Although children around the county were outside enjoying a rare winter wonderland Thursday, others had to deal with power outages caused by the winter storm.

Around the county, 5 to 8 inches of snow fell overnight. Fallen tree limbs knocked out power across the county, and crews have been working throughout the day to restore it.

“We lost power around 12:15 p.m. Thursday,” Jennifer Burroughs said. A resident of Black Road, her family was using a wood stove to keep warm.

“The one good thing about being without power is that the kids can play outside and then warm up by the fire,” Burroughs said.

Michelle Comer lost power in her Spencer home around 5:15 a.m. — it was back on by 11 a.m.

“We lit the gas logs to keep warm,” she said.

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, more than 2,000 Duke Energy customers were still without power in Rowan County.

In a subdivision off Old Mocksville Road, a group of kids spent their snow day constructing a snowman that measured more than 4 feet high.

“It took a really long time,” Hurley Elementary student Jalen Britton said. His cousins, Aniya and Raymond Brown, joined in on the fun.

“We used acorns for the mouth, a candle for the nose, and a lot of snow,” Jalen Britton said.

Jonathan Britton, a student at North Rowan High School, planned to spend the day watching movies with his family, having snowball fights and drinking hot cocoa.

Raymond Brown said, “We are going to drink lots and lots of cocoa.”

The cousins all agreed that school should be canceled again Friday.

North Rowan Middle School students Charlie Durham and Blake White woke up early to ride their four-wheelers in the field near their homes. The afternoon was spent sledding on the hills in the backyard.

Durham’s mother, Leah Overcash, spent her day being sick, but still enjoyed watching the kids play outside.

“It warms my heart that he has so many good friends in the neighborhood and that they play so well together,” she said. “They have been outside all day and only came in briefly to eat lunch,” she added.

According to the outage map provided by Duke Energy, all power should be restored to Rowan residents by Friday afternoon.

Braun, a senior at North Rowan High School, is an intern for the Salisbury Post.