Sn-oatmeal

Let's ignore that this is two snows ago (sounds like American Indian timekeeping) - and remember that I am trying really hard to catch up, shall we?

Sometimes the silliest things become "family traditions". When the kids were very little I would scoop up a little snow on their oatmeal and call it snow oatmeal or sn-oatmeal. Mind you, we don't get much snow around here, so it is a rare breakfast treat.

Imagine my surprise when we had a little dusting a few weeks back and my daughter hurries into the kitchen asking breathlessly "Can we have sn-oatmeal?". Well - yes you can! And here it is - in all its frozen, gray glory:



And since it had finally "snowed", we even scrounged up a few marshmallows to add to steaming mugs of hot chocolate:



And what do all knitters think of when it snows - knitting! I had just finished working on a pair of mittens for myself and thought the snow was a perfect backdrop. Here they are in their frigid, gray glory:



This pattern was posted on Jimmy Beans newsletter and linked to the pattern from Pure and Simple. I used Rowan Biggie Print from JBW. After being chilled to the core for most of the winter, I really wanted thick, sturdy mittens to tend to outdoor chores, like chicken arc mucking. The yarn was supposed to more about shades of brown, but the actual yarn came out to be more like gray, white, and red. Prettier, indeed. And so easy! The pair took less than 3 hours on size #10 dpns. The short wrists are perfect with a coat and the thickness makes them super warm. I loved the proportions - not too long in the hand or the thumb. Very wearable.



A word of caution about this pattern - be careful with your yarn. Each skein makes one mitten, and this is what I had left - after both mittens!

Snow Day

We FINALLY had snow a couple of weeks ago and I FINALLY got to see the house in the snow. Thought you'd like to see it, too. When we first saw the house, I thought that it would look neat in the snow, so it was nice to see in person. The blue of the porch roof sort of glowed, but the contrast with the red roof wasn't very obvious from this spot, but looked pretty neat from farther away.



It was also our first sort-of-real snow with Tubby. If he is almost 3 like the vet thinks, I don't think that he has seen much snow. He kept dipping his nose down and scooping up a snow snack. But despite the distraction, he was still the first across the bridge.



Secret Island looks very regal in its winter mantle.



Another clue that Tubby hadn't spent much time in the snow - he kept shaking his head as if to clear his vision.




That face kills me!

The snow was very pretty, but only lasted a couple of hours before being rained out. No snowballs or snowmen to report, much to the kids' chagrin. I'm a little tired of all of this not-quite-winter: here's hoping for spring coming soon!

Snowy Easter

If going to a Christmas party in December in shorts wasn't confusing enough, this weekend we had an Easter egg hunt in the snow.

We started Saturday by marveling at the snow fall and making our favorite snow recipe - snoatmeal! Really cools it off - and isn't it fun to eat snow?



Luckily, we wait for the morning of the event to hide the eggs. I've never done it in snow boots before, though.



The eggs looked really pretty in the snow.



My little guys "hid" the yellow eggs for the even littler guys to find. You can see how quickly the snow melted in the sun.



Here are all the little hunters, all bundled up, and grasping their Easter baskets firmly:



Ah, the sweet rewards!