Snow!

We just wrapped up the snowiest week I've experienced in Atlanta. We got several inches of snow plus a little ice, which melted and refroze into compacted snow covered by a thick sheet of ice. Schools were closed for the entire week, and we had all sorts of snowy adventures in our yard.



One of Juniper's favorite activities our first day out was "blorping" leaves. Before the ice got too thick, pushing leaves with a stick made them disappear into the snow.



We made a snow tent, which seemed like a great idea on day 1. Unfortunately, it was a little too successful. It stayed up the whole week, and sitting inside the tent telling stories became Juniper's favorite outside activity. That doesn't sound like a bad thing, but we desperately wanted her to run around and burn off some of her boundless two-year old energy. "Juniper, it's too cold to sit in the snow tent and tell stories all morning. I'll tell you one more Johnny Storm story, and then let's go run around and blorp some leaves."



By day 3, the ice was thick enough that Juniper could walk across it elf-like, not breaking the surface. We tried sledding on a cookie sheet.



It went pretty fast, and Juniper was only interested in two runs down our sloping front yard. After the second run, she said that she wanted to go into the back yard. As we made our slippery way to the snow tent, she said, "I'm really excited about sledding."

"Do you want to sled again?"

"No, I was excited about sledding twice."



As a kid, on those rare occasions when we got enough snow to make snow cream, I never felt like I got as much as I wanted. So I helped Juniper fill up a mixing bowl with snow, and we added a bit of sugar and vanilla to make a big batch of snow cream. Juniper loved it, and we all got to eat as much as we wanted.



On day 4, the ice was thick enough that even Aaron could walk across the top of it. He had the great idea to try a large, broken-down cardboard box for a sled. I went down alone, and then Juniper and I went together. It wasn't quite so fast and slippery as the cookie sheet, and after one run with me, she was happy to go down by herself.