Weather created places
Sunday was a drier day than Saturday, both in and out of the house. After the foray onto the roof, we decided to take it easy a little. We went for a walk down to St. Bernard. Using the sled to carry Isaac we navigated a path almost entirely on ice from our house to the school. Once there we were greeted by two outstanding forts. Here is Isaac in one of them:
This one had 5 gallon drum castellations around the entrance and along the wall. Its twin, about twenty feet away, was just as big (large enough to fit about 10 boys inside all making and throwing snowballs), but had an escape tunnel and snowball stashes instead of castellations. I wanted to claim credit for building these, but there was a flag on the fort that said "Built by 6th grade Boys" with their names on it. So, the forts were made by St. Bernard's sixth grade boys. This made me think about the conversation in the teacher's lounge.
Teacher 1: We have got to figure out a way to get all the energy out of these kids. All they want to do is play in the snow. We can't have inside recess forever.
Teacher 2: I know. I am tired of telling them to stay off the snow. They are driving me crazy about the snow.
Teacher 1: I have an idea. Tell them to bring snow clothes to school tomorrow. We'll let them build a fort and call it PE (Catholic Schools are notoriously loose with their definition of "physical education").
Teacher 2: GREAT IDEA!
They even had dyes marking their bases, blue and red. It was pretty cool. And a great way to get the kids to stop bugging the teachers about the snow.
As we explored around the school we found a walkway covered in thick, slippery ice. It was so slippery that even with snow boots on it was hard to walk. The walkway was surrounded by the building on one side and a massive pile of snow on the other. It made the perfect little bobsled run. So we tried it out in Isaac's new sled:
It was a great day and a great weekend. All of the snow made the place look like a moonscape and come June these "weather created" places will be nothing but memories.
This one had 5 gallon drum castellations around the entrance and along the wall. Its twin, about twenty feet away, was just as big (large enough to fit about 10 boys inside all making and throwing snowballs), but had an escape tunnel and snowball stashes instead of castellations. I wanted to claim credit for building these, but there was a flag on the fort that said "Built by 6th grade Boys" with their names on it. So, the forts were made by St. Bernard's sixth grade boys. This made me think about the conversation in the teacher's lounge.
Teacher 1: We have got to figure out a way to get all the energy out of these kids. All they want to do is play in the snow. We can't have inside recess forever.
Teacher 2: I know. I am tired of telling them to stay off the snow. They are driving me crazy about the snow.
Teacher 1: I have an idea. Tell them to bring snow clothes to school tomorrow. We'll let them build a fort and call it PE (Catholic Schools are notoriously loose with their definition of "physical education").
Teacher 2: GREAT IDEA!
They even had dyes marking their bases, blue and red. It was pretty cool. And a great way to get the kids to stop bugging the teachers about the snow.
As we explored around the school we found a walkway covered in thick, slippery ice. It was so slippery that even with snow boots on it was hard to walk. The walkway was surrounded by the building on one side and a massive pile of snow on the other. It made the perfect little bobsled run. So we tried it out in Isaac's new sled:
It was a great day and a great weekend. All of the snow made the place look like a moonscape and come June these "weather created" places will be nothing but memories.