That Was a Doozy

We had a heck of a storm last week.  It went above and beyond an ordinary summer thunderstorm.  A little before 6pm on Tuesday, a tornado warning was issued for our area and a little after 6pm, the clouds started to roll in and soon after the rain started to fall, the power went out.  And then I looked out the window and saw the clouds moving quickly and making super-weird shapes:

Soon after that, the rain started to pour heavily and the wind kicked up another notch, so I took the kids to our ground floor and set up a little fort between two closet doors...

They colored by cell phone flashlight - SOMEBODY had been playing with our two reliable flashlights earlier in the week and had forgotten where she had put them :-)

After the wind died down and the lightning stopped flashing, we went outside to see what we could see.  Immediately we noticed that there were several fallen trees right down the street.  Also, we noticed that our landscaping had gotten a little roughed up (the hostas had been nibbled on by deer earlier in the week):

Eventually the storm cleared out and left us without power but a beautiful sunset and sky:

That night we all slept in the living room - the kids thought it was great fun to camp out in their sleeping bags with Mommy and Daddy!

Wednesday morning dawned bright, clear, and cool - such a welcome change from the hot, muggy weather we'd been having.  Clare helped me make blueberry pancakes for a special Wednesday breakfast while we tried to find out if the kids' camps were open or not.

Both kids' camps were without power and therefore closed, so I got to stay home with the kids since my train was out of service - the whole line was shut down due to the storm!

Mid-morning, we set out for the beach, figuring what a better way to spend a beautiful day without power - but we couldn't get out of the next town due to the immense traffic from all the roads closed down in our area.  We turned around and headed for home.  Not to be too disappointed, we had a picnic lunch outside and the kids had fun with the camera:

We spent the rest of Wednesday playing, napping (or trying to nap), and playing outside.  We were lucky - our power came back on at about 3:30 or 4 on Wednesday while we were outside playing in the sprinklers and with the water table.  During the next few days we kept spotting signs of the storm around our town:

The "tree tunnel" that the kids love to drive through:

Hurricane Sandy

We survived Hurricane Sandy. The kids were delighted to wake up Monday morning to no school and a morning full of Disney Junior cartoons:

The power went out Monday night and we had a bit of a rough night - the kids aren't accustomed to sleeping in pitch black darkness.  Tuesday morning there was still no power and Daddy had to go to work, but we didn't let that bug us too much - we found ways to keep busy.

We went out for a walk to check out the neighborhood:

Then it was back inside to work on our Halloween decor - pumpkin garland:

We put creepy bug stickers on our little pumpkins:

Then we got to work carving our big pumpkin:

Sean was so pleased with the way his "mad-face" pumpkin came out:

The power came back on at naptime, so we're back to normal around the house. We'll also be back to normal with school and work schedules tomorrow - including the kids' Halloween parade and trick-or-treating! Yay!

Natural disasters

No, I'm not writing about the Terrible Twos (that's another post for another day). After feeling tremors from the earthquake in Virginia on Tuesday, we got ready to face Hurricane Irene this weekend.  Fortunately, we were not impacted much by the hurricane. We lost power Sunday afternoon and it stayed out through Monday morning. Daycare couldn't open Monday without power, so Mommy got to stay home with the Sooy Babies.  Luckily it was a nice day and we could play outside most of the day. 
As for Saturday and Sunday, we pretty much stayed indoors.  We were able to keep Sean busy with homemade play-dough, building forts/castles with sheets and chairs (Pepper guarded the castle from ogres/"okerts"), playing dress-up, reading books, playing with toys, painting, coloring, and napping.  Baby Clare was up for whatever Sean wanted to do - as long as she was fed on time :-)

I was a little nervous heading into Sunday night without power - we weren't sure how Sean would handle going to bed without a night-light, but he did fine.  He woke up once and called out around midnight - he couldn't find his cup in the darkness.  Earlier in the evening, when Sean asked to watch his beloved "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," I tried to explain in basic terms that no power means no TV.  He accepted that and said, "We have no power Mommy.  You have to go to the store to get more power."  This notion was probably reinforced since the power came back on while we were at Shoprite.