Deja vu

We are home again today. Schools are closed and the Dallas area has effectively shut down, again (!!) due to winter weather conditions. Needless to say, I am feeling a strong sense of deja vu today, home with kids, stuck inside because it is freezing and icy outside, trying to get some work done. Blah, blah, blah. You heard it all last week.

The big difference now is that the precipitation this time around was much weaker than last week's weather mess. This morning we had freezing rain, sleet, and eventually some snow, with accumulation of about an inch. And it's not the wet, fluffy snow that is so beautiful to look at. Today we have small snow/ice crystals that would likely barely be visible if I tried to take photographs of the accumulation.

So instead I'll use this entry to showcase some of my photos from last week. I wrote about our three days stuck inside because of the ice before, but never mentioned that on the fourth day (Friday) we received nearly six inches of beautiful fluffy snow. What a nice treat to end a crazy winter weather week in Dallas! After breakfast we all ventured outside to enjoy some playtime in the amazing snow.

This was taken shortly after we ventured outside, hence why you can celarly see the outline of the children's footprints in the snow. John is aiming to throw a snowball at Amelia.
Look at the accumulation on the super swing in our front yard! Poor Amelia, wearing jeans because we don't have any wet winter/ski clothing. John was in better shape because he has boys' exercise pants that repel water somewhat.Lots of our neighbors were outside to enjoy the wet snow falling Friday morning. Below is a shot of some of the kids on our block, cozying up to the snow fort that the Hatch girls made next door.
Snow contined to fall for the hour we were outside that morning. John and Amelia loved packing snowballs and throwing them at others or just to the sky.

Before going inside we decided to talk a walk around the corner to the little park.

Across from the park we found a family that was having fun "sledding" down a short incline in someone's front yard. The woman had taken the lid from an outdoor garbage can, put two pillows inside the domed lid, and had created a track of packed down snow so that the children could coast down the incline. Given that Amelia and John have never gone real sledding before and have not been skiing, they thought this was a wonderful way to enjoy the snow!