We have had a lot of it this winter. I feel like if I don’t document it that I will be letting my posterity down or something.

Let’s see how similar my snow photos are to yours, shall we?

The good news is that my girls only last about 10 minutes before they are ready to come inside. So it is not long before the scene above quickly transitions into the scene below:

(Millie dressed herself in “layers” are they not awesome?? It is hard to tell but the t-shirt and the cardigan are stripes and the long sleeve shirt is polka dots. I love it!)

If Jan is outside playing with them the 10 minutes of playtime doubles, you heard me, we get 20 solid minutes of frolicking in the cold, white fluffiness.

I know my place. It is indoors. Preparing to eventually deal with:

this tangled pile of gortex  and wool.

and the inevitable tears which will flow over how cold little fingers have gotten, due to this:

(that is supposed to be a glove)

But I am a mom who has seen more than one winter. I KNOW what I am doing!

20 minutes is a long time to spend in the snow after all, so I have been preparing the “magical winter ambrosia” or “liquid happiness” in this:

The “Milk Cafe”, maker of worlds greatest hot chocolate. It even hums…

And once the contents are poured into our “family mugs” (we drink a lot of hot chocolate in the winter and I’m the kind of girl who appreciates when things are monogrammed, so sue me!)

Wrap your cold paws around this, Millie – and all will be well!

Awe! That collective sigh of relief. When flannel pjs are warming cold bodies, and we settle around the table with our mugs-o-love.

On this particular evening, I was just starting to congratulate myself on how well it was all going when…

Clara spilled half a mug-o-love all over the table.

I know you moms saw that one coming. You must NEVER congratulate yourself as a mother or it is OVER.

We cleaned up the mess and then played several rounds of

UNO-MOO

Which is essentially Uno for pre-school aged kids. Here is the cool thing – Clara dominates in this game (of course we have to help her a little) but this is a great one if you have got small people in your house who think they are gown-ups and want to do EVERYTHING that their big sister does.

The moral of the story?

All tears brought on by snow will melt into a mug of hot chocolate. If you don’t congratulate yourself on a “job well done” you may perhaps avoid a spill. And no matter how many times you have to wipe your toddler’s nose, you will have to wipe it again… in a matter of moments.

Long live the snow!