Spring or Snow?

It is currently a balmy 75 degrees and beautifully sunny.  It took forever to get Jack down for his nap this afternoon--in part because he was overly tired, but I have to think that some of it was not wanting to miss out on the terrific weather.  So we're headed out to the park to meet up with our Brentwood playgroup friends as soon as Jack wakes up.  I love, love, love having a great park within close walking distance (less than a mile away!).

But I wanted to take a minute to post about a snowstorm we had about a month ago. 

 As much as I'm dying for spring so that we can get out of the house more often, I'm a bit disappointed that St. Louis didn't get as many big snowstorms this year as there were last year. 

 

There was just one big snow of about 8 inches and a few icy days (which are absolutely NO fun!), although I suppose there's still a possibility of more snow this winter...

Nonetheless, we made the most of what we got.  It was Jack's first real snow, as he had only seen a dusting in London before, and our first snow in three years, so we were all incredibly excited.  Jack helped Ben, "Scoop!" and "Dump!" the snow from the driveway.  He also made many ill-fated attempts to wade through the snow that was up to his thighs, all of which ended with a chilly faceplant.  

Afterward we drank homemade hot chocolate from grown up cups, leaving Jack with an adorably dark mustache.

As you can see, Ben wasted no time before teaching Jack the secrets of snowball wars that he learned during Wyoming winters in middle school.

I later helped Jack retaliate by throwing a snowball at Ben's car as he drove into the garage after work one night.  I hadn't anticipated Jack's reaction, however--he immediately started bawling, apparently crushed that his lovingly created snowball was now "broken."

Since it was too cold to be outside for long, later in the day (and for several days afterward) we brought the snow in to us.  A few messy mats and a couple of different sized containers and our afternoon slipped happily away in play. 

On a side note, I heard about this just after it came out a month ago, but can I just say that the horrible doctor who fabricated a (THE) study that linked autism to MMR vaccines should be jailed?  Honestly, how much trauma has he caused parents with or without autistic children, and how many preventable deaths has he contributed to by encouraging parents not to vaccinate?  Ugh.