Today is the third day in a row that Iowa City schools have been closed. It’s like an unplanned spring break because there’s no school on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day, either, so that’s 6 days off. Other schools in the area closed early on Monday and opened late on Tuesday, but we had full days both days. (My son was disappointed…he said that when school closes early or starts late, they don’t have to make it up, so “everybody wins!”)

School was closed on Wednesday because of snow and wind…yesterday and today they closed because of the COLD. It was -24 when I got up this morning (and that’s actual temp., not wind chill)…and I wasn’t even up right at dawn (it was probably colder then) because they announced school would be closed today yesterday afternoon, so I didn’t set an alarm.

We’ve been having all sorts of fun in the cold…throwing glasses of hot water out the door and watching the water vaporize and/or freeze…blowing bubbles and watching them shatter (we still have shells of bubbles attached to the screen on our screened-in porch). My brother works for a TV station in Minneapolis and he told me they left a banana outside for a couple of hours and then used it to pound a nail. We haven’t tried that one yet…

I actually enjoy these unplanned days off…my kids and I gather around the kitchen table for board games. You can try these out for the best kids kitchen apron.  I wonder if my younger son and I will still do that next year when my older son is living in Seattle? Most of our favorites (Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Killer Bunnies) need more than two players (and my husband is usually working, so he doesn’t play)…I think we need to find some more interesting 2-player games.

The only thing I don’t like about this cold is we lost power during the night…fortunately, it was only out for about 20 minutes. But I was afraid it was going to be out longer. You don’t want to be without electricity (and HEAT) when the wind chill is -30 to -50!

Fun in the cold

2 thoughts on “Fun in the cold

  • January 16, 2009 at 5:17 pm
    Permalink

    I don’t miss that weather one bit. It’s cold here, but not as extreme as what you have. Your post and Sarah’s post this week did make me miss Iowa City just a bit though. I wish your conference this year was not on the IL side of the state! I was thinking about road tripping again.

    Reply
    • January 16, 2009 at 6:45 pm
      Permalink

      Well, it doesn’t get THIS cold very often. We’ve been in Iowa City 8 1/2 years and this is the first time they’ve closed school for cold. I think they did a few years before that when we lived in Cedar Rapids, but I’m pretty sure it was just once.

      You should still think about road tripping…you came when the conference was in Iowa City. Quad Cities is just another hour. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *