Winter Storm 2011

For the past couple days, we have been preparing for the Winter Storm 2011.  Originally we were predicted to get 6 to 10 inches of snow, which in Birmingham is a huge deal!   Murray headed out to Wal-Mart Saturday morning before Sara Wells' birthday party to get all the necessities.  Thank goodness my mom was here or I would have been totally freaking out!  We both decided he needed to go before the party because knowing Birmingham, if he waited, everything would be gone.  Murray and I always kind of make fun of running to the store to get milk and bread before a snow storm.  If we are going to be snowed in, we want to be snowed in with the good stuff, not just milk and bread.  But, we really were out of milk and bread, so we became the people we make fun of.  Ella went with Murray, so they did sneak in a few fun things.  Ella did not let them out of the store without plenty of Hot Chocolate!  Murray had to go to Wal-Mart instead of our neighborhood grocery store because the kids do not have gloves.  Crazy I know, but it just does not get that cold here.  And even when it is cold, there is no way I can get the kids to actually wear gloves.  I guess the middle of winter is a little too late to be thinking about gloves because Wal-Mart had none.  So Murray had to get women's cotton gloves and then he got latex gloves to make them waterproof, pretty creative.

By yesterday afternoon the weather prediction had changed for us to only get between 1 and 4 inches of snow and 1/2 to 1 inch of ice.  Around 6 o'clock the ice started.  The kids were so excited about the big snow that was coming.  And I must admit, I was just as excited (maybe more) as the kids.  It was a little bit of a bummer when we woke up this morning and there was not nearly as much snow as we had anticipated.  Everything was covered in white and beautiful, but it looked like only about 1/2 inch.  We had to wait for Sara Wells' nap to go outside.  When we finally got outside, we realized it was all pretty much ice.  At first the kids were a little bummed it was not snow...
Ella could not make the snow angels that she had been planning to make

Making a snowman was not nearly as easy as they had anticipated (we had to pound and stomp all the snow/ice before trying to shape it into a snowman, or iceman)

But we quickly realized the big benefit of ice...

The SLEDDING!

We started out on the small hill (yes that is a rubbermaid lid, another thing Wal-Mart did not have was sleds)

But quickly moved on to the big hill.  Our driveway was a solid sheet of ice.  The only way up was crawling.

 The kids (and Murray) loved it!

 It did not take long for the neighbors to join us.

Our neighbors had a sled that they had gotten at a garage sale for $1.  It was definitely faster than the Rubbermaid lid.

We did not let the kids ride this sled by themselves.  I really cannot believe with all of that ice and all of the kids that we survived the hour and a half of sledding without an injury!  I think this is going to be one of those memories that we talk about with Ella (maybe not Miller), "do you remember when we went sledding down our driveway?"  What a fun day!!!