We drove by the beach on the way to the post office this evening, and I was not at all surprised to find it deserted. With temperatures barely peaking in the teens for the past week, most people have tucked themselves away in the warmest corners of their homes. Today, however temps reached into the low 40’s and the contrast made me more than eager to soak in what warmth the last rays of sunshine could yield. I noted that the water in bay looked frozen and the kids begged to go down onto the beach.

The water was frozen, at least the section I normally let the children wade in during the warm summer months. The sandbar extends about 50 yards, and all 50 of that seemed to be a solid sheet of ice. There were a few people walking out near the edges, leaning down, talking to ducks and taking photographs.

I told the children they could walk on the ice- not far, no more than ten feet in. In amazement they gingerly stepped onto the frozen water, testing the strength before jumping on. The ice was very solid indeed, especially that close to the shore. They slid their feet along as they walked, pretending to ice skate, and marveling at the fact they were above the water. They smiled and giggled and pleaded to go further, but I stood my ground. (Secretly I wished Tim were with us, as he would not have hesitated to take them out further, but I’m the worrying type, so we stayed close to shore.)

When we had exhausted our icy adventures, we dropped by the library for more books, and this evening after dinner we curled up on the couch and read seven of them. We had made a plan for the kids to get through 50 books this month, and both C and E are sitting at 23, so if we keep up our momentum, we should be able to reach it.

The kids had an unexpected snow day today. We had woken up to a 2 hour delay, but due to all the ice on the roads and sidewalks, school got cancelled, much to the delight of my children. And while I still had to work, Baby E was very excited that C and Big E would be spending the day with him. With the warmer temps, we will slide back into our normal routine in the morning.