Snow!

Well, remember how it was gorgeous and sunny yesterday?

Today it has snown - at least 4 inches. It is that great, beauteous snow that sticks to all the tree branches and makes great snow balls and snow people.

Of course, it was also a school day, so we just hurried as fast as we could to get dressed and ready so we could all play in the snow together for a few minutes. It's amazing how quickly they can move when they have a good reason to.

Everyone had a great time and we made a giant snow man. (well, all of us except Griffin who was very busy shuffling through the snow. He was a conductor making train tracks and wanted us to get on his train). Once we finished decorating, we headed off to school and had a big snowball fight all the way there. I really value the time we spend together as a family each morning. On the way home, I stopped under a tree to read for about 15 minutes - how lovely.

Then my phone rang, turns out Griffin had a giant poop at school and I needed to go pick him up. The poor guy, when I got there he was sitting all alone in a chair out in the hallway - so the stench wouldn't infect the whole classroom (even though it did, I mean, I could smell it once I walked in the door). They thought he was sick, but I told them no, this is just how it smells sometimes! I keep waiting for them to say he is not allowed to be at school, this is the 4th time he's pooped at school since we restarted again after the winter holiday. The other three times it occurred towards the end of the morning so they just let him sit in it until I came to pick him up. This makes it so no other kids will sit around him, or play with him, and once gave him diaper rash. Does any of this dissuade him? Apparantly not. This poop, coming first thing in the morning, could not be waited out!

Trying a new recipe or two today - but it turns out my roasted chicken is, most likely, doomed. You are supposed to roast it, very low (250 F) and slow (for like 4 hours) - but my oven only goes as low as 170 C - which is 50 degrees higher than it should be. Hmm.... guess we'll just go with 170 and keep an eye on it. This is not the first time this oven has thwarted me. Why doesn't it go lower? Don't french people ever cook at low temperatures?

Went sledding on what was left of the rapidly melting snow this afternoon with neighbors and friends. Callie ended up mostly just sliding down on her back - it's a pretty steep hill so she was actually going pretty fast. I was amazed at how well even Griffin could climb up the slippery thing. He and I went down over and over - yes, we did crash into that green wall - but who cared? When we got home we had some yummy hot cocoa - thanks to Uncle Mark for bringing this from UT for us.