Snow Day

PUPPY PICTURES




This cracked me up how they are all looking three different directions at once. The dogs are a lot of fun to watch. I have noticed that usually only two of them will go afield at a time. It seems two always pair off together to make the rounds through the woods while the third one stays home. They rotate which one of the three stays behind! (Gloria is the bigger black dog with white on her chest, Shanachie is the blonde dog (our oldest), and Rivendell is the smaller black dog.)








Well, we got our snow! The non-drift areas vary from 8 to 10 inches in depth. Of course the drifted areas are a lot deeper than that. This was Rivie's first snow. She has been pretty excited about it. At 2:00am this morning I was looking out on the front lawn--lit brightly by the reflection of the moon off the snow--and there was Rivie out frolicking by herself in the snow. (The other two dogs were tucked warmly into their doghouse on the porch.) As I watched, Rivie began chasing her own tail--spinning in hilariously frantic circles until she would lose her balance altogether and fall over in the snow! I have NEVER seen her chase her own tail until I saw her do that early this morning, playing alone in the silence of the moonlit snow!

Oh...and if you are wondering where the KID pictures are(!)...Doug is still frantically searching for his gloves, Rayna just now moseyed out of bed (still PJ clad) and Darcy is busy "training" her cyber puppy. (I don't get it...she can spend HOURS interacting with a video puppy on her GameBoy DS, teaching it to respond to various voice commands, taking it for "walks", etc. I just don't get it. She has three warm, furry LIVE puppies she could be training and lovingly interacting with, but she is too busy wrapped up in her cyber puppies. It is a new day and age...and it leaves me a bit perplexed at times!)



ENJOYING THE SNOW

Hmmm...maybe Rayna has the right idea! Maybe this IS the best way to enjoy the snow! (A cup of hot cocoa would be nice, too!)

















FINALLY GETTING OUT TO ENJOY THE SNOW:

Kids are so funny! They spend half the morning lollygagging and then suddenly get in a panic (when Mom insists they take time to LAYER their clothing) that the snow will all melt before they can get out in it! First, Rayna fretted to me, "Mom the snow is all going to MELT before I get out there!" (Darcy was upstairs at the time out of earshot.) Moments later, after Darcy joined us downstairs, she pointed out to me rather frantically that the "snow was all melting!" and she thought her mother's apparel directives were going to make them all miss out on the magic moment of being in the snow....like ten inches of snow will melt and evaporate during a five minute delay!!!






(Rayna trying to get all her layers on so she can get outside...KNOWING the snow is all melting away with each second she is delayed!)




(Would you trust THIS face??? No?...I didn't either!)








("mmmmm...this snow is DEE-LISH-SHUS, Mom!")





Kids and dogs aren't so different from each other, really! Last night, as I watched Rivie playing in the snow beneath the moon, she spent a great deal of her time SMELLING around and digging up her buried treasures. The very first thing all three kids did today when they went outside was to methodically clean the snow off everything...from the car, to the BBQ grill...to unearthing their wagon, play car, and bikes. Poor Rayna was very disappointed to find that she couldn't get anywhere at all through this snow on her trike!








Doug wanted so badly to make a snowman today. He kept trying even though the snow was way too dry to stick together very well. We tried to get him to understand it was a pretty hopeless cause today...but, Doug is not one to give up. He eventually discovered that snow WOULD stick to his little sister's hood and as he patted the snow together atop her head, he gleefully told me, "I MAKE a snowman!"













(Of course, for lunch we had chicken soup with egg noodles...and a can of Batman shaped pasta thrown in for good measure!)