House Bound

This is what we awoke to on Saturday. Really, the ice was everywhere except the roads. But our poor shrubs! And the poor children. This storm warning extended 3 whole days, or right through the long weekend.

Having experienced our share of ice storms, we chose to stay put. We had no commitments and we had 4 playoff games to watch. By approximately 10 AM Saturday, the kids had picked up on the confined felling. By noon, we had cooked up a mixture to grow crystals, as seen in one of their picture books, and had decided that watching the colorful glasses sit on the counter all weekend was not the way to pass the time.

Feeling their pain, I agreed to allow them to drag their outside vehicles to the basement, provided the transportation was smaller than a bike. Their dropped jaws indicated their disbelief. Why do they continue to ask when they get a surprise answer? Are they hoping that I'll change my mind and respond in the negative? Eventually, down went the scooters, skateboards and rollerblades. Helmets, everyone!

Satisfied that they had gotten away with something, they actually played together and got along. Eventually, however, things grew quiet. 4 kids on wheels in a room full of toys and we didn't hear anything? It's strange how this lack of sound is so much more startling than the usual cacophony. And then the silence was shattered. The house shook, wood crashed and metal echoed. Followed but uproarious laughter and squeals of delight. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

At this point, the adults decide that we should go investigate. I mean, we have 4 kids. How long would it be until we missed one of them? But the house! We'll never get someone out here to install temporary floor jacks to keep us from plummeting to the basement during the storm! We sneaked down the stairs and peered around the corner to find child one on a scooter and carrying a broomstick giraffe, child two riding a skateboard and wielding an actual broom, child three restacking the Lincoln Logs, and child four amassing a pile of Hotwheels. And then we understood. Children one and two were crashing into the constructions of children three and four and then engaging in a joust. Without helmets. Even knights wore armor.