A Snowy, Frozen Homecoming

 Friday morning, we woke to this - snow and low clouds in the mountains...

...and, very cold temperatures ... and did I mention the wind?

We had several inches of snow.  Before I get to the homecoming details, I'm going to share with you what our morning was like.

 The two year old spotted some birds in our bushes.  He was laying on the floor above the stairway to the play area so he could see the birds better.

He was awfully naughty.  While we weren't looking, he helped himself to some cereal that his brother had on the table.  Problem - he is allergic to this cereal.  Okay, so that is only one problem.  The huge mess was the obvious other problem.

 The four year old loves pop tarts. I usually open the packet away from him and only give him one of the two in each packet.  But yesterday I made the mistake of opening it in front of him.  He had a total meltdown because he was sure I had broken his pop tart because there were two pieces there.

We had a lot of birds hanging around yesterday.  Two very fat robins were hiding in our bushes.  We actually bought a couple new bird feeders when we went to town so the boys will have more opportunities to watch them throughout the winter.  I call it a homeschool investment.

 I think we will really enjoy our bird watching.

But... while we were all enthralled by the robins, the two year old climbed up onto the table and helped himself to his brother's cereal - he's allergic to the cereal and milk.  And if you look at his blue plate, you will see the remainder of his four year old brother's pop tart, which of course he is also allergic to.  Needless to say, we dosed him with Benadryl right away.  I was surprised though that he didn't react at all to getting into those things.  Normally even with the Benadryl, he will start itching and scratching right away.  We were told the allergies should go away eventually.  I don't know if I should get my hopes up yet or not, but I did call the doctor to see if we can start experimenting with reintroducing some of the foods he has been allergic to or if we need to wait and have another blood test first.  I should hear back from them on Monday.

 We were looking forward to the homecoming parade ... until we walked outside and the wind hit us.  We very nearly decided to stay home, but figured we might as well go.  The nine year old grabbed a shovel to clear our sidewalk (though the four year old was sure we should use the snowblower).

Not to be outdone, the four year old found a shovel too.

At the parade I had a hard time deciding whether the school district was crazy for not cancelling the parade - or whether we were crazy for being there to watch it.

I think we're all nuts.

The four year old was really excited to "squish the snow" and he told me that morning that we needed to go outside and look for snowmen.  I think he believes they just show up when it snows.  :)

The high school classes have contests for the best float (each class has one float).  They had some pretty good ones.

 This was the senior float, which won the prize for best float.

Our nine year old's football league had to wear their full uniforms to the homecoming game.

 The junior players ran out onto the field with our varsity players and were introduced by name.

 He was pretty nervous about it before hand, but excited by the time of the introductions.  After that, the kids all played football behind the stands and didn't really watch the game at all.

 I had to take a picture of this quilt.  It is just like one I have that used to be my grandmother's.  It is made of polyester fabric which looks like it is from pants like my mom used to wear back in the 70's- mine at least looks like it could be made from clothes because there are areas with seams.  Mine is tied just like this one too.  I just thought it was interesting that they are so similar.

 Do you like our Superman blanket?

So does the four year old.  He spent quite a bit of the game huddled under it on the floor of the bleachers, including most of the fourth quarter.  Did I mention that the temperature was in the 20's, with wind making it feel like the teens?  My feet were so cold by the end of the game that I couldn't feel them, and I'm still sore today from being so tense and shivering.  I really should have taken the boys home after the first half, but the game was really good.  We won 38-35 and it came right down to the last few seconds of the game.  Very fun to watch - I just wish the weather had been a bit warmer.  They had to scrape the snow off the field so the game could be played.  We're really spoiled to have a field like the pro NFL fields - made with tiny rubber pellets for cushioning - and made to drain well.  That's all thanks to the boom we've had from natural gas drilling.  But that's another topic.