We are thawing out after an ice storm here in East Tennessee. First it was predicted that we would get 5″-8″ of snow. Then over time it was diminished to 1/2″ of ice topped with a light snow. It hasn’t stopped the kids from having fun. Because ice makes for really fast sledding!
Fortunately we never lost power. Our Hackberry tree however, lost two big limbs the size of two trees. It broke the zip line but the fence survived. The rest of the tree will have to come down. I hate that. Because I love having trees all around our house, as long as they are not a threat of falling ON the house.
Between sledding activities there have been several crock pots of hot chocolate gone in one clean swoop of neighborhood kids coming in for a quick warm up. In addition to that was a pot of tomato soup, vegetarian chili, grill cheese sandwiches, cheese quesadillas, tacos plus beverages for the adults. These are snow days (or ice days). The days seem long. The play is hard. The sledding is fast. The kids are merry. And at the end of the day the kids are tuckered out.
This morning my girls were outside sledding from 8:30-12:00. I’m so thankful for tough girls who love to play outside. And now, as I type, they are all back out again running from yard from yard and the air is filled with sleds crunching on ice, little voices and then sleds stopping on concrete patches of melting ice.
The snow/ice mixture was predicted to start around 11:00 Monday morning. The girls were waiting anxiously. The night before they did all the superstitious stuff to bring snow – spoons under pillows, white crayons on widow sills, ice in toilets, pajamas on inside out and backwards.. and more. In the morning they got all the dolls dressed for the cold, with ice skates, skis and homemade ice skating rinks on the porch – waiting for the snow to start.
When the sleet started, they went inside to warm up and our fireplace hearth looked like this.
And the play was like this, waiting for some white stuff to play in.
Then we had a sheet of ice on the ground. They headed outside to crunch in it, discovering it made for really good sledding!
And the fireplace hearth turned to this.
Over night this happened.
Along with the beauty and peace of ice.
With that came more sledding, and a little bit of white stuff. 
The sledding hill at the park was so slick a sled was not even necessary. 
When they got thirsty, they ate icicles.
Despite still freezing temperatures, the roads are clearing up. Still, most suspect schools will be out for a for a couple more days due to bus routes and hard to heat buildings. This was a pre-scheduled day off for our Montessori kids. Their school is rarely canceled for weather and they love when they can throw snowballs during outside playtime. Unless it gets worse tonight, I have a feeling life will be back to normal tomorrow. But the non-normal is lots of fun for two days.
