Snow!!!!!!

This is an all points bulletin!  Get out and enjoy the snow while you still can!  For that past few weeks, the marshmellow blanket of happiness disappeared to be replaced by a mucky icy mess.  But today winter has returned for a limited time only.  Seize the day, everyone!

Imagine my glee, when I woke this morning to find a thick layer of snow all over everything.  We wasted no time (well, we wasted a little time, we still have two kids) in getting all bundled and off to the tobogganing hill.  We over filled our sled, two adults and two children riding together.  Even Morty the Jackapoo got a chance to slide, though he mostly just chased us to the bottom. 

Jadzia gets the prize for eating the most snow.  And why not?  Freshly fallen and purely white, even I had to admit it looked appetizing (though I managed to resist the urge).

At home we enjoyed some hot chocolate made with real cocoa and milk (hot chocolate made with water is a crime against chocolate).

If you are looking for something to do today, do NOT go to an indoor playground, do NOT go shopping, do NOT go to church, and do NOT go to the library.  GO OUTSIDE.  The mucky muck will be back before you know it.

Winter wonderland

This morning I awoke to a fresh heap of powder all over everything.  Now I try to get up at seven every morning and do a little outdoor exercise, usually walking since my bike was stolen and winter arrived.  But today I decided to be extra productive and shovel the driveway.

Most of the time we just leave the driveway as is and drive our SUVs over whatever hardened mountains of ice result.  A couple of years ago the mail man refused to deliver our mail because our driveway was too treacherous.  Through rain, snow, sleet or hail my butt!  Anyway, me shoveling is such an event that my husband snapped some paparazzi-style photos of me to commemorate the occassion.

Check out my giant he-man shovel!

Anyway, being outside in the snow reminded me that playing in the snow is a part of childhood that we've been doing far too little of this season.  So I put "play in the snow with kids" on my to-do list and after breakfast I got them ready.

William, Jadzia and I had a great time frollicking in the mounds of powder my shoveling created.  Well, William and I had fun anyway.  Jadzia, who can barely stand in her boots and snowpants let alone walk, mostly just sat in the snow and glared and me.

The white stuff was too powdery for a snowman, or even a snow ball fight (though we did try).  Instead I dragged the children in a toboggan to the nearby school (which has a wicked hill, tame enough for my kids but not so slow the adult gets bored).  Jadzia giggled the first time down the hill but shortly after began to get weepy.  I convinced William to go home by promising hot chocolate and declared our winter outting a success.

Except I ran out of milk and had to make the hot chocolates partially with water, blech.  Luckily they had just enough milk in them to be tolerable.

First Skate of the Season

My parents bought the kids new skates for Jadzia's birthday, so today I decided to try them out. Of course, since my daughter has never been skating before, I didn't have a proper skating helmet for her. I invited my friend Cara along, whose daughter did not have skates. So we went off on separate shopping trips before meeting at Spencer Smith Park, which has a nice free outdoor rink. I wanted to make a quick stop and get there before the thaw, so I made sure to tell the kids, "We're just going in to get a helmet. We are not looking at the toys, okay?"

William seemed to go along with this, until the route to the sporting goods section took us by a rack of hotwheels cars. He then began a tantrum which lasted through trying on helmets, a decent sized line at the cash register, and the five minute drive to the lakeshore. In the end the only helmet that I could possibly get for Jadzia was identical to the one William already has (it's 2010 and girl's hockey equipment is still scarce). William forgot all about the injustice of not adding to his hotwheels collection soon after he saw his friend Leyla. Their screams of delight shattered eardrums for miles around.

When children outnumber the adults, skating is a lot of excercise. First, I held Jadzia up and skated her along for a short distance, then she held on to the wall/sat on the wall/sat on the ice while I skated back for William. Next I skated along with William, who seemed to have forgotten ninety percent of the skating skills he learned last year. Then I repeated the process, skating with Jadzia, then William, then Jadzia, then William. Considering my children are considerably shorter than me, my back was not enjoying this process. We did one lap as a group, then Cara let me skate once around by myself.

Next we enjoyed some hot chocolate and an overly greasy lunch at the nearby cafe. The kids played in the playground until we were all exhausted. We vowed to go skating again, and often. I love winter!

Wouldbe Tobogganning Pics

This afternoon we went tobogganing as a family. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I'll have to describe pictures I would have taken, if I had been more prepared:

Pic #1 is a shot of me and the kids on our big black plastic toboggan. William is sitting in the front wearing his new black snowpants, red jacket, and fuzzy brown puppy hat. I'm in the back wearing my red coat, with zebra hat and matching zebra mitts. Jadzia is sandwiched in between us, wearing her psychedelic coat, yellow snow pants, and pink teddy bear hat. Adam would have taken this picture from the top of the hill, as we spun around to face him on our decent.

Pic #2 shows William dragging the toboggan behind him, on his way back up the hill after riding down himself. He took his red mittens off at the bottom of the hill, declaring "I don't need my mitts!" so they are in the toboggan.

Pic #3 is of Adam riding down with Jadzia. It's a really cute shot, with Jadzia all snuggled up against her Daddy. The size difference between them is laughably adorable. Jadzia is but a swatch of pink and yellow against Adam's big red coat.

I should apologize also that these images are a bit over-exposed, because it was such a bright sunny day and I was getting a lot of glare from the snow. There are some pictures I wouldn't have included, of me going myself, Adam going down himself, me sledding down with just Jadzia, and with just William (I'd have posted these on facebook). William insisted on all these arrangements. As soon as the toboggan was at the top of the hill he would proclaim, is his bossy preschooler way, whose turn it was next and who they would be riding with. Not that I'm complaining, his arrangements were very equitable.

When we surmised that Jadzia was too cold, we took the short walk home and had some not-too-hot hot chocolate.

How to take the kids out to play

When I woke up this morning there looked to be a decent layer of powder on the ground, so I thought it might be fun to take the kids outside to play in the snow. Of course this was a multi-step operation:

Step 1: Called my Mom and arranged to go to the mall together to pick up some snowpants for William.

Step 2: Negotiated with William re: getting dressed. He was keen on going to the store, but did not want snowpants. I talked about all the fun stuff you can do with snowpants on: making snow angels, sledding, etc.

Step 3: With Mom's help, dressed children in pants, shirts, socks, boots and jackets and put them in the car.

Step 4: At the mall, bought the first pair of snowpants we saw. They were half-off. Score!

Step 5: Had lunch in the food court, thereby negating all snowpants savings.

Step 6: Took William to the bathroom in the food court, complete with child-sized toilet, twice.

Step 7: Kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Carried them to their beds.

Step 8: Waited for the kids to wake up.

Step 9: Negotiated with William re: getting his snowgear on. When I told him I didn't know where the toboggan was to go "sledding" he freaked and refused to get dressed.

Step 10: Looked for toboggan in crawlspace. No luck. Called Adam to inquire as to whereabouts of toboggan. No idea.

Step 11: Compromised with William. "We'll get our stuff on, and if the toboggan is in the shed we'll go sledding. If not, we'll just play outside." He seemed to go for it.

Step 12: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the closet.

Step 13: Looked for Jadzia's mitten in the car. Found William's hat and mitts.

Step 14: Looked in the closet again. Did not find Jadzia's mitten, but found a pair of William's old mittens which were tied together with string. Opted to use those instead.

Step 15: Retrieved children's jackets from their respective bedrooms.

Step 16: Dressed both children in snowpants, boots, mitts, hats, jackets. During this process, Jadzia took her mitts off three times.

Step 17: Found Jadzia's mitten lying in plain view in a place I had looked twenty times.

Step 18: Went into the backyard with the kids.

Step 19: Put Jadzia down in the snow so I could look in the shed. She happily crawled around until her mittens got snowy and came off.

Step 20: Retrieved the toboggan from the back of the shed. This involved climbing over two bicycles, a collection of pool noodles, and various large unidentified shed junk.

Step 21: Used the toboggan to slide down the slight incline of our backyard. One adult and two kids sledding down a 5 degree hill. Wee!!

Step 22: Made snow angels.

Step 23: After about ten minutes, went inside.

Only twenty-three steps? It felt like more. In any case it was all worth it. No, really. I love winter. I can't wait to go tobogganing down a slightly steeper hill. Maybe I should buy myself some snowpants too.