Snow, More Snow, Basketball, and a Fat Cat...

So we got some serious snow. The kids hardly even wanted to play in it. Even they are ready for spring! I think they spent a total of MAYBE an hour out there?

The birds were happy I had put a feeder outside. :) 

The cat was entertained, though slightly annoyed he could not go out and "play" with his "friends". 

We were initially quite creative and busy…. Jonathan wanted to replicate something he had done at school with snow, baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring.  This kept them entertained for about 45 minutes, so totally worth the mess! After this, everyone dispersed throughout the house to play Legos, build forts, and ask me every three minutes if they could play Wii. 

We also made snow ice cream for the first time. The kids loved it. Me? Not so much. The sugar didn't dissolve so it was super gritty and awfully sweet!

These pics were the day before the snow, but I had to share. We were at PetCo and saw this cat. The photo does NOT do it justice. I have never seen a domestic cat so big.  It HAD to weigh 30 pounds, at least…. 

And this is my littlest monkey waiting with me in the carpool line. He sometimes asks to have his picture taken. I happily oblige. :)

In other news, Ben's basketball team WON yesterday, which means they are one of the two teams in the championship! First year since Ben has been playing that has happened! They usually win the first playoff game and lose the second one.  The game got kind of physical and Ben actually fouled out. He was SO upset. But it worked out in the end and now he's just excited to be in the championship game! So, we are back on Wednesday for what will (finally) be the last game of the season. :)

First Snow of the Winter!

We got some SNOW! Not very much. Three inches, maybe? Enough for it to look pretty, get a day off of school (and a delay today), sled in and play in. Basically, the good kind.

The boys went out a couple times and just hung out all day.... I tried out Tom's snowblower I gave him for Christmas. (who knew how fun that was?!?!).  

Ben has finally stopped calling this "The Worst Winter EVER!" (he was convinced it was never going to snow) ;)

Snow.

This happened today. They were calling for 1-2" and then rain and sleet and ice (oh my!)

But so far, it's just seven inches of white.

Tom and Ben are at the Ravens game in the snow, but I took the little guys out to play for awhile.  :)


ETA: WHen Ben got home, he immediately dashed outside, so I got some pics of him in the snow too! :)

This Happened.

I mean seriously. It's the winter that won't die. I checked my archives and this time last year, I was sitting out on the deck in short sleeves having a picnic with Jonathan, Simon, their cousin, and my sister-in-law.  

This needs to stop. 

Just. 

STOP. 

Anyway, so the boys had off from school. They played together nicely all day, which was fine. We went to the store, watched a movie. It was a really great day... it's just that... I'm cold. I want to be warm again. I REALLY want to be warm again!!!

Frosty...

There was a little snow leftover today from the blizzard that wasn't...   so we went outside this morning after being inspired by my sister-in-law's snowman post yesterday! I needed a good winter
pic for the calendar! Not really a snow fan, but I put on a good front for my snow-deprived last-born.

In this picture, he's eating one of the extra carrots we brought out while staring hungrily at Frosty's nose... ;) LOL!

Snow....

Apparently it's rain elsewhere, but we do, in fact, have snow at our house!

Snow... sort of

Don't get me wrong, I'm not crying any tears over two winters in a row with no significant snowfalls.  But my kids are kind of snow deprived and it's getting a little sad. Simon wasn't old enough to appreciate the blizzard a few years ago, so has never even really played in the snow!!! It's weird! 

And Jonathan has never even SEEN a real snow... he was in utero during the blizzard! (I have fond memories of trudging to Safeway with my townhouse neighbors in the snow when I was 12 weeks pregnant and our neighborhood hadn't been plowed yet) 

So when a dusting was left outside in the morning after a quick snowfall two nights ago, two out of three went out. Jonathan went first... he lasted about seven minutes. Simon, on the other, spent about a half hour making tracks and snow angels. :)

The snow melted before our eyes... but they enjoyed it while it lasted. And now I have some snow pictures for next year's calendar! ;)

Snow-tober... Happy Snowloween.... I'm Dreaming of a White Halloween...

Yeah. No. I am NOT amused by this surprise October snow. Not one bit.

I have been dreading winter since it ended. You may recall that I have three boys! THREE! Three boys who like running and jumping and playing outside. And on a selfish note, I hate being cold and the fact that it gets dark at 5:00 in the winter. No need to get this nonsense started early!

But the powers that be did not listen to me (I'm looking at you, God... really this isn't funny... dressing up fall as winter for Halloween) and snow, snow it did. This morning, we have a dusting all over the lawn and what looks like gross, icy snow caked onto the deck.

I do always try to look for the positive in things though and here they are...

1) The snow in the forecast got me into gear to finally make room for my van in the garage.

I also got ambitious yesterday since it became clear my husband wasn't going to help himself in this regard and I made room for HIS car too. So now, there are TWO cars in our three-car garage. That definitely makes much more sense than NO cars in our three-car-garage.

2) We made some obligatory snowed-in cookies. And we ate them. Can't complain about that.

I realized too late that I was not going to be able to fit the word Halloween on this one. So "Happy Boo" it was. No matter. It was just as delicious as all the rest!

Hopefully this was just a fun little anomaly and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled indian summer this coming week. I hope. We have lots of outside stuff planned in the coming weeks!

Oh and Ben was my determined child who insisted on playing outside yesterday. (even the cat, who normally tries to make a break for it every time the door is opened, knew better) We tried to discourage him by making him track down all the outdoor gear by himself but he was persistent and he found it all, down to the boots and went out right in the middle of a gross mix of rain/snow. His review of the experience? "It wasn't that bad!"

And Snow Continues to Be the Topic of the Week...

Pics from yesterday...

The boys -- Simon REALLY dislikes the snow. He begs to come inside.


Ben, on the other hand, would stay out all day and all night.


We've got these precarious-looking snow formations everywhere...


One of our neighbors built a really cool sled run in his backyard! Simon had already gone inside, but Ben enjoyed a few good turns down the hill. It scared him a little though, I think, because after about four times down, he was done and just wanted to watch everyone else.




I am not sure this tree is going to live to see another spring...


Our street at 4:30 yesterday...


And hey, guess what?! MORE snow tomorrow and Wednesday!

Comedy of Errors...

The first attempts from the county at plowing our snowbound street.

Attempt #1 - Plow immediately gets stuck


Attempt #2 - Second plow arrives to free plow #1


Attempt #3 - Second plow then attempts the job and gets stuck


Attempt #4 - Backhoe arrives, pulls out second plow then finally starts to get the job done. Yay, backhoe!

Day Two of Our Captivity...

Here are the pics from our brief time out in the white stuff yesterday morning... it was still snowing and my camera was getting wet, so I didn't take many!

Ben and Trey


Simon "helping"


Ben after he fell backwards into a snowdrift


Quinn


Simon


Snow, snow everywhere!

So Yeah. Thassalotta Snow.

The snow was exciting for awhile. Ben counted down the minutes until our planned neighborhood snow play time. He donned his snowsuit, boots, hat, gloves and heavy coat. He looked like the kid from A Christmas Story.






He was excited and a little weirded out when I told him to go ahead and cross the street (where is the street anyway?) himself ahead of Tom, who was still putting on his boots. I always loved that about big snowstorms as a kid... how there were no cars coming down the street ever and you couldn't even tell where the sidewalk ended and the street began anyway. But, I digress.

Out he went.

He was back inside in 22 minutes, having had quite enough, thankyouverymuch. I think the snow he got down into his snowsuit and the biting wind on his face did him in.

Simon never even had an ounce of desire to go outside, which was just fine with me. He was given ample opportunity, but he just kept saying, "No. I will stay inside and play pbskids.org!" (and he did)

The rest of the day, the kids played on the computer, watched movies, played with their toys and played with daddy. All in all, a great snow day.

Tom shoveled once, around 12:30, which I realized was an awesome metaphor for what I do every day... I then I remembered seeing an actual quote to that effect in one of my frequent hunts for quotes for my banners...

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, 1966"

By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs and the main sidewalk, the top set of stairs had two inches of snow covering them again. And eight hours later? Another foot. Yep. That's pretty much my life.

He'll have to do it all over again today. I do hope we can break out of here today though. I have to get a few things at the store, if there is anything actually left at the store. And we have a family Christmas gathering late this afternoon.

We'll see!