too cold!

yesterday afternoon, as i was waiting for the bus to bring madelyn home, the school district cancelled school for today. madelyn skipped all the way into the house after i shared the good news. we had a feeling that it might be coming this week since the wind chills were below zero. and the kids and i had big plans. the house was clean, we were well stocked on groceries and there were lots of christmas gifts to still be explored. staying home was not a problem at all. the only bummer was that today was going to manning's first ever swimming lesson. oh well. next week.

the kids all let me sleep until 8am - which was a very rare (like never) and wonderful occurrence. i had told them that i would make them anything they wanted for breakfast. they came up with "muffins on a pancake." so i baked two dozen banana chocolate chip muffins and a triple batch or oat bran chocolate chip pancakes to feed the masses. they told me it was like having an edible plate (although i still insisted on a real plate under their pancake plates). 

then we got out several art and science kits and got to work.

madelyn's crystal growing set is pretty involved and she will have to wait a week to see if we have been successful. she was very excited about the safety glasses and wore them most of the day.

madelyn made this play dough 'honeycomb' but the really impressive part is the "honey bear" above it that she made without any reference. it has been at least a year, and more likely longer, since we have had a honey bear in the house.

we had three hot meals, fresh cookies and baked apples for dessert too. a very satisfying day at home. not to mention that it was a cloudless, sunny day outside. but will they have school tomorrow? love.