Second Snowfall

We had one minor snowfall the last day of September and we haven't seen the ground covered white again until today. (At least that's my recall of the weather this fall.) A few inches of snow fell late last night and this morning. I'm sure it'll all melt within a day or two, but it's nice to see it so pretty and white outside. We watched a snowshoe hare in the back area yesterday. He was easy to track because he was very white. He needs this snow to stay hidden from predators.

The downside of snow is that the kids need to put on boots, coats, hats, and mittens to go out to get great-grandma's newspaper. It's a major production. This morning I helped the two little ones put on their snowsuits, but I ran out of energy when it came to mittens. I let them go outside without any. This turned out to be a mistake because the driveway was slippery and Lincoln fell twice. His hands were very cold by the time he returned. Next time I will do the full job of getting them weatherproofed.

Afternoon Update: In the early afternoon all the children went out to play in the snow. Bentley had to leave after a while to go to his cello lesson and Evan decided to come in at that point because he was cold. He snuggled up on the couch with an iPad. Lincoln stayed out with Viva and Jake building forts and sledding down the hill outback. (It wasn't possible to sled down the hill in past years because of the thicket of willow in the backyard, but that was cleared out this summer!)

When Bentley came back from his cello lesson he joined the others in the backyard. Kara made Lincoln come in because his hands were quite cold. The snow is wet and the children had to swap out mittens partway through the afternoon. Lincoln came in and had hot cocoa. (This is the first time we've used our Fiesta demitasse cups! They are so cute!) As I write this blog post I hear Evan lobbying to go back out.

If you look closely at the photo below you might be able to see the low walls of the fort Viva and Jake have been laboring for hours to build. We really don't have enough snow to build a fort or even the right kind of snow, but they are determined.