Hello Snow, Goodbye School!

Today was the third snow day this month and the beginning of four more snow days this week. What better way to spend a snow day than in the snow?

Got Snow?

I bet you might not have as much snow as we do!

After two days and 32 inches of snow, our area was covered.

Our cars.

Our deck.

Doug had his shoveling work cut out for him. His back will never be the same. It's not an easy thing to shovel out our cars. When there is no where to put the snow, Doug had to haul his shovels of snow across the street.

The mighty shoveler at work on our deck.

The good news for the kids: No school for seven consecutive days because of this snow storm and the next one that will come tomorrow.

The good news for Dad: no work for two and a half days.

The bad news for mom: no school for the kids for seven consecutive days.

How much more of this can we take?

You're a Grand Old Flag

A Star Spangled Celebration

Tonight we saw one great patriotic performance from the first grade class. This picture is kind of like Where's Waldo, but James is on the back row, about third from the left. They practiced for weeks for their big night.

James was a great flag waver. He told me this was a very important responsibility.

The pledge of allegiance.

Faith can give the best applause.

Saluting our military men and women.

"Thankful for the USA." Great job, James!

Each class made a patriotic quilt. James' quilt block is below:

We are so proud to have Grandpa Cowles on the Wall of Honor.

Those who are brave enough to sit through a minute and a half of watching James wave his flag can do that on the previous post. Warning: this might just be for Grandmas and Grandpas.

This One's for Stanley

We have had flat Stanley before, but never such a large flat Stanley. Have you ever seen anything like this? Our nephew Cole made this Stanley and sent it to us right as we moved into our new house. We finally found him again and decided it was time to send Stanley on an adventure since the kids didn't have to go to school yesterday.

I took the Brown kids with us since it is much more adventurous to take six kids by myself on the subway (seven if you count Stanley, which I think you should considering his size and all).

When we got to DC, our first stop was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing so we could see how they print our money.

That big column on the left is filled with shredded money. The boys really loved being close to all that money.

Stanley, Spencer and James with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

We tried to go to the top of the Washington Monument, but the elevator was broken.

We had to take Stanley to the Smithsonian since he was free.

The kids love the science experiment room in the American History Museum.

My favorite picture.

windsurfing

I had to stop into Julia's kitchen.

After a fun day, we got back on the subway to go home. Goodbye, Stanley!