Week 7

We made it through another week!  We finally went back to school on Monday.  It was a week of just trying to get back into a routine.  Valentine's Day was on Monday.  Notes regarding class parties did not get sent home from school on time because of all of the snow.  All of the parties got pushed back until Friday.  I was able to join both girls at school for all of the fun.

First, I went to Caroline's party.  They had their party at noon.  They had some pizza for lunch and a bunch of cookies and other snacks.  They get it all on their plate at the same time so Caroline pretty much just had cookies for lunch that day.

After their party they went to centers.  I think this is Caroline's favorite center.  As soon as a boy came over she quickly assigned him his role.  "You are the dad.  I am the mom.  Now, give me that blanket so I can put the tablecloth on the table."

I headed to Kayla's party at 2:00.  They have theirs at the end of the day which is very smart.  Those kids eat a ton of sugar at these parties.  Here is the cookie cake.  The teacher requested a very thin layer of frosting.  There was at least a half an inch of frosting on this cookie.  They also had pizza.

I think I have a picture of Kayla with her friend Kaylie at every school party since they started school.  However, Andrew decided he wanted in on this one.

This was attempt #2 at a picture of the girls.

After the pizza and frosting were gone, the kids ate most of the candy that was given to them by their classmates.  They were crazy hyper by the end of the school day.  I am pretty sure that they all had a good time!

Week 6

We were out of school all of last week due to weather.  It worked out perfectly because Kayla had her first dance contest of the season on Friday.  She was going to have to miss school anyway.  She has been working on her dance since the summer.  She practices at least once or twice a week with her Grandma Sue (who was a dance teacher who still has a studio next door to her house).  This weekend was a big deal.

We (Sue and I) really struggled with what costume to choose.  We ended up going with the one her teacher originally suggested, but neither one of us were really sold on it.  But the minute Kayla stepped on stage and the lights hit her, she looked perfect.  She is dancing to a song called Big Time, and she certainly looked it.  Here she is right before going on stage.

She just took the stage and is ready to dance.

 Almost 4 hours later it was time for the awards.  Kayla tied for 2nd place!

Everyone gets a trophy.  The level of trophy they get is based on the average of their scores from the 3 judges.  The highest is diamond elite, then elite top first, then top first, and then first.  I guess that way everyone gets first!  Kayla got elite top first.  Each dancer is also entered as either novice, intermediate, or competitive.  Kayla is in the intermediate category.  They do a top ten for all of the dancers in each category.  Kayla tied for 2nd place out of all of the 9-10 year olds who were in the intermediate category.  That is great!  We are really proud of her.

Here she is after awards with her teachers and some dancers from her studio.

Kayla with her teacher, Rachel.

Kayla also did two group numbers on Saturday.  Her hip-hop class got 10th place, and her tap class got 3rd place.  It was a pretty good weekend!

However, one of the highlights of the weekend was getting the girls' stuff together so they would be ready to go to school on Monday morning.  Woo Hoo!  They went back to school.  I am just a concerned parent who wants to make sure my children get a good education.  My excitement has nothing to do with the fact that they were home for 9 days...NINE DAYS....in a row!  That is a very long time when you are totally trapped in your house!

Here is Kayla on Monday morning at the bus stop!

 School day!!!!

And I could not have a blog post without a picture of my Caroline.

Week Five

 I guess I will finish off the week of the blizzard.  Andy worked for 2 days to get the driveway shoveled off.  It made it possible for him to get his truck out of the driveway, but it also gave him an escape from the house.  He made it to work on Friday.

He did a good deed and helped a car that got stuck at our corner.

And we were so excited to see this guy come along.  I am thinking that it is someone that lives in the neighborhood.  From what I have been told, ours are the only streets in all of Sapulpa that got cleared.

Caroline decided that she would clear the snow from the front door.  That did not really work out so well.  Kayla did it a few days later.

We made our first ever batch of snow ice cream.  Yummy!

On Thursday night, Kayla was invited to go and spend the night with a friend.  Caroline got the run of our house.  Here is where she decided to lay to watch some tv.

On Friday, Kayla and her friend Kaylie were dropped off at our house.  Libby and Mallory came over later that day.  It was great for the girls to get to play with friends.

Friday afternoon it started snowing again.  We got around 3 more inches.  So much for the cleared driveway!

We stayed inside most of the day on Friday.  It was nice to get out to walk Libby and Mallory home.

The girls then decided to play in the backyard.  It was finally not so bitterly cold outside.  It was nice to be able to enjoy all of the snow that has kept us trapped for so long.

My dad was even able to get out to the store so he stopped by the house.

Finally building the snowman Caroline wanted.

 

 They decided to have a snowball fight.  Andy got both girls...in the head.

Andy never dreamed he would be shoveling snow off of a trampoline.  There was so much snow on there it looked like it was going to snap.

 Can you tell how deep that is?

 Anyway, it has been a crazy week.  Too bad it is not over yet.  The girls were out of school 4 days last week.  They did not have school today and it has already been called off for tomorrow.  The last forecast I heard called for 11 inches of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday.  ELEVEN INCHES!!!!!  It looks like they will be out of school all week.  And I somehow have to figure out how to drive to Tulsa on Friday for Kayla's dance competition.

This is just crazy!!!!

Caroline is not a fan of the deep snow!

The Blizzard of 2011

They were predicting snow for over a week, and boy did they get it right!  The sleet started on Monday night around 10:45 pm.  I took the following picture about an hour later.  All of that is ice.  By about midnight it had turned to snow.  I love watching all of the weather reports at times like this, but I only lasted until 1:30 am.

This morning we woke up to this...

The high temperature today was around 10 degrees, and the windchill was anywhere between 6 and 8 below zero.  Anyway, it was really cold.  We braved the weather and went outside to check it out.  It was awful!  The wind and cold made your face just hurt.  We were only out there for a few minutes.  Here are my girls.

Our front storm door would not open this morning.  The snow was too high right in front of the door.  Here is what it looked like.

This is the view from Kayla's window.

 Andy decided he would go out and shovel the driveway.  He was trying to figure out what he would shovel next...after he finished the driveway.  Yeah, right!

Kayla could not stand being inside.  She went out to help Andy shovel.

So of course Caroline had to go out.  Keep in mind it takes about 15 minutes to put on all of the winter gear, and then you only stay out for about 2 minutes.

Notice that she is missing a boot:

 Here it is

We have an elderly lady that lives across the street.  I think this is what Andy needs to shovel when he finishes our driveway.  It will take forever before she is able to open her door!

 Time to head to the back.

It was absolutely miserable outside.  Here is what I measured in the front.  I believe the official snowfall for Tulsa today was 14 inches.  That is a lot of snow!