Snow Days While They Last

One thing we look forward to in the Rockies

are Snow Days.

Seriously, there are fewer things my yahoos get excited over

as much as a day off school.

So when reports of 20" of snow was on the way last week,

we all sorta held our breath and whispered a few words heavenward,

"Please Oh Please Oh Please"--

fingers and toes crossed just in case.

 Snow started falling on Thursday evening...

and by Friday morning 

it was clear that we would not only meet the forecasted twenty inches,

but we'd probably exceed those!

Wahoo!

 Mr W called into work,

as the snowstorm only intensified up to Denver where he works.

YEA! I love it when he gets a snow day too!

Snowdrifts in the backyard were pretty neat.

Some climbed to the very top of the fence.

You know I'm from Miami, Florida right?

Yeah, this beach-baby loves snow.

So, you may be wondering what we do when everyone's home

and there's nowhere to go?

 We take pictures of the hounds...that's Runaway Riley in all of his golden glory...

And there's ol Kota girl who is afflicted with SHS...Selective Hearing Syndrome...

we diagnosed her with this after several months of observation.

When she's in the house, she comes immediately when called,

but when she's outside, she is acts as though we are complete strangers to her

and runs in the complete opposite direction of us.

Unless.

Unless we're getting into the car,

then that girl is all about goin' with us.

Don't tell the yahoos, but for a buck-fifty she's all yours.

I'll even pay in cash.

What else did we do?

Aside from staying in our pj's all day,

watch movies, taking catnaps during the movies,

poppin' corn and sipping hot chocolate with extra marshmallows...

We played games.

First up was Apples to Apples,

but then we got adventurous and decided to teach the youngun's 

how to play:

 I've been playin' this game since I was a young girl with my Dad and cousins Habib, Benny, Burle, and Joni

way back in the day, in their Florida room.

It is the classic board game of all time,

I do declare.

 The kids got into it and once they learned how to bid on properties,

 buy hotels, 

and how to

 Go To Jail, Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go

Do Not Collect $200

 Well then there was nuthin' left to do but have fun!

Arianna built her own little private Monopoly Street by buying Baltic and Mediterranean

and all of the light blue lots: Oriental, Vermont and Connecticut--

THEN she put houses and hotels on them

and nearly drove us all into bankruptcy!

She giggled uncontrollably at her success--

it was awesome!

~~~~~

 I also had some time for crafting this plaque above her bed:

 It is made from a piece of wood 

we got at Home Depot, scrapbook paper, modge podge and vinyl lettering.

 We're in the process of creating her new bedroom...she wanted green and pink.

Her walls are a light lemon yellow--but the camera I used stinks on ice

and I can't find my good one, (shhh don't tell Mr W that) so it looks way more yellow than it is.

Anyway, her room is coming together--

we got the hanging light from IKEA,

the drapes from JCPenney's Waverly collection ON CLEARANCE for $14.99 

for the pair, and we're going to paint the wooden headboard a nice creamy white.

And yes, I know the dresser shouldn't be in front of the window,

but Ari likes it there this week, so it's there instead of across the room 

from her bed where there is plenty of room.

I also found identical fabric as the scrapbook to make a lumbar pillow 

for her Great-Granmother's chair that is many decades old

and she says will be nice for her pillow pet giraffe, "Steve".

~~~~~~~~

There was also time for silliness:

 Static electricity is alive and well

in our very dry winter climate,

as Joseph is demonstrating with a clothes basket.

Thanks, Joseph.

I also get shocked every time I touch the TV

which only adds to the excitement of my day.

~~~~~~~

I'll call the next series

"Whistle While You Work"

or

"Dancin' in the Kitchen Fer Reals":

 The girls take doing the dishes to a whole 'nother level--

music pumpin' while they sing at the top of their lungs

with Adele...

Noone was harmed during the filming of this incident

and most of the dishes got clean.

~~~~

Lastly,

Arianna worked on her Science Fair Project,

which is an exercise in training Kota.

"Treats VS. Love Training".

I'm hoping it works better than our previous method

of 

"Yelling and Threatening Training".

 Riley came to us very well-trained. So he was mostly used as an example for Kota,

who is oblivious to how under-trained she is and if she could talk would utter,

"Whatever."

~~~~~

We also watched the Super Bowl and munched on spinach artichoke dip,

hot wings, veggies and dip, sweets and treats.

Joseph let me know I get too carried away when I hollared at the Patriot's defense

"just like the Fiesta Bowl when the Broncos won, Mom."

So I may not be allowed to watch football for awhile.

~~~~~

 And this is the house today...

Snow is still in place

altho' we have had a few nice days of sunshine,

but truly,

there was ALOT of snow...

 Hard to believe that little bunch of sticks to the left is a lilac bush and next to it,

way underneath the snow,

are bunches of daylily bulbs.

Before I know it,

the snow will be gone,

just like game nights,

Snow days,

Dancin' in the kitchen with music blaring and girls giggling...

so I will hold my breath and hope for a long long winter.