Middle Eastern Snow Days

So last week there was snow in the forecast.  It was scheduled to start Wednesday evening and snow/rain pretty steadily for the next 24 hours or so.  The temperature was to be hovering around 35 or so- never truly freezing over.  

As you can imagine, this being the Middle Eastern desert, they are not exactly structured to deal with a big snow.  I was extremely skeptical that anything was actually going to stick and said so multiple times to the girls.  Wednesday morning (when there was a light rain, not even snow yet), we got a text from the school saying that IF there was school the next 3 days, it would start an hour late due to the potential for ice on the roads.  That's right, the potential.  Sure enough, by Wednesday evening, we received another text that school would indeed be cancelled the next day due to weather.  Good grief.  Don't get me wrong, this southern girl loves a good snow day, but it wasn't even SNOWING yet.  Of course the girls went to bed excited about the winter wonderland they were sure to wake up to...

Well...  Ok, so there was snow falling out of the sky and it was definitely pretty.  If you squinted really hard you might could say that it was sticking.  And Naomi was able to scrape together a "snow ball" (and I use that term loosely- it was more mooshed slush).   

I confess that I was kind of a scrooge when it came to going out and playing in it.  You've probably heard me talk about the heating (or lack thereof) in apartments here and honestly, I just didn't want to deal with not being able to warm back up after running around in the sleet- as that's all it was at that point...  Anyway, the girls had fun.  

Smart puppy, knew to stay inside where it was warm!

Checked the forecast and it was showing rain/snow for the rest of the afternoon/evening but it was hovering around 38 degrees and didn't really seem to be sticking.   A friend called offering to take the older girls to the Hobbit which had just come out here, so we sent them on their way to the movie.

Naomi thoroughly loved playing with all the neighborhood kids.  (remember, me=snow scrooge, I didn't even go outside to take pictures, but I did give her my camera to snap a few)

They were able to scrape together a snow/ice man with what was on the ground by late afternoon.

About 6 or so that evening we looked outside and realized it was REALLY coming down.  When the girls got out of the movie at 7, it was pretty bad.  It ended up taking them 3 hours to get from the movie theatre back to our friends house (normally would take 15-20 minutes) and they had an impromptu sleep over.   

Naomi had fun playing with the neighborhood kids.  We somehow managed to keep Anabelle from discovering how fun playing in the snow could be.  Thank goodness, since I have realized that I am severely underprepared for cold weather, at least as far as the girls clothes go.  Anabelle's only shoes are crocs which just really wouldn't do in this weather.  No one has a heavy coat, and well, just not prepared.  Anyway, AB had fun discovering new things inside.  We got out the dominoes for a family game of Mexican train and she sat right here at the kitchen table arranging and rearranging the dominoes in a line for close to an hour.  

No idea what she was doing, but it was apparently quite entertaining...

This was what we woke up to on day 3 of snow-mageddon 2013:

This was day 4- it just kept coming!!

We actually got less than most of the rest of the city- some places it was close to 2 feet.  Craziness!  

It's now 8 days later and the girls JUST went back to school today for exams.  Naomi's school actually got called off until after the holidays but AJ and Maddie had to go back for one last day to finish exams.  

Let's just say we are beyond stir crazy!!  I posted on facebook at one point that the little 2 were literally bouncing off the walls-as in throwing themselves into the wall and falling down and laughing.  And not that we needed to add to the stir-craziness, but in true Cox fashion, someone HAD to come down with a stomach virus the week we are scheduled to travel internationally.  Naomi kicked us off Monday night with what we hoped was a quick passing virus, and by the next night, it took another 4 of us out.  Thankfully, Anabelle is holding on as the only non-sick Cox family member- pray with us it stays that way before Sunday morning when we are due to fly out to the US!!