A Look Back ~Day 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

So Halloween came and went and we knew we were in for another whole week of no power.  Each night the mayor would call our cell phones with a recorded message.  Aft first they started closing schools one day at a time and then they just called it off for the whole week and half of the next. 

We had our system down by then.  The days were fine, really.  I have to admit that I loved no school, no viola lesson, no group lessons, no tennis, no computer, no nothing.  We spent our days in the sunniest room, our living room in front of the fireplace.  I'm thankful that I'm a girl who loves to be home and WITH her girls.  I soaked it in.  I also knew that Anna would remember this week and I didn't want her to remember mommy all stressed out.  So we had fun!  We spent a lot of time on the floor just playing...



I had to move the furniture around quite a bit to make it work for the week and a half, but that was so much fun for the girls.

We got this carpet down from the attic. It used to be in our living room and is like new since we're hardly ever in there.  We just got tired of it.  We moved the couches over, away from the fireplace and this made the perfect spot for the girls to play. 



They love their Disney princess finurine sets. 


And of course fairies...




And from their newest favorite movie (and I couldn't be happier about this one) Winnie the Pooh.  There really is no sweeter movie. 





Our nights were always the same.  Dark and cold but cuddly and sweet.  Anna read to Abigail with a flashlight each night. 





Bath time was moved to the morning since I didn't want wet hair at bedtime.  It was one of the "big activities" of the day! 


And after bath the girls were bundled in their robes and slippers.  I had to have everything laid out and ready during the day before it got dark at night and was hard to find. 


The girls connected our family room and living room (now called "our two playrooms") with a tunnel and a tent. 




Coffee table moved away and bins of toys gathered.





Our flashlight and candle box.  Organized and ready to go each day so that we weren't looking around once it started getting dark.



I stopped by the store and picked up an old fashioned carpet sweeper.  I love clean floors, and not being able to use the vacuum for all of those days was sure a challenge for me.  This did the trick. 



Our frig on day 4... empty



Our outside frig on the final day.  Scott added snow to these boxes and coolers every day.  It kept some of our Abigail food cold. 


I would actually go out there in the morning, get some eggs and make french toast. By the final day I was so sick of it! We ended up throwing it all out and starting over when the power came back on. It took me two weekends to cook and freeze my "Abigail food". It sure makes me appreciate my precooked, proportioned, food that was always ready to go for her.

And I was never so happy to have power on. Still, two weeks later I think about it at night when I turn on the lights. Phew... I'm sure glad that post is over... that was a long one!

A Look Back ~ part 3

Day 3:
Monday was Halloween.  No costumes to school.  No Halloween school parties.  No nursery school mini parade in costume.  Even our mayor left an emergency message cancelling Halloween for our town.  It was just too dangerous to be walking around outside. 

We headed to my parents who had power a few towns away.  My brother, sister in law and their kids were staying there.  Did some laundry, we all ate together, and the kids trick or treated.  It was small but sweet.  Anna didn't say anything but I know that she's disappointed she didn't get to trick or treat in her own neighborhood and Abigail wanted her little nursery school costume party.  It was a different Halloween.  Scott and I were getting concerned about our frig system (out in the snow) mostly because of Abigail's allergies.  We really are not supposed to eat out with her.  And I was concerned about my frozen "Abigail food" that was packed in the snow.  I didn't know how long the power would be off and how long it would last. 

My Halloween portraits reflect my not in the mood, mood... but the girls were the cutest owls ever!  I was just so disappointed that they missed Halloween at school.



They choose to be owls because Scott's school mascot is an owl named KIP (knowledge is power). The girls were each given a "KIP" from the retiring principal. They've been favorites ever since!



Connecticut is quite cold by the end of October so they were wearing long sleeved pink leotards, pink ruffled turtlenecks, tights and the fluffy costume. We were planning on a lot more outside time at Halloween but were grateful to go Trick or Treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house!











They had a fun night with their cousins (also getting away from their power outage). It was certainly a Halloween we will never forget!

A look at our 9 days with not a bit of exaggeration, for real!

So I'm a bit behind.  The power was out and we were in survival mode for two weeks.  Even after the power came back on it was all about calling tree companies (not a fun way to spend $1,000), refilling the fridges, and waiting for school to start again.  (it finally did today)  I'm also taking an awesome photography class and I had to catch up on my "homework" after the lights came back on. 

It all started last Saturday, October 29th.  I knew that the forecast was for a bunch of snow; the girls were excited!  Anna had 'art school' Saturday morning and I did a bit of Christmas shopping while she was in her class. 

As soon as we got home the snow started falling.  I called to check in with my church to see if I had to teach Sunday school the next morning.  After I knew that was cancelled I seized the opportunity to get a Christmas Card photo shoot done in the snow.  When has it ever snowed in October?  Perfect. 

Not so perfect.  The snow was falling harder than we thought and I had the girls in silk party dresses without a coat.  After 5 minutes we went back inside.  I dressed them in warm clothes, snow pants (which were not ready, I had to do some digging in the cedar closet)  boots, hats, etc.  We took some time playing in our backyard, but the girls didn't last long.  It was howling windy and oh so cold.  The snow was coming down so fast it was almost a white out. 

Abigail getting pelted with snow...





And then I heard some strange sounds. Creaking is really the only way I can describe it. Loud creaking and trees moaning all over the neighborhood. In our 10 minutes out back I saw the trees with their leaves still on getting lower and lower with the weight of the snow. And then some of the creaking turned into cracking. I was outside alone with the girls knowing that there were huge trees all around us. We literally ran for it. As soon as we got inside our power clicked off.

Here's a picture of my backyard before we headed in...  You can barely see my house... look in the arbor, that's my kitchen light. 



The girls in the snow...



It got dark quickly after that. We were able to find the flashlights and candles before dark, and the girls were so excited about our night without power. We had dinner by candlelight. Can you even find the girls at the table?



And then a candlelit bath





The flash went off in this one, but we are sitting near the fireplace in our family room. I'm reading our latest 'Little House' book to the girls with a flashlight.



And Anna read Abigail some stories before bedtime too.



We put two blow up mattresses on the floor in our bedroom because of the huge tree outside Anna's window. We also needed to shut their bedroom doors to keep all of the fireplace heat only in our bedroom. We thought it would be fun for "just one night". It ended up being eight.

Out of time for tonight. I'll finish up tomorrow...

The Halloween We Didn't Carve a Pumpkin

or should I call this post "9 days without power"

or "the week and a half I don't ever want to do again?"

or "so thankful to turn on the lights and do laundry"?

I'm not quite sure what to call this post but I can tell you that it feels weird to be sitting at my desk typing.  I haven't seen a computer in 9 days... not just because it wasn't turned on but also because I could never have even found it in the dark. 

I have tons of pictures of our 9 days without power but I have so much catching up to do that they'll just have to wait....

I can't wait to catch up on all of your Halloween pictures and perhaps live Halloween fun through that since there really wasn't Halloween this year.  More to come....