memories made in the snow

The Pacific Northwest got a random blast of cold weather last week, which turned into snow!! Our last snow (if you can even call it that) was on November 23, 2010. It was a light dusting...but they still canceled school. Gotta love Oregon!

We were prepared for this "Winter Blast" and decided to pack an overnight bag and head out to Grammy & Papa's where my sister and her family are currently staying with my parents. We spent the day there on Wednesday and we thought it would hit by Wednesday night, but by 8:00 when it was time to head home...nothing. However, I figured that since we already had our bags packed, we might as well stay. And I'm so glad we did!!

Thursday morning we woke up to a world of white...it was so peaceful and serene! My parents live "in the woods", so it was fun to see so much snow covering the wooded area around us. After pancakes for breakfast, we bundled up all of the kids to head outside. My brother had brought over his 2 kids to play, as well. He has a pretty heavy duty truck, so he had no problem coming up the snow-covered, steep driveway. After at least 15 minutes of fiddling with zippers, and putting on hats, mittens, coats, and boots...the cousins were finally out the door!

All the cousins (minus baby Hannah, 11 months old, who was taking a nap)!
Mikayla (5 years), Hailey (2 1/2 years), Jacob (10 1/2 years), Noah (5 years), Austin (3 1/2 years), Hunter (3 1/2 years)

First...check out the snow!

Then...time for sledding!!
Getting ready at the top of the hill...

Noah & Hailey

Jacob & Hailey

Doesn't this look like they're bobsledding?

Trying to steer...
What a blast!!

After playing in the snow for at least an hour, the snow started melting away. Yep, that's Oregon for you!! The kids decided to come in for some hot cocoa...sipped through a straw, of course!


Hunter, Jacob, & Noah
And, then two hours later, it started to snow again...huge, white flakes. Another two hours later? Melting. It was fun while it lasted.

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Speaking of memories...I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I want this blog to go. I realize that I can only get out of this blog what I put into it. So, how much time do I have to put into it? Not as much as I would hope to! But...after looking through some older posts from when the kids were younger, I am SO VERY THANKFUL for the memories I was able to document, so why would I give that up? For now, I'll keep doing what I can do and documenting the memories. It's not about the number of comments I get or the number of people who visit my site, but it's about sharing the memories and helping to inspire when I can.

frosty the snowman still lives!

On Tuesday we woke up to it snowing outside. I guess it's still considered winter, so it really shouldn't be too much of a surprise if it snows. But, hello? It's Oregon! I kind of embraced it this time and was ready to get snowed in again (Leanna, you're probably laughing at me right now over there in Maine!), but as Oregon snow often does, it was melted by noon. I tried to capture how HUGE the flakes were, but the picture doesn't quite do it justice. In "real life", it literally looked like cotton balls were slowly falling from the sky. (And, no, that's not my house...I wish! It is for sale, though. Hmmm....)


Since it had just snowed, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to pull out the recipe for the snowman treat I was wanting to make with Mikayla. I had just read about this idea on Sunday night in the February issue of Family Fun magazine, and had actually wished it would snow a little bit, so I could do it...not that it actually needed to snow. So, in honor of some January snowfall, we created some snowmen friends.

As I was preparing the ingredients so that we could assemble the snowmen, I thought to myself...what could we put all of these in? A muffin tin! Perfect! And, since I hadn't done a muffin tin for this week, I figured this would be a fun one to share. (Head on over to Her Cup Overfloweth for other Muffin Tin Monday participants.)

Ingredients needed (clockwise): pretzel sticks, thick-sliced bananas, apple triangles, mini chocolate chips, and blueberries (the recipe used grapes, but we didn't have any, so I improvised!), not pictured: a sliver of a carrot for the nose & wooden skewers
See how proud Mikayla is of her little creation...
she kept calling him Frosty the Snowman
Our masterpieces served on a platter

These were so much fun to make! Mikayla loved helping (and, of course, stealing bites of the chocolate chips). I think creating things out of food kind of puts more fun into actually eating it!

For more fun and tasty snack recipes, visit Snack Time! at the Family Fun website.

this is getting ridiculous!

Dear Santa,

I'm good with the snow.

Thanks.

Love, Mikayla

DAY ONE

DAY SEVEN
DAY EIGHT

slip, sleddin' away

Tomorrow (Sunday) will mark 1 week of this unusual winter weather (for the Pacific NW). However, there have been a few breaks in the week and I even managed to make it to the outlets and Costco on Thursday to get out of the house.

Today, after waking up to more snow, we decided it was time to go out and play. Since Ryan was home, I was way more willing to bundle up two little ones because I had help. So, after lunch we all put on our snow gear (I was thankful that I actually had some for the kids) and headed down the neighborhood to a spot with some hills. We tried a smaller one first, then kept walking and tried out another area, and then finally found one that had quite a few people playing and having fun.

I thought it would be fun to share some pics of our little "daredevil". After her first slide down with dad, she wanted to do it all by herself (big shocker!). Austin was content just sitting there watching. Austin and I ended up heading home a little early, but Mikayla wanted to stay and sled some more. When she and Ryan walked through the door, she was complaining of cold toes, so we warmed them up in some of mommy's socks and then made graham crackers and frosting with red and green sprinkles. I think she had completely forgotten about her toes at that point.

baby, it's cold outside

Snow! Don't you love it??

Sunday, we got snow "around these parts" and it has stuck around since then, which is quite unusual in the NW. The temperature is cold outside and that means some icy roads. So, we're stuck indoors and we just might be going a little crazy!!

On Sunday morning when the snow first started to fall, we ventured outside to have a little taste of the first snow of the season. (I'm sure you can all relate how it takes three times as long to get everyone all bundled up as the length of the time you actually spend outside.)

This would be Austin's first "real snow" experience as well, but as you can see this was his preferred view of the magical white stuff.


I guess he didn't find this stuff so "magical"...


Since we don't get that much snow each year, we've yet to invest in a real sled, and the two saucers we do have are for downhill sledding and were in the attic, so Ryan created a makeshift sled with an empty Rubbermaid container and some bungee cords. That's my MacGyver!


Although Austin didn't care for the snow too much, Mikayla was our little trooper and attempted to help create a snowman. Realizing that might take longer than the warmness would allow, Ryan and Mikayla decided to enjoy some good old fashioned snowballs instead.


Aren't these the faces of some happy snow bunnies?