Birthday Snow and Tutus

Never in my life has it snowed on my birthday. Part of this may have to do with the fact that I was a West coast girl until I was 26. The other part is, snow has no place in October. None. It is bad enough that it can exist November through March. That being said, I have no control over the weather. Surprising, I know.

I turned 33 Thursday. That's 396 months, as my lovely friend Liz pointed out. It snowed a bit on Thursday and then we got 3 inches of snow Saturday night. I still don't believe it. I am usually in the "Can't beat 'em, join 'em" camp, so this year I will stop fighting and embrace the snow...for my kids' sake only.

Nate was so excited to see the snow, so I dressed both kids up in their winter gear for the first time this year and we headed into the back yard. Nate mostly threw himself on the ground on purpose and Arielle spent her time falling after every 2 steps. Poor, uncoordinated child of mine.

As if snow wasn't bad enough to wake up to on Sunday, I had a 5k to run. Liz and I did the Monster Dash which ran through downtown Providence. It was freezing and, as you can see, we were wearing tutus. Most people dressed in costumes. It was hilarious to run up behind someone who was running in an ape costume with a fake bum hanging out. This was my 2nd 5k this month. The first one I finished in 28:44 (9 min 17 second pace) and I was thrilled for my first race. This time Liz and I ran together and in the freezing cold, with tutus on, we still finished in 30:09 (9 min 42 second pace). I am happy with that! We are going to train for a half marathon. I know I can do it, but it will be a long road to next August! 

That was my weekend in a nutshell. Next I tackle Halloween and attempt to get a 23 month post in for Arielle before the poor girl turns 2!

Today's top 10

Top 10 indications that you need a vacation some where warm:

1. You look outside at the snow and contemplate taking a blowtorch to the stuff just so you can see your lawn again.

2. Your kids are so tired of their coats that the 3yo won't even let you zip it up anymore without a full blown meltdown.

3. You open the door and it's a balmy 42 degrees outside and you stand on your deck smiling like it is a hot summer day.

4. Instead of being happy that Punxatawney Phil didn't see his shadow you think that groundhogs are now purposely f*ing with you. This winter will never end.

5. You are jealous of your co-worker who is going on a 3 week vacation to Florida and smiled a little when he told you that it was supposed to rain the first day.

6. You have started planning your son's 4th birthday party...that's not till June...just so you can imagine being outside and warm.

7. You keep pulling out all of your daughter's summer clothes that you've already bought, praying they will still fit her by the time it is warm enough.

8. You browse the Beaches resort website weekly, checking rates, even though you know you aren't going anywhere any time soon.

9. You wear yellow and bright green short sleeve shirts to work trying to channel spring.

10. You spend an hour writing a list of all the reasons you really, really need to get out of this stinking cold and want to be warm so bad that you are contemplating turning the heat in your house up to 85 just for one day and lay around in your bathing suit.

If you can't beat it...

Hi. You might remember me. I'm the owner of this sad blog. This poor neglected space that houses my thoughts and pictures. I could bore you with how busy I've been or the plague that recently ravaged my house, but who cares about my excuses. The important thing is I'm here now. Right? Ahem..I said right?? Ok then.

I'm a California girl. Granted I've lived in this God forsaken lovely state for 5 years now, but I will never be a New Englander. Why you ask? I hate snow. Ok, I don't completely hate it. I just hate driving in it, shoveling it, getting dressed in 800 layers just to go outside in it, getting my squirmy screaming 3yo dressed in 800 layers to play outside in it for 5 minutes, driving in it, the fact that it makes my nose, ears and any other extremity frozen while the rest of my body is sweating from the 800 layers of clothes that I have on, falling on my a$$ onto it, oh and did I mention driving in it?? Yeah, I really do hate it. We have been pummeled with 3 feet of snow since Christmas. I am perfectly content to stay inside in my jammies and watch it fall. I usually have no desire to go out into it intentionally. The inconvenient truth is, I have kids. These kids, being born and hopefully not raised, I can't live in this cold the rest of my life New Englanders are probably going to want to play in this cold white crap from time to time so I finally sucked it up and we took them sledding.

We went to our friend's house in South County. They have a small hill behind their house. It was a good start for this season.

Look at this poor ragamuffin child. I didn't even have the proper gear for her. Those boots belong to a 4 year old and had inserts. She could barely walk in them. She had cut off sweats on over her clothes. Luckily after a quick ride on the toboggan she rode in the baby sled they had and happily sat there the whole time.

 Nate seemed to like it. He is a very lazy sledder. He must get this trait from me. He would get to the bottom and want to be pulled back up to the top.

 He did, however, manage to stay out in the snow for 45 minutes. This is better than his previous 7 minute record. With the time and effort it takes to get this kid dressed I was pleased with the return on investment this time around.

 He rode this thing up and down about 3 times, pushed and pulled by me. I then realized it was defeating the purpose of the sledding. I wanted to go to wear HIM out not me, so I told him no one rides for free and he had to walk back up. He could have stayed like this all day. (Sorry for the random edit thrown it. I am playing with CS5!!)

 Does she ever stop smiling?? The answer, of course, is no. I love my chubby little punkin pie!

It was a nice day. Not too cold. Aaaand, I may even have had a little fun. I also may be stupid enough to try it again this weekend! God help me!

Winter Wonderland

Natey had his first snowy adventure with his bestest friend Tyler. Tyler and Nate were born a week apart and, since his mommy and I are so close, it's like they had a built in best friend from birth. They are just getting to the age where they can have fun together and what better way to have fun in the snow than going sledding?? We got a little over a foot of snow here from Friday through Sunday so we decided to take the boys out to enjoy it. It was Natey's first time in the snow and he was such a good sport. He loves Tyler and they had a little bit of interaction before getting to the main event.

Since it was his first time, we sent him down with daddy (I took a couple turns with him too) a couple of times before he went down by himself. Joelle had a little munchkin sled that they got to ride in by themselves. I was a little weary at first, but they put Tyler in it the day before and he did great. Plus, the snow was fluffy and slow and the hill that we were sending them down was pint sized and not too steep.

The whole outing was a success, and it was so much fun. The boys had a good time and didn't mind the fact that it was snowing the whole time. Natey mostly wanted to eat the snow and "weeeeeee'd" all the way down the hill. The only lesson I learn for next time is that I will get him fully dressed BEFORE we get there. i thought he'd get too hot so I waited to put on his snow pants, jacket, gloves, hat and boots until we got there. This was not a good idea. It was snowing and cold and it was such a pain to try to get him dressed. He will just have to be Ralphie's little bro next time and be bundled to the nines during the ride over!