No Power During Hurricane Sandy

We just got our power back!  Hurricane Sandy hit us yesterday and we lost power for about 24 hours.  I actually spent all afternoon cooking up perishables and trying to come up with a food plan since we were anticipating power loss.  We lost power during Irene, too, but we were definitely more prepared this time.  However, if this hurricane thing is going to become a common occurrence, we better get ourselves a generator!  Actually, I was mostly just worried about the food in our refrigerator and freezer spoiling.  For it was actually nice to be without any electricity, to spend some good family time bonding without tv and computers!

So how did the kids do?  

Well, the power went out last night after we had already eaten dinner, bathed, and brushed everyone's teeth.  So the transition was not too bad.  Little E was already fast asleep when it went out.  My two girls wondered why it seemed darker than usual and my older one is used to sleeping with some music playing.  However, since she didn't nap earlier, she was pretty tired and went to sleep without too much drama (she is our drama queen).

The rain had pretty much stopped by the morning but there were still some pretty heavy gusts of wind throughout the day today.  I actually really enjoyed the day because everyone was home with no where we needed to be.  So the morning was filled with some music time, writing time, finger painting...  We even attempted to play a game of Candy Land... this lasted about 5 minutes with my almost 3 year old.  The almost 5 year old probably could have played to completion but the 3 year old grabbed all the pieces and started running around giggling and daring her sister to catch her.  Maybe we'll try again during Christmas break.

We bathed everyone early (before naps) because I was worried we'd run out of hot water and we'd all have to take cold baths.  Who knew how long we'd be out of power!  Bath time was actually a blast because we stuck all three kids in the tub with some washable bathtub paint / soap.  Idea is you make a mess with it and then just wash in it then wash everything off.

I needed a nap so I took one during my kids' nap time this afternoon.  This is a luxury I don't usually get especially in the middle of the workday because of work.  Even on weekends, there are usually too many activities to consistently be able to take a nap.  I probably could have slept longer but I wanted to get dinner figured out before it got too dark... so my husband had our camping stoves fired up in the garage so he can help boil water.  We basically used a large pot of boiling water to heat up leftovers by steaming!  We all ate pretty early at around 5ish but it was already getting dark so we had several candles as well as flashlights pulled out.  My girls enjoyed eating under candlelight.  I liked it, too... maybe we should do this even if when we do have lights!

So just as I was snuggling with my two girls under a blanket to read a bedtime story by flashlight, all our lights came back on!  We read the story by flashlight anyway and then tucked them in for the night.  It has been an adventurous kind of day!