Those of you who live where snow is a normal occurrence will laugh, but we are excited to have any amount of snow, even if it’s only a half inch that melts before lunchtime. We’ve gotten lucky twice this weekend!
SNOW DAY. We had already closed schools Friday for the flu when a small system moved through and dumped about a half inch of snow. I went to work, but Vicki and the kids went outside and played for about an hour and a half. It was not good packing snow but they did have fun pulling the sleds around the yard. It was a clear day and the sun melted most of the snow in spite of the below freezing temperatures.
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A REDNECK WHEN you use a three wheeler to pull your sleds around the yard. We had another small weather system move through Sunday morning. It also left a half inch of snow in its wake. Since these conditions are such a rare thing for us church was cancelled to be on the safe side. We wound up meeting Jeff and Michelle Garst and their kids to go sledding. Jeff got out their three wheeler and we had a blast. Who says you need a hill to go sledding!
PLAYING GUARD. In the middle of all the “bad weather” the kids played basketball Saturday. In Upward Basketball you play man on man defense. At the beginning of each period the kids are lined up and shown who they will be guarding. One period Ben was paired up with a tall kid (Ben came up to his chin). After the game I asked Ben about guarding this kid and he said, “Oh, he wasn’t all that good. It was the short kid. He was really smart!”
PLAYING WELL TOGETHER. I need to compliment Jenna and Ben as they have been playing together very well lately. I found a freeware version of Pac Man for our computer (Pac the Man X -- if you don’t have a Mac don’t bother). What’s so nice about this game is that it allows team play with one player as Pac Man and the other as Mrs. Pac Man. Both players work together to eat all the dots in the maze. So far the kids have gotten to level 14 (of 25). The same thing goes for a freeware version of Asteroids I found (Allenriods -- an older version is available for Windows). And the two player version of this game is meant for competition rather than cooperation as the players are allowed to shoot each other. Occasionally one will get frustrated with the other but for the most part I hear sounds of encouragement and teamwork coming from the study as they play. They also like to play Sorry, the board game, when I kick them off the computer (I lose some popularity points when this happens).
FIELD TRIP. The third grade took a field trip to the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville today. Jenna and Vicki (who chaperoned) have both been looking forward to this trip and they said it was all they hoped it would be. The Nashville Symphony performed several concerts today for school groups. I think the thing that stuck out for both Jenna and Vicki was the conductor leading the orchestra in If You’re Happy and You Know It.
Joe
