The Season's First Snowman

Winter is officially here. To think a few weeks ago, I was playing with the kids at the beach. Yesterday we planned on hiking around the Outdoor Discovery Center. We got there, popped the kids into their backpacks, hiked for a little while, saw the birds of prey (yes, despite my unnatural fear of birds, we still went) and hiked back. Rowan was saying "It's so cold my face hurts" and Tate was burrowing his head into Lance's back.

This morning we woke up to snow all over the ground. Not a lot of it, but snow nonetheless. By the time we were home from church, the snow had melted off the ground, but it was still all over the deck. Lance took Rowan out and they made a cute little snowman who Rowan loves. She said "Snowman, if I put you in the microwave will you melt? Snowman, do you want to come inside and eat hummingfish with me (lots of reading The Lorax around here)? Snowman, do you like to eat raisins and carrots and snow?" Rowan loves to make snowmen, but what she loves even more about the snow is eating it. As soon as she gets outside, she grabs a handful and shoves it in her mouth. When she comes inside, she requests hot cider. Tate and I watched from the window. He laughed everytime Lance would throw a snowball at the window.

While Rowan is excited about the snow, I am not. Though I'll still try to get outside, at least briefly, each day, the days of spending 2 hours at the park are long gone, buried under the snow, only to emerge with the tulips and daffodils in the spring. In the meantime, we'll be doing lots of baking, art projects and dress-up, watching Tate reach lots of fun milestones, and hoping to get through this season with some sort of sanity.