The snowy day

It snowed 7 inches here this week.  (At least that's what the newspaper said about the next town over.  I'll take their word for it, rather than go out to an undisturbed area and stick a ruler in it, like my brothers would.  Besides, 7 inches looked about right from inside my heated living room.  Who cares?  "It snowed a bunch" is plenty accurate enough for me.)


Anyhoo, today, 3 days after the snowfall, I figured I would emerge from hibernation and make magical memories in the snow with my delighted children.


I was immediately reminded of this hilarious post from the extremely funny blogger at Crappy Pictures.


My children who are 8 and 6 enjoy playing in the snow, can put on their own boots, and have enough sense to keep their mittens on.


Guess how long it takes to locate and don socks, boots, snowpants, coats, mittens, and hats for one adult and two toddlers?  And who should get dressed first?  Me, so I'm sweating as I wrestle their feet into their boots?  Or Lizzy, who will start taking things back off while I dress myself and Caleb?  Or Caleb, who learned to use his legs most recently and hasn't mastered standing up in boots without falling over?


So we finally step out the front door and are immediately blind and staggering from the snow-covered world.  The brick steps are icy.  I'm concentrating on carrying Caleb down without injury to either of us, but of course Lizzy, who cannot grip the handrail in her polar bear mittens, starts to slip and does a complete head-over-heels somersault, hitting her head and landing on her back before I can catch her at the bottom.


Caleb having recently fallen down the indoor flight of stairs to a chorus of screams, my heart was racing while I waited for Lizzy's wailing to start.


Instead, she continued her conversation right where she left off.  Apparently the ten minutes of preparatory dressing paid off, and she was bundled as well as Randy in The Christmas Story.


I had fun sledding for ten minutes.  Caleb was brave going down the hill, but Lizzy didn't like how snow flew in her face and the high speed made her mitten fall off.  Both of them much prefer eating the bits of snow that fall off our boots once we come inside.  Yum.


But, no injuries to anyone, so I'd say my mommy-memory-making duties have been well fulfilled for the winter!  Now to return to my heated living room and enjoy the beauty of fresh snow outside my window.