You explain five times in a row – too many times – that yes, you can take a photo of them throwing snow, but NOT AT THE CAMERA. You feel ridiculous for how many times you repeat yourself. And then there’s the one kid who throws a snowball right at the camera.
I said, “hey, we should do dinner together tonight.” She said, “Okay, but definitely let’s feed the kids something easy. And that way we can eat something fancier and more interesting.” And thus began a perfect Friday night.
Snowy day surprise sleepover = pure delight.
Puzzling is my favorite winter activity and this girl was here. for. it. She sat carefully sorting and flipping pieces for me for over an hour and then even tackled a 500 piece puzzle of her own when we finished this one. She had lots of (often unwanted) help, but was delighted when she got to put the final pieces into place.
Perfection is not having to share a mini grocery cart with a sibling.
When all you want in life is for your cousin to come play in the snow with you, but she’s nowhere to be found and why oh why is she not appearing?
The night before her birthday she went to bed sad because “we forgot to decorate.” In true guilty mom fashion, I then spent two hours cutting out snowflakes and a banner and decorating them with twinkly lights. Her joyful reaction made it all worth it, though, and now that there’s snow on the ground, we’re all still enjoying the fluttering paper flakes. Bonus: it almost makes you forget that there’s an overhead trim piece ripped out showing off the innards of an ash crusted beam and a (newly inserted), metal support beam blocking a previous walkway.
A is my best little worker. He began to shovel the sidewalks industriously the second we got back from sledding. V promised to pay him for his efforts (deserved! He was out there for two hours!) and then he capitalized on his success by convincing a neighbor to let him shovel their sidewalks, too. “Mama! I made SO MUCH MONEY!”
The thrill two little Southern girls get when snow starts falling AND sticking!
With a week of snow and ice and unusually cold temps in the forecast, V decided we should probably have at least *one* backup heat source. Our date that afternoon included a quick swing ’round to Home Depot to pick this bad boy up.
A Pattern of Words 