A Snow Delay

As Boston continues to get pummeled with record-breaking snow and cold temps, we are so thankful not to be there this year! Brian asked me the other day "Don't you kind of wish we were there for all this snow?" and I said "Well, it would be cool (pun intended) for about 5 minutes, but really I'm so thankful NOT to have to deal with it!" That said, I wouldn't mind if the kids had some snow to play in this year, so when we had a dusting at the end of January that delayed school/preschool for two hours (I think the delay was really due to the cold temps), I got the kids all excited about playing in the snow.

Nathan was the first one bundled up and out the door and of course this was the first thing he did! 

I thought it was hysterical because neither of us had said anything about how he likes to eat snow, it was just his first instinct to taste it!

Sarah and I... not so much!  She did ask about going sledding, but I had to break it to her that we probably didn't have enough snow for that (though really I wasn't about to tackle the huge hill in our backyard without Brian!).

And Andrew?  He was quite content to be bundled up in my sling and sleep through the experience!

Nathan's current favorite outdoor activity is shoveling so that was the next project on his list.  I told him I thought the big shovel was slightly overkill for the amount of snow that we had on the ground, but he was determined. 

Sarah decided she needed to shovel too, but selected a much more appropriately sized tool.  However she was NOT interested in me taking pictures of her.  "NOOOOOO!" she was yelling at me!

But I stealthily took a few more when she was focused on her work.  But just like in Boston, Sarah got cold and fussy first and headed back inside.  She was content to sit on the couch and watch us out the window as Nathan and I continued to play. 

Nathan's next task was no easy one - he wanted to make a snowball!  It was painstaking work to collect enough snow off various surfaces to make one and boy was he proud of his growing creation. 

Then he challenged me to a snowball-making contest.  I had better luck collecting snow off the monkey grass then he was having collecting off of the rocks and other spots so when he called "time" I thought our snowballs were practically equal in size.  But he pronounced himself the winner. 

Packing that snowball tight!

We then combined our efforts and built the tiniest snowman ever!

He was super proud to show his snowman to Daddy when he came home from work, and surprisingly it was still around the next morning!  Since then we've had a few days with some snow, though nothing else has stuck to the ground... which at least makes it easier to get groceries!