This Winter

We've had some funky weather this winter. And by funky, I mean unusual. Practically no snow. Lots of little sprinkles of snow, but I don't think we've had anything more than two inches yet. We've had lots of rain. We've had lots of ice. We've had lots of mixed rain and ice.

So, playing out in the snow hasn't been "traditional." No snowmen, snow forts, snow shoveling. In fact, I think there really hasn't even been any snow shoveling at all....and January is almost over. So we've gone ice skating. We found a nice natural skating pond nearby and took the boys. They are learning how to skate. Kuba seemed to like to mostly sit on a nice branch and wave a big stick around, and Anders was content to lie on the ice and try to bat away hockey pucks...goalie style. But, we also practiced moving....along the ice, vertically, slowly and wobbly. And they also got to push one another around on milk crates. Our friends Hazel and Junie got into counting the number of times they fell, the grand total being something over one hundred falls!!! But just being outside, on the ice, in a beautiful setting, feeling the cold air, is enough. Who cares if the kids spent a lot of time on the ground? Who cares if there were not any snowmen around witnessing the fun?