Back to Life Back to Reality

Today is Madeleine's first day back to school since the snow storm struck Lincoln on Tuesday. The school district canceled school for three days in a row; I couldn't believe it! By yesterday morning the girls and I were going a little stir crazy seeing how we hadn't left the house since Monday. Yesterday morning, since the snow plows had come down our street to free us from our snow prison, I decided we would venture out. I called my mom (who works in the public school system and was off as well) to invite ourselves over. I think she was going a little stir crazy too because she had been home alone (with her cat and dog) for the past several days. She sounded excited to have the girls and I over. After bundling Madeleine and Audrey up and getting them situated in the van I politely instructed them to stay quiet so as not to distract me while driving on the snowy/icy roads. Madeleine chimed in, "Yeah, so we don't get killed. I want to grow up and have children". So, we said a prayer together and off to Grammy's we drove. We had lunch and did crafts. They made candy cane ornaments, something I remember making with my mom as a child. All you need is a pipe cleaner and some red, white, and green beads. It is something young children can make all by themselves without help from an adult . . .

. . . case in pointAudrey insisted on dumping her beads into a big heap in front of herMadeleine made a pattern using red, white, and green beads. She pointed out that Audrey was making a random pattern since there was no organization to the way she placed her beads on the pipe cleaner. Grammy made one tooHere are the girls with their finished ornaments. As you can see we tied decorative ribbon on for the finishing touch. Madeleine is a very busy and crafty little girl. She did not stop with the candy cane ornament. She went on to make this little mouse
It holds a candy cane by which you can hang it from your Christmas tree like soHere are the candy cane ornaments that are beautifully adorning our tree :)

After taking our sweet time making Christmas ornaments, I let the girls play outside for a brief amount of time. The 20 degree high we hit yesterday felt warm compared to the 7 degree high the day before. It is also amazing how much warmer 20 degrees feels when the sun is shining.

Here is Daisy, my parent's beautiful lab and faithful companion to my girls. Have I mentioned before how much I love this dog?Audrey was perfectly content to fill this bucket with snow
Madeleine ventured out to the back part of the yard where the snow was the deepest.Audrey decided to join herThis picture was taken right before I had to help her up

This was my attempt to get a cute picture of the 3 of us in the snow. However, I kept falling backwards and this is what resulted. I really enjoyed the togetherness the blizzard brought to my family, but today we are back to life . . . back to reality. Madeleine is at school and the house is a little quieter. However, today is Friday so the house won't be quiet for long! :)