon alternately reading and dozing as the snow continued to fall outside.

God doesn't promise that this life will be easy. But every so often, He blesses us with a near-perfect day. I am so grateful for that.

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
    ² Worship the Lord with gladness.
      Come before him, singing with joy.
 ³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
      He made us, and we are his.
      We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
      go into his courts with praise.

Psalm 100:1-4 

Field Trip Friday: The Museum of Natural History

This morning the kids and I went back to the Natural History Museum. This time before we left, I told them each to pick out one particular animal exhibit that they wanted to learn more about. Next week, each one of them is going to complete a poster board displaying the things they've learned about the animals they've chosen. Chloe is going to absolutely love this project, and it should be interesting, to say the least, to see what the boys come up with.

Before we even entered the museum Max confidently announced that he would be choosing T Rex. No big surprise there. I asked if he thought he might want to look around to see if there was something new that he'd like to learn more about, but he was adamant. Not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, I just went with it.

Also not a surprise was Sam's choice, the mastodon. He is insisting it is an elephant. I correct him - it is a mastodon, the elephant's ancestor. Two minutes later, he's back to calling it an elephant. Oh well... I'm choosing my battles. But we'll be getting books out at the library on mastodons, not elephants, if I have anything to say about it.

Chloe also decided on the T Rex after she came across a much smaller version of it and learned it was "Jane," the museum's resident baby T Rex skeleton. She thought it was pretty cool to see a dinosaur baby, and I think it will be neat for her to teach Max what she learns next week.

It was a fun morning with the kids... tomorrow, off to the library to begin our research!