Snowy Saturday

We woke up to a lot of snow yesterday! Although every school district around us - and all private schools in the city - were closed, Chicago Public Schools was open. I'm told this is not so much the heartless move it feels like to us as it is consideration for the families who have no other option for their children on a day when school is suddenly closed - someone explained that the city's services would effectively shut down if there were a snow day. I also know it's financial; the district can't afford to pay teachers for a day when they aren't working. Either way, on a personal level it feels ridiculous, so we gave Baxter the gift of an unauthorized Snow Day yesterday.

And yet I had to go to work, slip-sliding my way down unplowed side streets to find parking near the clinic, and then getting soaked up to my knees as I walked down the middle of the street in a car tread since nothing was plowed or shoveled yet. I had stayed home with my sick kids the previous Friday and felt I couldn't cancel on my Friday families again this week, so in I went. About half of them kept their appointments so it was worth the trip in.

But today! Today was my Snow Day! Baxter and I went down to the beach at the end of our block and took in the magnificence of a frozen Lake Michigan. Lyle missed out due to some - shall we say - poor listening during the getting-ready process and we are - shall we say - having to be serious hard asses right now. Anyway, we discovered the upstairs neighbor's son down there at the beach in a great snow igloo he'd just built, so the boys romped in the snow and we all had a fabulous if chilly time: snowshoeing (we all have these and they are awesome!), snowball fights, snow angels, and of course hot cocoa at home afterwards. It was the morning I'd been waiting for all winter. I tucked my little camera into my coat pocket, so here are a few shots to share with you all...