Snow Cream

We are so ready for our new life in the deep South and particularly Savannah that we have adopted the locals' recipes. This is Paula's  recipe for snow cream.

8 cups of snow - (we somehow managed to find this)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

Evan and Campbell both claimed it was a bit too sweet, but I found nothing wrong with it. Now for Paula's fried chicken and cheddar biscuits. My mouth is watering already.

By the way, Evan always complains that he never gets a play date. Keagan is always headed to Mason's and no one ever invites Evan. When I invited Campbell, I thought he might balk at the idea of playing with a girl, but Campbell can hold her own. Within minutes they were playing a combination of Ben10 and Transformers. When she later suggested something with a fairy princess, Evan quickly told her he doesn't play that. She obliged and the fight among aliens continued.

Evan Swims to Level Six!

We went back and forth about whether or not we would go to swim today. We left the house with clear skies and clean roads, but we knew the snow was imminent. We made it without incident and then slipped and slid our way home. It is a good thing we went today, though, because Evan graduated to the next level in Swim Kids. Be careful! The next level teaches diving. Evan is now beside himself with anticipation.

Snow Pics

For our Texas friends who have had as much difficulty as I did last week imagining two feet of snow. Here is a picture of Waterway. Notice the height of the snow compared to the street sign.

And our deck this morning.

I think we can safely refer to this storm as a blizzard.

King of the Hill

We have now completed three full days of complete isolation from the outside world. With twenty-two inches of snow on the ground, I have been blessed with wardrobes that include ever so comfy gym clothes, extra time to experiment with new recipes (the cheeseburger soup with pureed vegetables was oh-so good), multiple naps, and the shenanigans of two little boys. Here's my favorite.

With mountains of snow, the boys decided to build caves in the snow. That sounded like a great idea to me until they decided one boy would be the bear living in the cave, and the other boy would be the man hunting the bear with a gun. See? I told you the entire prey vs predator thing had intensified in our house.

In the end, Keagan announced he was "King of the Snow Hill." Thankfully the big bear hunt evolved into an episode of "Survivor Man" and the only hunting that transpired was for imaginary fish that lived in imaginary lakes.

Blizzard Part 2

Who would have thought that we would be getting this much snow in Virginia, but here we are hunkering down for blizzard number two of the winter. With another twenty inches on its way, I feel compelled to prepare in some way. So this is what I did.

1. I vacuumed. If I am going to be stuck at home for three days, then I must have carpet with ever so slight vacuum tracks so that I feel like I did something productive while I spend countless hours on-line searching real estate websites and making my wish list at Anthropologie.com. And I am addicted to my Dyson. I never knew that my house was so dirty! I mean, in the past week I have vacuumed the house four times, and today I emptied the bagless canister with clumps of stuff thick enough to stuff pillows. I am so captivated by the suction on this thing that I have the desire to vacuum almost daily just so I can prove how valuable a purchase I made.

2. I rented movies. And because it has easily been two years since I stepped into a Blockbuster, I almost forgot how to rent a movie. In fact, I checked out with the empty display cases, and Almadad, the cashier, had to kindly explain the process for finding the cases that actually hold the movies. We came home fully expecting a snow day tomorrow, and in order to keep the peace, I put Up! in the disk player and pushed play. I was instantly hooked. What a great movie! So it hasn't even dropped a flake yet, and we have seen the movie of choice.

3. I bought books. It is 8:30 and I just opened a Dr. Pepper fully expecting the caffeine to pulse through my veins so that I can stay awake past 9:00 to read Nefertiti, the story of an Egyptian Queen. I think it is working.

4. I bought powdered sugar and crisco. If there is a downside to all of this snow, then it is all the time I have had to bake. In the past month, we have had fudge, cookies, and brownies galore, but that won't stop me from making a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting tomorrow. It will be wonderful until I feel that roll of fat on my belly growing larger!

So here's to another storm!

Ninja Soccer

Sunday began winter indoor soccer for team Ninjas. Keagan's new PWSI team invited him to join them for indoor league, and we couldn't say no. After all, with two full months of sports-free weekends, we were all having withdrawals. 

We feel like it will be the perfect arrangement because this is what we noticed after our first practice.
1. Coach Bob is not wearing any man make-up. Wes is the most relieved with this detail.
2. Coach Bob arrived to the first practice with a schedule, a whistle, and even soccer balls. You probably already know this impressed me the most.
3. Coach Bob taught Keagan a new skill and persuaded Keagan to refrain from slide tackles. Keagan could have cared less about the skill part; he was most impressed with actually playing with his friend Mason.

One more practice and then let the games begin!

Snow Day!

Six more inches of snow last night, and it is one of the most beautiful snows I have ever seen. I can almost identify with cultures that have multiple words for snow because last night's snow is not like one I have seen before. Evan rolled out of bed, looked out the window, and exclaimed to Wes, "It looks just like Narnia!" I agree that it looks too perfect to be real.

After the snow last weekend Evan told me he thought this was the best winter ever, but he added, "I don't want to stick around to see if next winter is better!" He says he is tired of it, but if we get the 30 inches on Saturday (and that has been circulated on various websites the past couple of days), he better learn to like it.