TRAIL MESS...

I ran a very slow 8 miles around station today to take advantage of our trails and get a little more uneven ground between me and the MS 50 this weekend. Most of them were clear, but there were a couple sections that were in pretty bad shape (I even got lost, which is hard to do out here since the trails mostly follow the perimeter fence... mostly...) The ice storm and resulting flooding caused a few trees to topple over, and there was a good bit of erosion in some spots. This does not bode well for my 31 trails miles which will follow at least 2-3 more days of heavy rain and sleet this week...

VITRUVIUS

Perhaps a little too much time playing the Lego Movie video game this week with all our "snow" days... James brought home a few drawings today, including one of Ghost Vitruvius.

SILENT AUDIENCE

The kids know they aren't suppose to be under my feet in the kitchen (in fear of their safety as well as mine), so while I made dinner tonight they put on their show for their "audience" back in James' room...

NEARLY NO-SHOW SNOW

We woke up bright and early this morning to the news of closed schools and open work, so Jay scurried out the door (he had a meeting this morning) while I enjoyed my first cup of coffee in peace (the kids slept until 7:30am). Since it rained (or dropped wintry mix) all day, we were sequestered inside and didn't have a chance to get out any energy outside (in fact, I think my VivoFit will confirm that this is the least number of steps I've taken in a day yet...) Around noon Jay found out work was closing early (1:00pm) due to expected worsening weather conditions (some folks have to drive to Clinton or Jackson, or north or east to Louisiana even to get home, where snow/ice conditions were worse than here in the 'Burg) and I continued to anxiously watch the weather map for our wintry mix to turn to snow (we were originally predicted to be on the edge of the 1-2" and 2-4" zone today). It wasn't until 4:30pm that we got straight snow though, and it still wasn't cold enough for it to stick (not to mention all the rain/melted ice on the ground for it to disappear in), but the kids and I rushed out anyway to catch some snowflakes on our tongue. It may not have been much, but it was worth it to them.

Early morning snuggles usually go to Buster first, then the cats, then us parents

Painting and coloring to pass the morning. Cora was THRILLED when she realized I'd brought the easel in.

Snowflakes in her hair

ICE STORM 2015

Like last year, we had a heads-up that school would at least be getting a delayed start today due to the ice storm (hooray for sleeping in!) School closed down at noon yesterday and work sent everyone home by 3:00pm. With no guarantee that schools would close the next day (though we suspected they would, since they close for every little thing) and it being unlikely that work would close (or even delay opening), we went about our usual weekday evening chores of prepping for the following day, doing homework (just reading and counting by 5's for James), and setting our alarms for 7:00am (to get one of us to work by at least 8:00am and the other one there after dropping the kids at 10:00am). Turns out all area schools were closed today though and work did have a delayed start, so we spent the day checking out the ice around the house and neighborhood (while simultaneously checking our neighborhood road conditions for a late afternoon run), doing a bit of teleworking (we'll use leave to make up the other hours, as there is a "liberal leave policy" on bad weather days), baking some banana bread, playing with the kids, and doing a few chores (laundry, since it never ever ends). James got to play some video games and Cora generally harassed us all and got into a little bit of everything, as usual (we love her to pieces, but she is NOT a homebody like the rest of us), and both kids drew us some cool pictures (we had James draw us his recent dreams and nightmares, which are quite interesting) while we FaceTime'd with Gramma. I'll call it a good day and wait with bated breath to see what tomorrow brings (we're suppose to get freezing rain again tonight, and snow/wintery precipitation most of the daylight hours tomorrow).

Catching sleet and eating it for a snack before dinner (their idea, not mine)

This is basically what "Mississippi snow" looks like

We had enough sleet/ice/snow last night that trees and branches were bent and drooping all over our property, with the little pine tree in our makeshift parking area not surviving to the thaw...

Icicles everywhere!

Buster enjoyed licking the ice off every surface at his level...

Poor flowers (daffodils, snow bells, narcissus, etc.) around our yard did not survive the storm either

Breaking up chunks of ice from the grass and eating icicles pulled off leaves

When we walked the neighborhood, they stopped at every single mailbox and pulled off the icicles to see who could find the longest ones...

...James won with these ones pulled from the Train mailbox at the end of our street

SLIDE THE BLOCK...

 I'm not sure if I should be proud or embarrassed that James spent time at school today drawing me a pretty darn good rendition of one of my favorite ap games...

LIFE SKILLS

We're having the Kennedy's over for dinner and a playdate later, so we needed to clean the house (at least a little bit...) We started with the kids' rooms because they were in the worst shape (especially Cora's room, since she was naughty during time out and scratched out some of her styrofoam door filling, similar to how Mouton used to behave...) I figured it was a good opportunity to teach the kids some life skills...

 Her closet is always the messiest, since she practically lives in there. Between the mirror and dress-up clothes, and almost all her toys being stored there, and the pink twinkly lights, she just loves it. The good thing is that when she disappears in there, she's generally happy and quiet. The bad thing is that she's almost always taking everything out/down/apart and not putting a single thing back. We're working on that...

"MAKE ME SOME PANCAKES!"

Cora came upstairs and woke us up with a dance performance (we'd actually been awake for about an hour, after awaking to Cora's happy screams of weekend joy, but we hadn't gotten out of bed since the kids seemed perfectly happy to play together in their rooms), then marched back downstairs, slammed the gate, and yelled "Now get out of your bed and make me some pancakes!"

PAW PATROL PARTY 4 EMMA

Sweet little Emma turned FOUR (I'm having a hard time believing lately that all these kids I've known since they were born are turning into preschoolers and kindergartners...) and celebrated at GymSouth today with a Paw Patrol themed birthday party. The kids played HARD for over an hour and a half, with only a short break for the Happy Birthday song and some cupcakes. They took home little "adopted" stuffed puppies, which they all LOVED. James and Cora had so much fun hanging out with all their buddies, and they were exhausted by the time we left (the party almost directly followed our 2 hours on the soccer fields). The trip to Walmart afterward involved two carts and two nearly napping children curled into the baskets...

As always, most of these pictures are blurry or partly blurry. There's just something about the lighting in this place (and the speed at which the kids are moving!)

Saylee Grace, Coltin, Cora, and James

Cora flying into the pit

 Cora and the birthday girl, hopping like bunnies on the giant trampoline

Mason, Gage, Cora, Coltin, and Will battling with Jay and Ned

 Gage had a great time playing with Jay, until he didn't. Note to Jay: 3-year-olds do not like to be used as shields during foam block wars with other daddies...

 This picture cracks me up... James tried to simultaneously run away from Jay while also fighting/defending himself. Good effort, at least.

 Cora and Coltin built a fort in the middle of the foam pit and hid in there together forever, turning away any and every other kid that tried to hide with them.

John, David, Saylee Grace, Mary Morgan, Mason, Gage, Will, Lauren, James, Emma, Cora, and Coltin (and a couple little girls in there that I don't know!)

I still can't believe they all agreed to wear party hats and sit still for photos!

 Happy Birthday Emma! And thank you for the awesome party invite!

SPRING SOCCER: GAME #1

James and Cora with her "boyfriend" Jamie and his little brother Aiden

Jamie, Cora, and David out on the field together throughout this game

Looks like Cora is getting an awesome goal, but that was a white team goal. One of MANY. Our U5 team was not well matched for our first game, and it was frustrating for the kids and adults alike!

Loved seeing David out there giving it his all and having fun! It's his first season and we're hoping he likes being on Coach Jay's team with his buddies Cora and Will!

Proud of Cora for employing some of her new moves, like the pull-back I caught here

The U6 game was much more exciting to watch. These big boys know what they're doing and they're all so aggressive. We were missing two players today, but these 4 were thrilled because it meant that they all got to play the entire game.

I think Cora's favorite thing about the soccer games is the snack shack...

James, Jack, and Devon seen here (Derrick was just off screen to the left)