Let it Snow...

This afternoon we were blessed with blankets of snow to cover our landscape. It was coming down pretty hard around 3 o'clock when my children arrived off the bus. I figured it was too cold and windy to venture out to play. We spent time in the basement doing usual winter activities. Around 5 I made my way upstairs to start dinner. Before I began cooking I looked out our sliding glass door onto the deck and it looked so serene. Snow was a few inches in depth and the winds were calm. I decided even though the sky was nearly dark, outside is where we needed to be. I quickly blended up some puffed oven pancakes (AKA: hoot-a-nannies, or German Pancakes) and started gathering winter apparel. Dressing 4 kids to play in the snow is no small feat. That's 8 mittens, 8 boots, 4 snowsuits, 4 hats, 4 coats, 3 trips to the bathroom, and various velcro straps, buttons, and zippers. That doesn't include my own winter attire. After everyone was bundled (including myself), and the oven was pre-heated, I popped in the pancakes and set the timer so we could play while dinner was baking.

This was Landon's first real experience with snow, so I was guessing 5 minutes would be how long he would last. Wrong. He loved the white powder. He ate a lot of it, and even plopped down to make a snow angel. At one point I caught him next to the porch on his hands and knees using his body like a steam shovel.

We ran around throwing snow at each other for quite awhile before Ethan figured out a method to actually make a snowball. Snow in the Midwest isn't packing snow like snow out west. It's very powdery. It's hard to make it stick to itself. Ethan found a way and we all started using his method before pelting each other.

The neighbors were out with their shovels, so Jack grabbed one and headed off to work. It didn't seem to phase him that he was the lucky recipient of Kennedy's hand-me-down snow clothes. Pink suit, pink hat, and mittens to match. Lovely.

Shawn pulled in a few minutes after the fun began and helped Jack clear the driveway. With a push broom they finished the job in record time.

Kennedy with a devilish smile holding a snow-weapon.

Ethan being a good sport after being pelted with said weapon.

I ran inside after 30 minutes to turn off the oven, but then headed back out for more adventure. The kids were having such a good time. Landon decided to take off his gloves at some point to play. Shortly thereafter his left boot got stuck in a snow drift and was also removed. At this point calling it a night was an obvious decision. Removal of 7 snow boots, 6 mittens, 4 soggy coats, 4 soaked snowsuits, 4 hats, and 8 wet socks. Into the kitchen to eat warm breakfast-for-dinner covered in syrup. Sounds easy enough, right? At this point in the evening Kennedy was in hysterical tears because Landon ruined her snow-cake covered in raisins that she worked so hard to build, and Landon somehow managed to get a bloody lip. Jackson disappeared and I found him under his bed eating an entire box of candy canes he managed to pilfer from the candy cupboard high above the stove. Ethan doesn't like these kind of pancakes and was foraging in the fridge. Shawn's pager went off and he escaped the chaos. Even though my evening ended differently than the warm-dinner-hot-chocolate-reminiscing-of-our-fun-spontaneous-snow-expedition-adventure that I had envisioned, I'm still glad we were able to experience the wonder of it together as a family.