(Soy) Snow Cream
What do you do with 23 inches of snow?
Make snow cream! Start with a cup of sugar in the bowl. Mix in 4 cups of snow (or so).
Then add in 2 cups of milk, (or, in our case, two cups of soy milk) and a teaspoon of vanilla
Stir, stir, stir,
and enjoy!
Got some leftovers? No worries.
Just stick the bowl back in the two foot snow drift next to the door. It’ll stay nice a cold for days.
Trust me.
Hey, look! It’s Snowing!
The “storm of the century,” predicted for this past weekend, proved to be a big one. It started at 10 am Friday morning (schools were closed – which means Matthew made it one day last week), but the temp was high enough that nothing stuck. Until around 4 pm.
It snowed all afternoon. It snowed all evening. It snowed all night. It was still snowing Saturday morning. It kept on snowing until late afternoon on Saturday. We ended up with about 22 inches in all.
Her is the car early in the storm.
Our street. At least, we think it’s our street. Kind of hard to tell, frankly.
You know you have a lot of snow when it buries the swings.
We got out the tape measure to check the accumulation in the front yard.
David was not enjoying the wind.
We cleared the front walk a couple times during the storm, and we cleared a path down the driveway once or twice. Still, it took several hours to dig out the entire driveway, not to mention the 3 foot wall of snow left by the plow.
Twenty-two inches is a LOT of snow.
It makes for some excellent snow mountains, though.
Matthew had a good time climbing the piles.
David was pretty over it.
I took him in to dry off and warm up. And watch some TV. I’m selfless that way.
Slow Recovery
Matthew was well enough for school – finally – on Wednesday. But it snowed Tuesday and he had the day off.
Turns out, he probably needed the extra time, because this was the scene after lunch on Thursday (his first day back.)
Pre-School At Home
Since schools were closed on Wed., we had a little play date with James. It’s nice to have a friend who can drive over even when we have a few inches of snow.
According to James’ school calendar, they would have learned about “red.” As a former teacher, I could totally handle a lesson on red.
Magazines? Check! Scissors? Check! Glue? Check! Stickers? Check!
Matthew and James found some red things in the magazines and glued them down. David and Nate (who joined us later) enjoyed sticking stickers all over the page.
The boys really enjoyed the project. For about 15 minutes. Then they all dispersed to various locations to play with cars and trucks.
They are boys, after all.
We’ve Moved
We’ve moved. We didn’t pack anything, and the house looks exactly the same, but at some point we went to sleep in Virginia and woke up in Michigan.
It’s the only way I can explain how we can be, once again, coated with snow. And more is coming.
More.
Snow.
I think this weekend would be a good time to clock the exact driving time from our house to Miami. I am almost positive it isn’t snowing there.
Small and Mighty
That’s David, according to our recent two-year-old check-up.
No, you didn’t read that wrong. He went for his two-year-old check-up on Tuesday. Yes, he IS 2 1/2. What’s your point? I got there eventually.
According to the stats, David is “on the small side.”
Weight l- 25 lbs., 7%
Height – 34 in., 12%
Head circumference – 47 1/2 cm., 14%
He is doing all the things he should be doing, including talking A WHOLE LOT MORE thanks to our very dedicated speech therapist. He eats well, he pees well, and he still sits in a car seat. These are the highlights of a well child visit when you are two.
I did ask if perhaps something was hideously wrong with him, since he has been sick every single month for well over a year. Apparently, this is well within the average range of viral infections a child could have. I was astounded. Our pediatrician assured me David will be healthy as a horse by the time he gets to Kindergarten.
I’m going to remind her of this when he turns 5.
The Painter
David decided he wanted to do some painting.
He painted for a good bit of time. He enjoyed doing “dot, dot, wheee!!!” with the paintbrush.
Then he spilled the water all over the train and paint time was declared over.
Paternal Instinct
David likes borrowing baby dolls from Nana’s house. He was busy undressing and re-dressing them, so I showed him how to wrap them up for “nigh-nights.” Matthew got curious. I fished Jessica out of the stuffed animal bin, grabbed his old baby blanket, (“Mommy! I remember this one! I LOVE this one!”) and wrapped her up, too.
Then the boys disappeared upstairs for a while.
I went to check things out. It was dark upstairs and Matthew met in the hallway saying, “Shh!!! The babies are sleeping.”
I peeked in David’s room. The noise machine was on and the room was dark, except for his night-light.
See that basket on the chair?
The “babies” were sleeping peacefully, so I left them.
Then I went into Matthew’s room, which was also dark. He had turned on his noise machine and his CD player. I looked over on his bed.
There was Jessica, neatly wrapped in the blanket and tucked in to bed with a stuffed animal.
He made sure I talked very softly at bedtime that night so I wouldn’t wake her.
It’s hard to describe how sweet and tender the boys were with the babies. It was a glimpse into how they see the role of parents, and it made me very grateful they have such good examples of excellent fathers in their lives.
Snow! Again!
We got more snow this weekend. I think we have had more snow this winter than the entire last decade.
It started Saturday morning and snowed pretty much all day. I took Matthew out once before dinner, and Daddy took David out once after dinner, to push the snow around with the shovel. It was really cold and windy, though, so no one wanted to stay out long.
We got out again today to play. Matthew made a mini-snow man, but knocked it down before I could get a picture. David entertained himself with a snow shovel.
Matthew lasted about 10 min. and then wanted to head in. He still has a fever, so he really doesn’t have the energy to play.
He was much happier with some hot chocolate.
Steven had to drag David in when he hands started to turn pink from the cold. Otherwise, David might still be out there.
David’s New Room
Over the holidays, we got David’s new room painted. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do it all by myself.
Matthew had a pretty good idea what to do,
but David needed some pointers.
Then the boys helped Daddy put the crib together.
We got all the furniture put in and now it’s all set up and ready for the next 16 years.
We gave David a week to get used to the idea of a new room, and then we kept him company during nap and bed time for the first day. He has been happy as can be ever since.
The room looks great, which is a LOT more than I can say for the rest of the house.
