Taking a Bow

As the weather warmed up a bit today, Kelsey's tall, thin snow(wo)man took a bow...

While neighbor MJ's resting snow giant pretty much stayed intact.

Historical Second Snow Day

The kids were thrilled to pieces last night when they learned they were in for another snow day today.  Snow days for the Chicago public school system are few and far between (before yesterday, it hadn't happened in more than a decade), and even more unheard of for Oak Park school districts 97 and 200.  This is the first time in the history of the Oak Park schools that there have been back-to-back snow days.  Today's day off seemed to be related more to the overnight temperatures plummeting to -20 or lower, and the fact that not everyone's been able to dig out.  Thanks to Baird's hard work, we were able to get around fairly easily by late afternoon yesterday.  Venturing out today certainly wasn't very dramatic for us.  Clearly, tho, there were those who weren't so fortunate, like the poor owner of this car on Highland between Fillmore and Harvard:

Today became a "do your own thing" day at our house.  Baird was up early and went to work.  He said he had no problems getting there - 290 and 294 were in great shape.  Kelsey quite literally slept the morning away, finally coming to life a little after 1 this afternoon.  Erin, ever the early bird, was up by 8:00, not wanting to miss a moment of the treasured day off.  "When I look back on this," she said, "I want to be able to talk about how much fun I had in the snow.  I don't want it to be, like, 'yeah, I spent the two snow days sleeping and watching TV.'  How lame would that be?!"  I couldn't agree more!  Since the roads were passable, Erin and her neighborhood friends connected with those north of the highway and went sledding at Ridgeland Common.

Drew and his friends met up at Barrie Park for some football...

...some hot chocolate...

...and some king of the mountain.

This weekend-in-the-middle-of-the-week has lasted just long enough to be fun.  Tomorrow, it's back to school for all of half a day, then it's Super Bowl weekend.  Oh, and we might get some more snow.  I have no idea where we're going to put it!

Digging Out from Blizzard 2011

I must admit that when I woke up this morning and saw this:

my very first thought was really?  That's it?!  Somehow I thought it would be much, much more!  But the bottom line is that we did get a lot of snow overnight.  So much, in fact, that by early morning, this storm was severe enough to place it in the top three all-time snow storms in Chicagoland.  The truth is, it actually didn't look that bad from inside, but once we went outside and started digging out, it was clear that this was, in fact, a BIG snow storm.

Baird, bless his sweet heart, spent just over 7 of the last 18 hours snow blowing our entire block three times over.  He worked on the alley, Finn & Kat's car port space, and Ted & Sue's sidewalk on Fillmore too.

While Baird ran the snow blower and Kelsey worked on the stairs and walkway to the garage, Drew and I had a little fun on the way to Barrie Park.

The hill at Barrie Park was a popular place this morning!

Erin and her neighborhood friends were part of the group that enjoyed the fantastic sledding.

When they'd had their fill of sledding, the Neighborhood Three decided on a change of venue. They climbed onto our garage roof for some more snow day fun:

It was a pretty easy endeavor since there was a giant pile of snow that was formed when the dads on the block worked at clearing the alley.   The pile was even bigger than it was in the earlier pic when Drew and Emm were sledding on it.

Once they scaled the side of the garage, the girls set to work on a snowman.  They used the snow from the roof, carrots, chocolate chips, and food coloring to make a whimsical work of art:

Not to be outdone, Kelsey worked on her own snow(wo)man in the front of our house:

Here's the finished product:

I know for a lot of people this snow storm was a huge hassle, but for our family, it was a pretty great day.  We enjoyed each other's company.  We had fun playing in this historic snow.  There was not a single fight or cross word the whole day.

As my thoughts turned toward supper, I thought comfort food all the way.  I went with London broil, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and Caesar salad.  And of course, for dessert, there was snow ice cream.

We've just received word that both District 97and District 200 are closed again tomorrow, since side streets and alleys in a lot of places are still impassable, tho ours are in pretty good shape.  It's also turning bitterly cold, with wind chills sinking to 20 to 40 below zero tonight.

This is winter, Chicago style!

Next Steps

For more than two months now, this evening's been marked in my calendar as "Mandatory Parent Mtg @ OPRF, 7pm."  That short note in my calendar doesn't begin to tell the story.

Baird attended the meeting tonight, since it fell on a Wednesday and I was busy with Commander duties for Awana.  When I returned home, I was greeted at the door by a very enthusiastic Erin, who couldn't wait to show me OPRF's academic catalog, her placement test results, and a plethora of other papers included in the packet Baird brought home:

Even tho it was getting late, Erin and I spent almost an hour together, going over the papers and her class preferences.  She's even begun to fill out the worksheet at the back of the catalog that spells out her four-year academic plan.  Her excitement over this next phase of her life is palpable.  She's focused.  She's thrilled.  She's more than ready.

I can't believe in just a few short months, I'll have one daughter halfway thru her high school career, and another one just beginning.  As I fell asleep last night, I found myself wondering, once again, how it's gone this fast.  The days may be long, but certainly, the years are short.

Weekday Dinner with Friends

Given the craziness of modern family schedules, it can sometimes be difficult to plan a get together with friends.  We're in close contact with our friends, the Rennys, but it seems like forever since we had them over for a meal.  This afternoon, Erin invited the Renny girls to come over and hang out for awhile after school.  As JRenny and I were making the arrangements for the playdate, I said, "Why don't you guys just come over and join us for supper?"

The Renny girls love our pets, and K especially likes it when Erin takes out the birds:

I served one of Erin's favorite dishes, chicken and rice casserole.  It sat alongside fresh bread, green beans, and a salad featuring cucumbers and avocados.  Yum.  Good food + great friends = fantastic homemade week night fun.

Thanks, J, for the beautiful flowers, the good company, and the tasty salad!

What Goes Up...

...must come down.

After hosting a casual meal with friends from church after service, Baird and I looked at each other and knew the time had come to kick the Christmas tree to the alley.  This is one of my least favorite activities.  As much as I love Christmas, I hate taking down the decorations.  I usually put it off far longer than I should.  This year, however, our tree was looking a bit lopsided and droopy, and we both figured we should put it out of its misery before it started making its post-Christmas protest by dropping every single one of its needles.

So, in the course of about an hour, our tree from went this:

to this:

{Big Sigh}

Just eleven more months until we do it all again.

New Year's 2011

We rang in the new year with poppers and sparkling red grape juice.  It was fun and low key and just perfect.  I, for one, am thrilled to death to put 2010 behind me.  I actually can't remember when I've looked forward to a new year quite this much.

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R ! ! !