First Snowfall

We had our first snow (and maybe last, you never know in Oregon) today. Eleanor has been telling us all winter that she wants it to snow. She was so excited. We enjoyed watching the big, fluffy flakes fall out our windows most of the afternoon before Eleanor started begging to go out and play in it. I was hesitant to let her since we are all still battling colds, but I couldn’t stand to make her miss it. You never know if it will snow again around here. So, I had to scurry around the house and search the car for all our warm gear as fast as I could since it was about 4:30 and getting dark outside –humph! I can’t wait for our days to get a little longer.

I couldn’t find one of Phae’s boots, so I put some of Eleanor’s old galoshes on her. She usually wears a size 3, and they are size 5. Plus, I could only find one of her mittens, so I put one of Eleanor’s on her even though it was too big. It kept falling off, and she could hardly walk without falling down or losing a boot. The difficulty walking might also have been because of the fleece pants I put on her over her pair of jeans. But at least she stayed dry and warm for the most part. At first, she was excited to explore the snow, no doubt soaking up some of Eleanor’s exuberance. After a short time, she decided she didn’t really like how difficult it was to play with the yard toys in her mittens, so she took off the one. But then, she got mad when she touched things and found that they were ice cold.

Eleanor loved every moment. Doesn’t she look like a cute little Eskimo? She went out while I was still bundling Phaedra, and she was shouting to me, “Look Mommy! I’m making footprints!” She scooped snow off her turtle sandbox and put it into her bucket. Then I helped her dump her bucket into a basket so she could fill her bucket again. She would have stayed out there playing all night if I had let her! I eventually made her come in because it was not only dark, it was raining on us just a little bit.

I got a new camera lens for my birthday, and it is so good at capturing light (sometimes too good –I’m still learning to manage all that stuff. I can’t wait to learn more during the photography class I’m going to take this term!). I couldn’t believe how light these pictures turned out even though it was so dark outside. No flash needed! Hooray for my cool new lens!