Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 2018

Now, we hardly ever get snow in the south.  When it was announced that there was a winter storm coming and there was a chance of snow, the kids started going crazy.  Then, the announcement of the county under a state of emergency plus the school employees being off Wednesday really set them off. I was pretty skeptical at first.  We've gotten snow warnings before and nothing happened.  My skepticism almost put a damper on Cate's hopes. Mom of the year. So, I had to redeem myself and say "Well, it is a pretty good chance. It probably is going to snow."

When we first woke up, it wasn't snowing at all.  Cate was disappointed.  However, a few snow flurries started coming down around 10 and everybody flew outside.  It didn't start coming down good until around noon.  All you heard was screaming.  The kids were scrambling to get their coats on to go out. Here are some of our snow pics of the day.





Who doesn't stick their tongue out to taste the snow?



Problem: Doesn't want to hold the snowball anymore.  Also doesn't want anyone else to hold it.




The twins had a lot of fun!  They didn't even want to come in to get warm.  Cason threw his gloves a few times.  Once he touched that cold snow, I bet he didn't do it again.

Even the teenager decided to come out and get a feel of the snow.

We got a lot more than I expected. 



After we got a good bit on the ground, I got the shovels and buckets out for the twins.  



Cate went right to work making giant snowballs.



We managed to make a family of snowmen before all the snow melted.  Cason kept eating the carrot noses, though.


At about 7:30, our little snow family was still partly holding up. One our "twins" has fallen over.  Snow imitating real life.😁

We watched "The Snowy Day" and read the book to add to theme of the day. I also did a little snow craft to go along with the book with the twins.  We used white paint for snow and let the twins paint their paper.  Then, they glued Peter on.  For tot school next week, the theme is winter.  So the winter snow storm was a good intro.

This is definitely a snow day for the books.  Lots of memories made!  I probably took more videos than I did pics.  I really wanted to capture their excitement and all the fun.  I'll be posting the video to my CuddlesKissesNChaos facebook page.   

The Change Savings Challenge

The new year is here and with it comes many New Year's goals and resolutions.  One resolution that is always common among most is saving more money.  It's probably one I make every year.  Now, there are lots of different savings challenges out here.  However, one that should be pretty easy and probably one of  the most painless is the save your change challenge.  You are basically just saving all your change for the entire year.  

Yeah, there's a couple of pop tabs in there.  We save those, too, for the Ronald McDonald House. 
We've been saving change forever.  Back in the days it started out of sheer necessity.   We wrapped change just to put gas in the car, buy groceries, or add to the checking deposit so a bill wouldn't bounce.  Let's be real.  Somebody knows what I'm talking about.   Now, we're wrapping to add to savings goals, reduce debt, etc. 
 So I gathered up all the rest of our change to deposit before the Year was up.

I got the kids to help too because 1.  I need help. 2.  They need something to do  3. It's a teaching opportunity



The twins practicing scooping and pouring as Cate shook coins out of a Powerade bottle.

Caleb making different combinations of change.

You know when you are short a few coins to make a roll, and it's going to drive you crazy if you don't finish.  I was digging in this wallet looking for coins.  After it was all wrapped, we ended up with $265.  Add that to an early deposit this year of $162, and we have a total of $427.00 for the Year 2016.

It was less than last year's total, but still good.  I can tell you where a lot of that difference comes from.   1. Our washer and dryer broke at the end of 2015 into 2016. How our washer and dryer had the audacity to break in a family of 7 is beyond me!  We were using all of our change at the laundromat. 2.  At the beginning of the Year, the kids came home collecting change. One had a little box for UNICEF and one collecting a certain coin each day at the middle school.  They pretty much drained our little jar.  Atleast, it was for a good cause. 3.  I was using my debt card more.  Sometimes shopping online is easier than getting out the door and managing 1 year old twins and bulk boxes.  

So $426.00 for 2016 $561.50 for 2017
I've already got my change jars (which is really a Tide pod container and a Gatorade bottle) ready for this year.
Will you be saving your change in 2018? What savings challenges are you participating in this year?