Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Winter is Here!

Winter has finally settled into the Northeast.  We have had snow on the ground for a good week now.  With it comes snow pants, boots, gloves, very large coats strapped in five point harnesses and hats.  Not my preferred apparel but boy, the snow has been fun.

After the first real snow, we went sledding as a family. . . sans camera (I know, very unlike me).  What a wonderful time it was.  Miss I don't like to hang in the snow Adeline, fell in love with the white stuff and even came down on the sled solo.  How many times do you think I type, "What a difference a year makes?"  Lila, like last year, spends the entire time shoveling the snow into her mouth which creates a love hate relationship - mainly love.  Lila can't keep her mouth off of it and end eventually, it just becomes too cold.  When it comes to sledding, Lila is a daredevil.  She tried a hill that Savannah has never gone down solo without much coaxing.  Lila plopped her bundled bottom down on the sled and was off.  She went way too fast for my liking and I was thinking that I wish she had a helmet on.  After completeing the very bumpy and fast ride, I was sure I was going to hear crying.  Instead, it was pure joy and laughter.  DARE DEVIL! 

This year, Lila isn't the one that lingers outside, it is astoundingly Adeline.  She thought it was great fun to ride her scooter on the driveway while practicing to be a stunt double on some pretty impressive crashes into the snow.  Need I say, very unlike the Belle?



Today, we woke up to ice, ice and more ice.  School was canceled and the trees were bent over like 90 year old ladies.  The snow was crisp and crunchy and icicles were abundant.  It was the perfect recipe for the girls to spend some time outdoors.  All three of them love to eat ice.  Icicles are even better.  They had fun discovering how ice forms an all different surfaces.  They found the frozen layer on top of the snow curious and Savannah found some pretty neat designs on the ice that formed on the plants and playhouse.  I have to say it was pretty impressive.  So was shoveling the driveway.  That took much longer than expected but had to be done if we are to get out in the morning.  Once shoveled, it became the perfect place to ride all of our summer toys.

Goodbye Grammy and Papa

We had another great holiday season with Grammy and Papa.

The girls adore them, Savannah especially. It was really hard for the big girl to say goodbye because she knew there were so many things she was going to miss about them staying in the house. The tears from Savannah started flowing a week in advance because she is now old enough to know how hard the goodbye is going to be.

Surprisingly, Miss Lila had a breakdown the night before departure. I was surprised to see her authentically heartbroken upon realizing that Grammy and Papa were going to go back to their house. I expected her to be sad the day of but not to breakdown in a restaurant the night before.

As a mother, it is very painful to watch broken hearts play out before my eyes, knowing there is nothing I can do to make it better. So, we sucked it up, dropped them off at the airport, shed too many tears and opted for a Home Depot distraction on the way home. For a store we never frequent, my girls had a great time!! It was just what we needed.

A week later, we are back to normal, tears have subsided and we are enjoying being a family unit once again.