Can you spot the two robins who kept knocking snow off the branches onto my head?
It started snowing on Sunday after Gwen’s last ice skating lesson and kept going on and off for the next few few days. I was happy because the little kids LOVE playing in the snow and it happens so infrequently here. That afternoon I took her for a walk downtown and then after Nicky’s nap Taylor and I took the two little kids to Sunset Beach to go sledding down the big hill there. We have a little “baby-boggan” infant sled for Nicky to use and brought our least favourite pool float (an ugly donut) for Gwen. It got absolutely destroyed and deflated but she was able to get in plenty of runs before that happened!
Monday she had school like usual but Tuesday was her first snow day and also SYMPHONY’S first snow day because we NEVER have snow days in Vancouver. I personally feel like cancelling school had more to do with staff living in the suburbs (which typically get more snow than the city) being unable to get downtown than the amount of snow we had. Of course I still had to work but we took full advantage of the snow and played outside for most of the day.
She had been begging for DAYS to make a snowman… we made two 
Nicky ate the noses off both the snowmen. 
This is not one of the daycare kids but rather one of Gwen’s friends who pulled Nicky to the park after work one day. 
I’m the best at making snowballs. 
I actually had the daycare kids out playing for hours morning & afternoon on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (on Thursday we were out a bit less BUT we did go down to the snowy beach to throw snowballs in the ocean) and I had a bit of an epiphany. You might recall that over winter break I read There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather and have been trying to make more of an effort to spend more time outside with both the daycare kids and my own kids. It hasn’t necessarily been easy and the reason is THE RAIN. Going outside to play in the snow for hours and hours is one thing: you can build snowmen and throw snowballs and go sledding and make snow angels. You can get out the beach toys from storage and make snow castles and snow pies. You can invent new games like “throwing a snowball straight up in the air and trying to hit the top of your own head” and “jamming toy trucks into a snow bank so you have to stage an emergency rescue” and “throwing snowballs into the tree to knock snow out so it falls on everyone” (this was my own invention) but when it RAINS??? What??? Are we??? Supposed to do??? It’s cold and wet and gross and mud and NOT in a fun way for so much of the winter here. I HATE standing around in the rain! The kids HATE getting muddy! I’m going to keep trying to find a way to make it fun but so far that’s been a struggle. It’s raining today and Gwen has no school (it’s a professional day) so I can already find myself looking for excuses not to go out at all.
