Snow Day

We got our first snow of the season (well it's not exactly winter yet, but it seems that anything from the end of August on is fair game in Colorado) and it was a doozy.  I don't know the official accumulation numbers but judging by our patio table it looks to me to be about 10-12 inches.  It started last night as I went to bed and ended finally around 4pm today.  Zoe's school was cancelled because they didn't have any power and there are TONS of tree branches on the ground because most of the trees still have all of their leaves (many are still green, even).  Zoe and I did it up right, I must say...Owen was with us of course, but since he can't enjoy the snow like us big kids can, the vibe got a little less "snow day relaxation" and more like "pent up mother with two small children to entertain" sometime soon after lunch.  Just before dinner, Owen got so fussy that nothing I did or gave him was distracting him, so I finally caved and said to Zoe: "You know what ELSE is awesome about snow days?  You get extra TV!" and let her watch a couple of shows while I cleaned up and fed myself and Owen. It's okay, though...it was a long day for all three of us and all in all we had a lot of fun.  Thought I'd share our day through a little picture tour:

This is the scene I woke up to.  Our back patio at 6:30am...so beautiful and peaceful!

During Owen's morning nap, Zoe and I ventured outside with our snow gear on.  It was so fun for me because last year (although we didn't really get much snow) I was kind of stuck inside with a newborn the whole winter season.  Any fun Zoe had in the snow was with other people and I was bummed about it.  In particular, her cousins gave her a pair of hand me down skis and I never found the energy or chunk of time to be able to go out and talk to her about how to use them...had to watch other people do it and I really wanted to be the one to introduce that to her.  While we were putting them on today, though she really seemed to not remember much of the experience last year so it was all new again and I gave her a little mini ski lesson!  She did a lot of falling and we both did a ton of giggling.  Just as I always pictured it!  :-)

Snow angels, of course!

The tree at our patio door.  It got lower and lower as the day went on.

When we went inside and found our way out of our layers, we filled up a couple of bowls with snow and I introduced her to one of my favorite winter time treats as a kid:  maple syrup drizzled on snow!  I hadn't had it since I was a lot younger and it was amazing how the second I tasted the frozen syrup, my mind instantly jumped back in time about 20 years.  It made me so happy to feel that and be sitting next to my little cutie pie.

Little time out from the tour to show you these little gnome babies I've been making the last couple of weeks....they are so fun to make because they are easy but not boring and can be made in a day or two.  I plan on making them until I'm sick of them!

Anyway, after our snow treat we made some sugar cookie dough and put it in the fridge to make cookies out of during Owen's afternoon nap.  Then we made a "circus tent" (or that's what Zoe thought it looked like) in our living room and spent some quiet time in there relaxing and watching the snow until Owen woke up...

Then Owen woke up and we let him play in the circus tent for a while before bundling up again and going outside.  The second trip out wasn't nearly as successful, due to Owen absolutely HATING the experience and Zoe hitting her head pretty hard on the slide at the playground (snow boots+snow on the slide+trying to stand up on the slide = a bump on the head).  It was pretty clear we weren't going to attempt THAT again with the baby.  Next time I'll bundle him up and put him in the carrier or, as Zoe and I discussed, save our playing in the snow sessions for naptime.

Mom, why in HELL do I have all this shit on?  I can't move!

The only smile we got out of him...this was almost immediately followed by inconsolable crying

During Owen's afternoon nap, we tried this suggestion my sister Emily happened to make via text at the exact moment Zoe said she wanted to practice her letters...corn meal in a tray...pretty cool!  Bought me a few moments of time to check my email all by myself!

Then we got started on our cookies!  We had originally planned on making some frosting but I realized we were out of butter so I randomly decided to try coloring the dough with food coloring and making sort of a swirly-tie-dyed sugar cookie...it was fairly easy and they turned out great!  The pictures are of our experimenting with a small amount of dough to see if it would work and since it did we did the same thing with the rest of the dough:

Put a few drops of each color in separate pieces of dough and sort of mushed it together until the color mixed in fairly well

Rolled each color into a snake and stuck them together...

..then loosely rolled them into a ball, trying not to mix the separate colors together too much..

Rolled it flat with a rolling pin...

...and cut out the shapes!  We then topped them with sugar and sprinkles and tossed them in the oven.

Yummy!

For the rest of the afternoon, we visited with our friends who live next door (and got to share our yummy cookies with them, of course) and shortly after they left was when the three of us hit our limit.

Phew, not bad for a long day of togetherness!  We had a little bit of everything but I have to say boredom wasn't part of the big picture.  I'd call that a successful snow day.