Oliver & Jo's 1st Snowman

In contrast to our photos in the leaves, here's the family playing in the snow! The first set is from one of our first snows of the season, November 21. Jo wanted to help Oliver and me shovel.

A couple of days ago, Andrew took the kids out to build a snowman. It was the kids' first snowman! The snowman is kind of creepy. My mom went out and joined in on the fun. Oliver had a blast, and Jo was hilarious & adorable in her snowsuit.

First Snow! Bonus: Joanna's Snow Dress

I woke up this morning to Andrew telling me about the snow outside! The first thing I wanted to do was finish this knit dress I'd started for Jo last year and never finished. All I needed to do was attach a sleeve, weave in some ends, and attach some buttons. I don't know why I'd put it off for a year! Here's information on the pattern from my Ravelry post, if anyone is interested in knitting. It's a free pattern, but I altered it a lot.

I got the kids dressed, and we went outside to check out the snow. Joanna was a little afraid of it. She didn't leave my side

Oliver, on the other hand, was all about the snow! He remembers from last season. He ran right up to that table and ate a big handful. Then, he asked me if we could go to the store so he could help me scrape the snow off the car. So cute!

Jo ended up wanting to go back inside. Once we were safely inside away from the snow, she loved the stuff! She pointed to it all and had a great time. She can't say snow but, instead, calls it, "Nose." She kept saying, "Look! It's nose! Hi, nose! Bye, nose!" Here she is with her buddy, Madden, checking out the first snow of the season.

Another shot of the dress. I'm so proud of it even though it has lots of little mistakes and issues. You can't tell unless you're really looking at it, though, so I don't even care! And, yes, that is still Jo's Thomas the Train tattoo from when we had our day out with Thomas.

February Snow

We finally got some more snow! We've been desperate for snow here in the Denver area. Our climate is so dry. If we don't get enough snow, that spells bad news: droughts and wildfires. Even people who hate the snow are relieved to see flakes fall because, as you'll hear people say, "we really need it."

When a good snow finally falls, we have to get out and enjoy it! Oliver did a good job enjoying the snow.

 Joanna didn't enjoy the snow so much...

Blizzard 2012

First Day of Winter 2011

Happy first day of winter! Today is Jo's first snow day. We've gotten about 10 inches of snow so far, but I don't think the conditions qualify this as a blizzard. Even so, I'm not sure she liked it very much...

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 58: Snow Spray

I took a small hiatus from my posts on coming up with interesting activities to entertain Oliver in my "100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler" series. Unfortunately, it's difficult for me to give Oliver the same amount of undivided attention with our new, beautiful baby here. I'm hoping to slowly get back into these posts because Oliver and I have fun with them.

Today, I decided to take an empty spray bottle, clean it out, and refill it with water and food coloring. My plan was for Oliver and me to go outside and decorate the snow. First, I needed to choose a color. Red seemed too gory. I worried yellow would look like pee. I thought green might not be very exciting to Oliver, since he's used to seeing green in the grass and trees. So, I selected blue.

Here is our spray bottle of fun:

Oliver and I put on our coats and hats and went out on the back porch. Here's my cute little guy:

Then, I started spraying!

I sprayed and excitedly shouted to Oliver to do the same. He gave a few sprays but wasn't as enthralled as I'd envisioned. I decided it was because the blue water didn't contrast enough with the snow. I hollered inside to Andrew to bring us some red dye. I thought making purple would help pique Oliver's interest. It didn't. Oliver gave a few more half-hearted sprays before getting upset that his hands were turning purple from the dye. He stuck his hands in the snow to try to clean them off, only to get upset with the cold snow. He looked up at me and told me, "All done," and then went and stood by the door to be let back in:

"Snow Spray" did not go as planned. I'm pretty sure Andrew had more fun with the activity than Oliver did (Andrew went out with the spray bottle after we came back in). Although Oliver didn't have fun spraying the snow with dyed water, we weren't really out anything by trying. The cost as negligible, and clean up was a snap (other than our stained fingers, of course). I give the activity a D based on this experience, but I'm sure other families will have more success with it. So, if you're looking for something to do on a not-so-cold, snowy day, toss on some clothes you're not attached to (in case you stain them) and have at it! I hope your child enjoys it more than mine did.

Life, Limb, and Music Class

Oliver officially loves music class. I think he started to appreciate it so much more after Joanna was born. It's something he knows, something that stayed the same.

So, today, in spite of the snow storm, I was determined to make it to music class. My car wasn't as determined.

You see, I have to manually slide over the notch in my car to select where the air blows. There is debris or something that has it jammed, and it can't slide all the way over to windshield defogger. It used to not go at all, but my husband has used all of his might to slide it half way there for me a couple of times now. Unfortunately, I've lent my car out twice in the past three months (once to my parents and once to my in-laws), and, both times, I forgot to tell them not to slide the notch away from defogger. And, so, once again, I can't defog my windshield.

I left the house, and everything seemed OK. After half a mile, there was a light fog on my windshield. I resisted the urge to wipe and streak it, and I rolled down my window to the 27 degree weather instead. I figured, if the air temperature is the same inside the car as outside, it wouldn't fog. That's not what happened. The cold air mixed with the hot air I'd breathed onto the windshield and caused a total mess. I had to wipe it. Disaster. The windshield was streaked with fog and pearls of moisture. It completely deranged my view, and I couldn't make sense of what I was looking at. I thought about turning around, but I was 1/4 of the way there on a small street that only had turnoffs into unknown neighborhoods. Surely, it would be just as difficult to find a place to turn around and head home as it would be to make it to the rec center!

I was so very wrong. When there wasn't a car in front of me, I couldn't see the lanes. I kept trying to slide the notch over to windshield defogger, but it wouldn't hold. Half way to music class, driving on a busy street, looking out my side window to figure out where I was on the street, I realized it was more dangerous for me to press forward than it was to turn around. I somehow managed to switch lanes to turn left and head back home. I took all of the side roads so I could inch along, using anything I could as a guide to bring my car (and Oliver and me) home safely.

At a stoplight, I reached for my phone to call Andrew. He tried to insist on picking me up, but I was only three blocks from home. I didn't want Jo out in the mess, either, and on that long stretch on Yale, there's nowhere to pull over (It's a two lane road with open space on one side and gated communities on the other). Somehow, we made it back alive. I only really started to panic once; I kept fairly calm and collected the rest of the time, thankfully.

Oliver lost it when he saw we'd returned home. He'd known we were going to music class, and he started crying and screaming when we turned back into our townhome complex. Thankfully, my husband is amazing. He ran out of the house as we pulled up, and he quickly transferred Oliver to his car to drive him to music class. Joanna and I are now safe and warm at home, and the boys are at music class, singing and dancing the morning away.

I think I'd better refrain from driving in the cold from now on.

First Snow of the Season

It snowed all night Tuesday and all day Wednesday. Oliver was finally well enough to go out to play today (Friday). Most of the snow was melted away, but it was still fun to explore.