Snow Day – Groundhog’s Day 2011

It’s been a nice snow day here in the Dotzour home today.  We got six inches of snow on Monday night and then a blizzard-y 12 inches last night.  School was canceled, most offices are closed, and in general, it seems like the city is in snow day mode.  Bryan is on call for work, and unfortunately, they had some super-major crises going on with the ShopBop website, so he worked intensely from home from the time he woke until about 3.  Now he’s in the quite office…hopefully getting some work done.  Such a conscientious and diligent worker he is:)

While Bryan was hard at work on the laptop in our bedroom, the kids and I engaged in all sorts of fun snow day activities.

Here’s Sylvia preparing her favorite breakfast – English muffins with butter and honey.

Snug inside, we took a peek at the drifts of snow outside.

There’s a bit of snow hanging over the edge of our roof!

I’ve been eying a Valentine’s Day project involving shaved crayons, waxed paper, and an iron.   This seemed like a good morning to give it a go.  I started by using a pencil sharpener to shave down red and pink and purple and yellow crayons.

The crayon shavings are in the little cups.  We took pieces of waxed paper and sprinkled the crayon shavings on half of the sheet.

Here are my two little heart-makers.

I folded the sheets in half, crimped the edges so no wax got out, and ironed the sheet to melt the wax.  It’s a beautiful, kinda magic transformation.  Then I cut hearts out of the sheets.

And I strung the hearts on pieces of string or taped them to our windows.

After that project, I wanted to try something else, so the kids and I decided to make Maple Syrup Taffy.  Thanks to Heather for suggesting this snowy activity!

I took around 1/2 cup of syrup and heated it…

…until it was between 235 and 245 degrees.

The kids had gotten bundled up and went outside to retrieve a bowl full of snow.  When the syrup was the right temp, I poured it over the snow.  After letting it cool for a few moments, I used my fingers to wind it into mushy balls.  The kids got to eat the warm, gooey maple syrup candy.  They thought it was delicious!

Afterward, we read the chapter from Little House in the Big Woods where Laura makes the same treat.

“Laura and all the other children scooped up clean snow with their plates.  Then they went back into the crowded kitchen.
Grandma stood by the brass kettle and with the big wooden spoon she poured hot syrup on each plate of snow.  It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it.
They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody.  There was plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors.  As soon as they ate one plateful, they filled their plates with snow again, and Grandma poured more syrup on it.”

Bryan had woken up really early and hand-shoveled the drive way.  It was so nice of our neighbor Brett to come by and widen it out for us.

After coaxing my kids for hours, I got them to get dressed to play outside.  Here’s our snowy home.

Our tree swing is almost buried!

Happy snowy girl!

It’s a good day for snow shoes.  As the kids tried to walk through the snow, they sunk up to their hips!

Snow study…

We’d made pretzel dough before going outdoors, and after we came in, we rolled out the pretzels together.  Dough was consumed.

Then there was hot coca and buttery pretzels straight from the oven.  It’s been a good snow day!