snow day

Two nights ago we had a snowstorm here in NC which brought nearly six inches of fluffy, white precipitation.  If you live anywhere in the south, you know that anything over an inch (and sometimes less in some cases) is enough to cause mass chaos and shut down schools, government buildings, and cancel any plans you thought you had.  Luckily, Erik's work closed down for the day, and I called in not wanting to risk driving in the crazy weather.  So we found ourselves with a nice relaxing day to do whatever the heck we wanted.  Wait, did I say that?!  I forgot that we have an energetic toddler on our hands.  Let me rephrase - we had the whole day off to try and keep a very wild, just-getting-over-a-cold-and-we-already-have-cabin-fever, nearly 14 month old boy entertained and happy.  Yea, that sounds about right.

We woke up early and had breakfast together, and then Erik took Lucy for a walk in the woods.  By the time they returned home, Arlo and I were bundled up and ready to head out to check out the snow.  It snowed a few inches here last week while my parents were watching Arlo during our Jamaica trip, but they didn't take him out in the snow as he was starting to come down with a pretty nasty cold.  So we were pretty excited to see what he would think of the snow!

At first, he seemed to like it...

and then when he realized he couldn't walk around because of the deep snow, he grew frustrated...

obviously Lucy hated it...

we measured around 5 1/4" of snow in the front yard.

and then Arlo face-planted.  I had to quickly snap this shot before helping him back up.  Mom of the year, I know.

but then I gave him lots of snuggles and he forgave me.

After our fun in the snow we headed back in and Arlo watched Erik shovel the sidewalk.

how cute is this little baby booty?!  I know I won't be able to get away with baby-ish pants like this for much longer, so when I saw these last week in his size I just couldn't resist...

Wearing his crazy zebra hat from Grandma and Grandpa:

Earlier this week, in anticipation of the impending storm, I stopped by the store to pick up a few essentials and other items to entertain Arlo for the day.  There is a toddler activity idea floating around on pinterest where you take pipe cleaners and a colander and teach your child to stick the pipe cleaners in the holes of the colander.  It is good for building fine motor skills, and teaching them their colors as they get a little older.  I thought Arlo would really like it, as he is really involved in putting things "in their places" these days (to him everything belongs in the diaper pail) but he didn't quite figure out what I wanted him to do.  He did however, love playing with the pipe cleaners and waving them around like magic wands.  He also liked taking apart my pipe cleaner creation after I tried to show him what to do!

Later in the day I attempted our first arts & crafts project.  Perhaps he isn't quite ready for the crayons yet, but we had fun trying.  Don't let his smiling face fool you, the whole activity lasted about five minutes before he ripped up his coloring page and started launching crayons onto the floor. 

Although we moved to NC to get away from the brutal winters of the Midwest, every year I still wish for one good snowfall.  Just a day or two where everything shuts down, work is cancelled, and we get to stay home and lounge in our PJ's all day.  Now that I got it out of my system, I am looking forward to warm spring days where we can go outside and play.  I may get that wish soon too, they are predicting a big warm up next week, and we may even get back into the 70's, hot diggity dog!