It's a blizzard out there!

Brrrr Rabbit--it's cold out there! Yes, we live in Georgia and yes, the mention of snow flurries has everyone in town running to the grocery store to stock up on bread, milk, liquor and other essentials. We can't drive in it and even the mere CHANCE of freezing has all the schools closing before the first snowflake even hits the ground. But for once, the weatherman was not exaggerating when he called this "Winter Storm 2011". I haven't had a chance to measure, but I think we got 5, 6, heck, maybe even 7 inches of snow. Now to us southern folks, that's a LOT of snow!

Here's the problem...I don't get quite as excited as everyone else seems to about all the white stuff. Sure, it is beautiful to look at--a virtual white wonderland. But after about 30 seconds, the view loses its allure and I start thinking of what a pain in the butt it's going to be to get the kids in and out of their cold, wet, snowy clothes--only to have to start all over again 30 minutes later. And we most definitely do NOT have the proper snow attire. I keep thinking, why on earth didn't I get the boys some long underwear that fits properly when I was at Target yesterday--or at the very least, get them some galloshes to keep their feet somewhat dry???

Nicholas was the first to want to venture out in the snow. We got him layered as much as possible, and I decided to go completely "ghetto" and wrap his feet in Suran plastic wrap. He's usually a pretty good sport so he just sort of rolled his eyes and let me do it (I knew Luke wouldn't agree quite as easily). We got his soccer cleats on b/c they are leather and maybe will stay dry for 2 minutes longer than his sneakers would and then started scrounging around for a sled. I tried explaining multiple times to the boys that we live in the south, we do not own a sled. "But Mommy, it snowed last March and we didn't have one then either, why didn't you go out and buy one, man, this just stinks!!" I offer a tupperware container lid ("come on mom") and then a pizza pan ("that so did not work last year") and we finally agreed to the top of a plastic storage bin. Ghetto looking--yes! But did it work--heck yeah it did!!

Luke is a strange bird--he will walk around all day in his boxer shorts--even in the dead of winter, and he never seems to get cold. But get him outside in the snow and he is miserable after 20 seconds. So start the whole process of dressing with him (all along he's saying "this doesn't match, no, I don't wanna wear THAT...") and we finally get to the Suran wrap. "No way am I wearing that stuff on my feet!" I just knew he would be difficult. I begged him to give it one try and nobody could even see it under that 14 pairs of socks that I tried to get him to put on. So off they go and I look at my 2 year old--mentally begging him not to want to end his current episode of Curious George in order to join his older bros outside.

Ten minutes later, Luke is standing at the front door, shivering..."I I I am sooooo cold. Please let me inside". Hey--that was 9 minutes longer than I thought he'd make it! So everything in the dryer, hot chocolate in hand and we are taking a break until the next hour, when we get to do it all over again! Yee haw!

PS--everything got soaked and cold except for...drum roll...our ghetto plastic wrapped feet. They were the ONLY thing that stayed dry! Score one for Mom!! Next time, we'll try wrapping our whole body in plastic wrap!


Nicholas all set to slide down our neighbors hill on his container top!
Is it safe to send a 2 year old down an icy hill on a cookie sheet (all alone)? We shall see!
Luke gave up on the "fake sleds" and used his body instead. That boy could fly!
Being the youngest of 3 boys, Jake gets subjected to a lot more than the other two did at his age. He *thinks* flying down the hill and wiping out was fun--it was fun, wasn't it???
Nicholas face planted about 5 seconds after this!
Yes, I'm laughing too at 6'2 foot tall Bryan planting his skinny butt on the cookie sheet! He went surprisingly fast! Next time, we'll throw a little grease on it...
It's cold and time to go home!!