Daniel & Annabel's Adventures: Blizzard!

We have now officially had a really big snowfall in our area! Found data that said something like 15 inches total! The kids of course were super ecstatic when they woke up this morning and discovered alllll that snow out there! It looked SO pretty! I do love looking at snow. We headed out around 10:00 this morning, after we were all dressed and had eaten breakfast (some of us, ahem, Mommy, are a little slow to wake up and move around in the morning!).

And wow, that sure was a lot of snow. At that point we were guessing around 10 inches or so, but it was still snowing and blowing. The kids grabbed their shovels at first, but then decided it would just be fun to wander around in that bright white fresh fallen snow; it was so fun to watch them just follow their whims and go this way and that. They would flop down to the ground, on purpose, get back up and go again. Finally the kids started shoveling or filling this bucket and that (Daniel would lay his bucket down on the ground, then he'd lay down and push at the bottom of the bucket with his feet to fill it up- pretty clever trick he had there! see picture below for illustration!), while Ben and I started shoveling the driveway and making our huge mountain of snow for the kids. The kids had a ball with that mountain as always.

Ben also decided to start up on a fort, using our recycling bins for the fort bricks, while Annabel and I made a snowman, once I realized that this snow was just perfect snowman snow. She had so much fun rolling her ball around the yard. It was so cute to watch her exert such effort in doing this. I made the bottom ball, she did the middle, and then we did the head together. Annabel and Daniel put in paint sticks for the arms, and I went inside and grabbed some food pieces for the face (he had to have a carrot nose, of course!), along with the scarf, mittens, and hat that Annabel requested. Our snowman turned out pretty cute. "He's a good snowman and he lasted a long time," Annabel said, quoting a fave story lately (Sadie and the Snowman). Anyway, building that snowman was so much fun!

After about an hour out there, the kids decided they'd had enough and were ready to go in. Neither Ben nor I were ready, for a change- we were having too much fun with the fort, it was perfect molding snow, and it was actually rather warm out there so we weren't too cold, but we couldn't convince the kids to stay out, so I went in with them, we had lunch and played a bit...while Ben stayed out for a loooong time working on his fort. He was clearly having a good time! We watched the fort grow from the windows as we played. Eventually, about an hour and half later, the fort got pretty big and looked really cool, so Daniel was excited to go back out again to check it out. So we bundled back up and headed out for a second time! We had such fun checking out that fort, throwing snowballs, digging out a tunnel, climbing through that tunnel, and so on. We even had neighbors stopping by to check it out- the kids thought that was pretty cool. They were the envy of the neighborhood with that fort!

Annabel had hoped to make another snowman, but the snow had changed by then and it just wasn't working as well as it had two hours before, so she was bummed. But she did love being "princess" of the mountain and she really liked that tunnel. Daniel loved throwing snowballs most, of course. The kids played around some more with their shovels and various buckets, staying out for almost another hour again. Then, we'd all decided we'd had enough fun and it was time to warm up again and play some more inside. Daddy had been out there for over three hours at this point- crazy guy, but oh we do love his fort- thank you, Daddy!

We did go back out a third time a few hours later, but we didn't even last five minutes that time, temps had majorly dropped and it was blizzard-like at this point as well, with lots of blowing snow, so we quickly ran back in, and then the kids were inspired to make a "snow pile" with blankets and pillows in the loft and "sled" down that. Too funny! Guess they wanted to play in the snow some more, because two hours wasn't enough!

All in all, it was a great day out in the snow! And of course, wimps that schools are these days, Daniel's school is cancelled for tomorrow, so I have a feeling we just may be back out again tomorrow! At least our street did finally get plowed long about bedtime. Now to figure out how to get that Baker's Square Pie of the Month, European Truffle Pie, in my house...hello, February!

Let's just flop in the snow!