Snow Day

Livvie’s been asking for snow for several weeks and we keep explaining to her that we can’t manufacture that sort of thing on demand.  We hadn’t seen any news or weather reports for several days, so we were completely surprised by the snow.  I gather that everyone else in Portland was also surprised based on the news reports, so we were glad that we were all at home with no where to be.

The snow was much more manageable this year.  Luke and Violet got all suited up and had no trouble walking in the 2-3 inches we got yesterday.  In last year’s snow they could barely move.  Neither one could grab anything with their waterproof mittens on, though.  Violet couldn’t take it and just kept trying to get her mittens off.

 

Olivia was very excited to build a snowman and then knocked it down later because she wanted to make giant snowballs.  It probably didn’t help that a couple of guys up the street built a 6’ high snowman.  You could tell that she was clearly disappointed with our snowman-making efforts after seeing that one.  We also spent a lot of time explaining why we couldn’t build an igloo/snow fort just like last year.  “There is enough snow!  Look at all the snow on the bushes and trees!” - Olivia

Of course we got the sleds out, but the new Christmas sleds weren’t used (they’re not as easy to pull 3 kids on at the same time).  We had the big sleds and they were all happy to share a ride together.  Michael was less happy to pull all 3 at the same time in the sticky, wet snow.

Vi had to make an early exit due to cold hands while Luke and Olivia went to the top of the next block and sledded down the middle of street where the car tracks made it super slick (uh, sure, it was safe, yeah, I was watching).  Liv even pulled Luke down the hill skeleton-style at the end.

The snow is all gone today and we had terrible tears this morning when Liv realized that there would be no igloo this year.

 

How’s everybody doing?

Luke and Violet have just recently decided that they like books.  We are getting hunted and then poked with books on a regular basis.  It’s funny to see the switch when their wee brains decide that books are interesting and fun.  Down by the Station and Baby Einstein: Jane's Animal Expedition are a couple of favorites (at the moment).  There is still some competition to hold the book when we read with both of them at the same time.  It’s quite exciting to referee the battle for the book while attempting to teach them how to turn pages in the correct direction and pointing out the different objects to notice on each page (they love to mimic us doing that: point point point).

Luke loves to wield the extension for the vacuum cleaner as a weapon (example below).  There have been a few close calls with the TV and Violet’s noggin, so it’s still a supervised-only “toy”.

Livvie’s had a great time lately.  Between playing at Karsten’s house at the Super Bowl and a day with Lana at babbo’s office (not this babbo, the other babbo, Mr. Matt), she’s been playing a lot.  She went to a birthday party for Marissa (friend from school) at Pump It Up last Sunday.  It was all she could talk about for days.  She’d hold up the invitation and talk about how much fun she was going to have.  Apparently, it didn’t disappoint. 

This is a shot of a calm moment in the movie room during the Super Bowl.

Snowing in Portland!

It doesn't snow often in Portland and when it does it tends to cripple the city. So, it was a big surprise to wake up to a couple of inches of snow this morning! The city doesn't have any plows and state law doesn't allow salt to be used on the roads, but the biggest problem is the people who abandon their cars. We're not sure where the people go once they get out of their car in a snowstorm, we've just seen the empty cars on the highway.  They don't even pull over, they just abandon their cars in the lane.

It took about 45 minutes of prep to get snowsuits, shoes, jackets, and gloves located and on.  Violet lasted about 5 minutes once we got outside. She was not amused. In this photo, you can see how they both ditched the gloves pretty quick and no amount of conversation could change their minds. Neither Luke nor Violet liked walking in hard shoes, so they attempted to crawl on naked hands. Violet complained quickly, but Luke lasted a little longer because his hands slipped inside his jacket and he crawled around on his sleeves down the street. No walking. I guess we will have to wait till next year for snow angels in triplicate.

Livvie had fun, snowballs, snow angels, writing in the snow, playing chase. But she soon was too cold and retreated inside for hot chocolate. It's cold, real cold, about 10 degrees with the wind chill. We're out of practice with this kind of gusty, frozen weather.

Naturally, we didn't have enough milk and eggs. The lack of whole milk is quite a problem when 2 members of the household still get most of their calories from milk. The first snow storm of the year and we were flat-footed and under-prepared. At least we can claim Michael's "surgery" as out excuse for not preparing for the biggest (only) snow storm of the year! Lucky for us we're only a block from the store.

For the video fans, there is a little taste of our lovely snow day over at YouTube.