February 01, 2014

Baby It's COLD Outside!

**My apologies for the lack of posting.  First we all got REALLY sick...for a full month (they tested us for Pertussis...it was that bad).  Then my computer broke, and Lucas' is not as readily available as I would like.  But, I mentioned that there were a few partially written posts...and there were!  So I'm going to finish and post them (be advised, they were written in January) while I try to desperately write an update post and birthday posts. **

The last few years, I have practically lamented the lack of snow.  If I wanted a green (brown) winter, I wouldn't be living in Michigan.  This year, however, we seem to be getting the weather we should have gotten the past few years - all rolled into 1 month!  I'm not complaining about the snow.  I LOVE all the snow.  It looks like the perfect Winter Wonderland!  I love it!  I am complaining about the cold.
We pulled out our science kit and did some "snow painting" - which is just a winter-themed way to learn more about color mixing :)
It has been beyond cold here the last few weeks.  Not just single digits.  Not just slightly negative temperatures.  We're talking wind chills of -30...for many days in a row.  We're talking schools haven't had a full week of school since coming back from break because they cannot open in the frigid temperatures (and when I say, "haven't had a full week" I mean "have only had 9 days of school in 4 weeks.").  Granted, the twins have only actually missed 3 days of school since going back - partly because they only go 3 days a week (so some of the cancelled days weren't their days to be their anyway), and partly because their preschool director is Canadian and has been the only school open in the county 3 times already.  
I decided to bring in some snow in which they could play, but just making mini-snowmen was not enough.  We decided to get out the hair dryer and melt them!
 I'm counting this as a science lesson about various stages of water.
However, on these days, we still find ourselves at home...looking wistfully at the pristine snow outside just waiting for us to play.  But it is just too cold.
We kind of loved melting the snowmen.
 In fact they made and melted roughly a dozen!
That cabin fever would set in was only a matter of fact, and I've been doing my best to hold it off.  But we can only play so many games, bake so many muffins, and watch so much tv before going insane.  For the 4th week of temperature-induced snow days, I had to get a little more creative (thank God for Pinterest...).

I still have a few more activities in my pocket for future snow days - because it is still January in Michigan...we have a lot of winter left and we do not expect it to get any better!