Feels like a Saturday from the start, although it's only Friday.
Snow Day.
A light dusting has closed schools--decisions and calls both made the night before.
So we linger in bed a little longer. Little ones wake at their usual times and come to join us, snuggling together in the warm covers, all of us hesitant to brave the chill of the room.
But Owen is thinking of snow...and wants to watch The Land Before Time: Big Freeze. Barrett wants to go "in there" she says (meaning the living room), although I don't really know why except that it's routine.
Coffee is made and waiting, so we get up. Watch a movie, have a little breakfast.
Outside all is white and beautiful.
As soon as it's light enough, Owen is dressing herself in layers. Boots, mittens, coat, and off she goes to play. As soon as we get Barrett ready, she goes too.
Paul goes on to work and a while later the girls come in--first Barrett, then Owen--too cold, time for hot chocolate and marshmallows, popcorn.
Owen wants to make a snowman that won't melt and so we mix some salt dough, make a mess, have fun.
While our creations bake, we move on to paper snowflakes. For the next few hours, Barrett dances in and around us, playing her own games, as Owen and I fold and snip and unfold and ooh and ahh and cover every window in the living and dining rooms. I try to come up with intricate designs. Owen tries different shapes, revels in the discoveries revealed when they're unfolded. At one point she suggests we do a few together. I will fold, she will cut some, I will cut some, and we will see what comes of it. The three we do this way are by far my favorites.
I teach Owen to cut hearts, and she makes and colors heart-shaped cards for me, for Paul, for Barrett, for herself.
Clean up time. A few chores for me, a little independent play for the girls. Our salt dough creatures are ready and we take a look with excitement. A snowman for B, a snowman for OJ (and her monster, of course). Owen builds a house for hers from a discarded box, Barrett interferes somehow. A sibling argument, tears, cuddles, and they move on to the next thing.
I am content, but tired, and Barrett wants a video, so they watch Baby Beethoven together and allow me to rest. I hear Paul come home, and Owen excitedly showing him all we did today: "Look, Daddy, at the snowmen! See my monster! Look! I made a house for it! See! We made snowflakes!" And she narrates her process with each one: "I tried to make a heart here but it came out a diamond, but look I did make a heart on this one!"
She's chattering so, following him through the house, with Barrett alongside sing-songing: "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
I start dinner while Paul sits and cuddles and cuts-up with the girls. My dad joins us and we talk over wine and a good meal. Barrett falls asleep on the couch. After dinner clean-up and Owen wants to get onto the computer for a while--Sprout for stories and games. She finds a craft project for turning a sock into a dinosaur puppet and wants to make her own. So we do. She wears it to read Dinosaur Days before prayers and bed.
Both kids in bed, Paul and I on our separate computers across the room, then together catch up on The Office.
It's an ordinary day. A snow day. A lovely day.
