Snow Day #3

Wednesday, Dec. 17th was actually a better, more productive day for me. Malissa and Jarrod showed up at 7:30am. After I got them settled and the kids breakfast, I actually worked out and showered.

It had started to snow, so I took a big bowl outside to catch the big flakes. Later we were going to make snow cream. Around 10, the kids wanted to go outside again. Fortunately it had warmed up, so it wasn't quite as cold. They walked across the street to the playground and I noticed they hooked up with our other neighbor friends. Looks like they were playing football.

While the kids were gone, I organized the boys' closet. My friend Stephanie gave me her old toy shelf with bins. She asked if I wanted it and I said yes. So I took the few toys that we have out of the buckets with lids and put them in the open bins on the shelf, that found its new home in the closet. I was very happy with the result. It always makes me feel good to be organized and clean.

About the time I finished up, the foursome came back inside. Jake's jeans were soaked about halfway up his shin. I told him to change his socks and get some new pants on. He had trouble getting his rain boots off. I think they're too small. A couple minutes later, Cooper walked past me on his way to the family room and said Jake was crying. I went in to see him. His feet and ankles were bright red and he was scratching at them wildly. Through his tears he said they were so itchy. *groan* Frostbite. I know how that feels. It's an awful sensation having them itch and sting as they warm up. So I covered his feet with my hands and a blanket and tried to distract him. Took a few minutes for him to calm down. He wailed that he didn't want to go outside and shouldn't have. I asked him why he went out then. He blubbered, "I couldn't resist." (Oh my, so sad).

He finally got feeling back and was okay. We had sandwiches and chips for lunch. Then after I was done doing the dishes, we made snow cream.

In my Internet search for a fun activity to do on Tuesday, I came across the recipe for snow cream. SNOW CREAM?? I've never heard of it. But apparently it's pretty popular. Good grief. What rock have I been living under? I've lived in UT for 11 years at different times, I've lived in IL and MI for 3 years and Alaska for 3 years and I've never heard of snow cream. But it was time to put my ignorance to bed.

We took our freshly fallen snow from our bowl (8 cups) and to it we added in this order...1 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp. vanilla, and 1 cup milk. Each of the kids got to pour something in.

Then with a wooden spoon, the two little boys helped me mix it all up until it was the texture of ice cream. Then we had to eat it right away. The kids each got a cup full. Then we all took our first ceremonial bite....

Wow...it was pretty tasty! VERY cold...colder than ice cream if you can believe that. And you could taste the snow :) The kids even had a second helping.

We played two games of UNO and Malissa beat all of us both times. And then we were surprised by Jared coming home early! They shut the office down due to the weather and he was home around 3pm for a fun change. I guess the snow does have its perks! And Malissa and Jarrod went home shortly after that.

Another fairly successful and productive day...especially with the white stuff. It actually hasn't been too bad. Even though we had to postpone some planned things and rearrange our schedule, we got to do other things we wouldn't have done otherwise--like make snow cream! As they say, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."