I had been watching the weather forecast for Saturday, October 29, for awhile since it was originally the date of the Calvary Harvest Fair. I couldn't believe it when the Wednesday before, I saw "SNOW" as the prediction?!?! Certainly, that must be a mistake, I thought. We hadn't even seen all the leaves turn colors. It had been in the 60s or warmer that week. We were still enjoying days of soccer and hadn't even enjoyed trick-or-treating yet. SNOW?!?! This early? NEVER! It was just a ploy to get people to buy their milk, eggs and bread, I assumed. Well, the weather man was right, and I was wrong.
The day before, I had gone hat and boot shopping with Mamaw for the boys. Since Caleb & Joshua are both wearing the same size, neither one had snow boots that fit them. And the hats were for fun since they are SO cute! And I bought milk and bread - we were honestly out of both (but we had our eggs already!). That morning we went for a drive as the rain turned to an icy slush and eventually into snow. I needed to know where I was going at the F&M campus that following Tuesday, so we went to check out the parking situation before the roads got too bad. Then, we let a little more snow fall as the boys took an early nap before I started getting them bundled up.
It is a lot of work to get ready to play in the snow! But, Joshua was SO excited! Caleb was, too, I'm sure. They worked with us as I put multiple layers on underneath snowpants, then thick socks, boots, warm coats, hats, and mittens. Then I found my snowsuit. They laughed at me being "all red" but it kept me warm!
Shawn stayed inside with the Schnook-a-lou (or my baby Ryan Josiah). No need for either one of them to walk on wet, icy surfaces or get cold! The boys and I had a blast, though. There is something magical about the first snow of the year. While I'm not a huge fan of cold winters or bad weather, I agree with "Frosty the Snowman" that the first snow of the season is simply special. I read on someone's facebook post that we can tell God is in control and making a statement. From earthquakes to hurricanes to snow in October, this has been quite the year so far!
Normally this time of year would call for a scarecrow rather than a snowman. So, we made a pumpkin snowman. The snow was heavy and wet. So heavy that it destroyed many trees in our development and all our flowers, etc. But, it was great packing snow!
The weather also makes me think of Christmas and want to stay inside and snuggle. Daddy asked me to bake him some chocolate chip cookies, and I agreed, of course! I also baked some of Mamaw's pretzels. While I did, I made a playlist of Christmas music. I haven't listened to it since that day, though. My rule is typically to wait until after Thanksgiving! The reason Christmas music is special is because we only listen to it one month out of the year (that, and we listen to the same songs 1/12 of EVERY year of our lives).
Daddy found us this "snow brick" to make a fort. We tried to make one, but it's way more fun to kick them down then build them up! They also liked making the patterns in the snow!
This day gave a whole new meaning to snowFALL! I said Caleb was walking in an autumn wonderland! He loves to see his footprints in the snow!
I was a little discouraged to see our neighbor's tree had fallen in our backyard - and not the sweet neighbors but the other set. Shawn said it's our problem - and like we need more yard work when he's down & out! He's been steadily trying to saw it apart and broken three blades so far. But, we have no where to go with it. To break it up small enough to put into containers for the dump is going to take hours if not days, and there's only so long he can stand to be up on his leg. Sigh! But, one of my students told me that their tree smashed through their house. I think we're lucky. The debris can stay if necessary until the spring when Shawn is feeling better if it has to. And he's cleared out and chopped up way more than I thought he would be able to at this point. We'll see what the surgeon says about his ankle this week, though!
I told the boys that they could slide down the slide. That's when Joshua realized "HEY! We normally slide down into a leaf pile! We haven't done that yet this year!" Sorry, kiddo! Many of the leaves hadn't fallen yet - it was just starting to be extremely beautiful outside.
They were having a blast in this weather! And praise God, our electricity blinked off several times but always came back on! We heard a crazy amount of noise the following night from across the street. What was it, I wondered? It sounded almost like a generator. We thought it strange until we talked to our neighbors on Halloween and realized that most of the neighborhood had been without electricity for over a day! Our side of the street had been saved, but across the street down through the end had been without power that entire time! I then felt extremely blessed!!! We didn't have to worry about anything, truly! Thank you, God, for protecting us!
Here's our "snow bird" himself. He kept acting like a chicken with his hat on. He loves it (thanks, Mamaw!). We said that he would take his Southwest plane to Florida in this type of weather and become a real snow bird. Then Mamaw & Papaw posted pictures of themselves in these types of hats on facebook. The kids got a real chuckle out of that as well.
We ended our outdoor adventure with a snowball battle. The kids LOVE to throw snowballs!
We tell them not to hit each other but rather throw them at the house. They were happy to oblige!
At first Caleb would ask me to make his snowballs for him while Joshua got the idea right away. Eventually, Caleb made a few of his own as well.
After awhile it was time to come inside and warm up. The next few days it was in the 50s and the snow melted completely off the grass by the following Tuesday. We didn't shovel our driveway or sidewalks, even though I asked Shawn if I should, because he said it would melt before any kids needed to walk on them. He was absolutely right. It was gone by the following afternoon on important places like these.
Sorry, kiddos, you'll have to wait for more snow to play in!
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