snow day!

The winter storm that caused our citizens to clear the Wal-Mart shelves of milk finally hit last night. It started slowly - we woke up this morning with a bit of snow on the ground, but nothing like what we expected.

As the day wore on, however, we found it necessary to cancel classes and reassess our day's plans. When school is closed for the students, that's typically when Isaiah and I have to work. I'm incredibly fortunate that I have an awesome staff to work with - we find lots of ways to keep our residential population occupied and entertained!

Today's challenge was "OKWU Iditarod." We told the students they had 1 hour to create a sled and that they could not have a team larger than five people. Our course wove through the campus, around the roundabouts and pond, and ended outside of the cafeteria, which conveniently was opening for lunch at the same time as the end of the race!

That challenge issued via Twitter and facebook (gotta love that social media), it was time to prepare our family for the adventure.

All the kids were ready to go.

Maggie:



Mia:




And baking baby!



Then it was time to get ready to race. Our team consisted of two little girls, a Daddy who is athletic and awesome, a purple sled, and a Mommy who knows how to cheer and take photos.

The starting line was tense.




The beginning of the race was fast and furious (and our sled may have cheated a little with a head start since the opponents were feeling kind toward the kids). We were ahead.



Until we capsized.

The interesting news is that once we fell the girls weren't at all bothered, they just kept saying, "Hurry, Daddy, we want to win the race!"

We love the competitive spirits they are exhibiting!

In the end, we lost the race. But we did have fun, lunch, and sledding before naptimes.

Now I'm just sitting, watching the snow fall down and feeling sorry for the squirrels who keep trying to dig through our flower pots for food.