More Snow, and More Snow

It appears that winter has arrived a little late this year- this week we have had two winter "storms", both producing a fair amount of snow in our area- at least enough for a two year old! On Tuesday morning, we, along with the rest of the state of North Carolina, were surprised with a couple inches, which was supposed to be a dusting. Then, Thursday morning we were greeted with about 4 inches, which was supposed to be 8-10. Mother nature and the weathermen don't seem to be agreeing, but either way we have enjoyed some fun outside! I am so happy our little one enjoys the snow- I can't imagine being cooped up inside with such a perfectly wonderful playground of snow right outside the door!

Anna's favorite things to do in the snow include: (as mentioned last snow post) fill buckets with snow and dump them out, fill buckets with snow and make "snow castles", smash said snow castles, help Mommy build a snowman by repetitively smashing whatever has been rolled together, eat carrot intended for the snowman's nose, steal carrots from neighbor's snowmen and try to eat them, and last but certainly not least- eat copious amounts of snow, no matter its condition. She did not enjoy her redneck sled this time around, mainly because with the snow being soft and wet she tipped over much easier which is obviously upsetting to a two year old.

Our (Mommy's) favorite place to play is on the back deck since there is no mud lurking beneath the snow, so we spent a lot of time on the back deck making snow castles and playing ring a round the
rosie.

From snow #1 of the week.

This snow stuck to her mittens, unlike last week's ice. She was not a fan.

Girl LOVES the snow, despite mitten malfunction.

We are still working on our snow angel technique..

Snow #2:

When we first went outside, it was pure joy! She just ran back and forth.

Look at that sweet little face!

Just a girl in a laundry basket with her snowman...

Love this cheesy grin! We are working on "smile". To me, this picture looks so much like cousin Avery!

The wet, heavy snow was falling from the trees every minute or so, it was very pretty (and obviously amazing!)

We are ready to build sandcastles at the lake and beach!

Mommy got pretty good.. Anna got pretty good at tasting the snow.

Little Miss Personality

So it is no secret that Anna can be shy and reserved, depending on the company and her comfort with the location and situation. At least that's what we can try to blame her year long anti-men strike on, which (knock on wood) appears to be gone- she can still be shy and upset easily depending on her mood, but it no longer matters if the person is male or female. Often, I get excited about her new developments- things like knowing her colors or some letters, or the cute way she "counts", and she will not indulge anyone else in a performance. For example, I know she knows her colors. Someone else asks her what color the grass is, and it is now purple... mmhmm, sure it is. Enter the wonderful age of smart phones, and now you can all enjoy videos of the Anna that we get to experience around here 95% of the time- she sings, she's crazy, and one of these days I'll catch her telling the colors and letters of everything..

By the way, I can't remember if I mentioned it specifically on the blog or not (I think I did), but Anna loves Frozen. She has only seen snippets of it in the doctors office, and I've shown her a few of the songs on YouTube, but Elsa and Anna are catching up with Elmo in importance... Olaf and Sven too. Two of the videos are Anna singing "Let it Go", otherwise known as a torture song for parents, but we haven't gotten there... yet.

On this night I was doing dishes, so Anna joined me at the bar and played me a lovely tune on the "drums"

If you need some Anna translation here:

Twinkle Star, How I are, How I are, How I are

Diamond, Sky

Mommy, hat, Mommy, hat

Booooowwwwwl... Wooooow

Try it?

Drop it?

No drop it

Two! Three! Six! Eight! Eight! Eight! Eight! (and on and on)

Before dinner one night we stopped in Lowe's Foods for a couple of items, and since Daddy was with us, I was able to video Anna and her little cart. I think if we were having a dull, long day at home, I could just take her to Lowe's for, say, one apple, and it would be the best day ever!

Translation:

Apples!

Apples!

Yellow! Apples!

Here is Frozen "Let it Go" rendition number one!

Aaaaand number two!

Snow and Ice, Oh My!

While we were in Greensboro, Anna started to have a little cough. To be honest, I thought she was just pretending because it sounded so fake and because her Daddy had been coughing so I figured she was just being her usual copycat self. Friday morning we both woke up feeling less than a million bucks, and by the weekend there were fevers and Anna's cough was full blown with a super runny nose. What does that have to do with the title of this blog post? Nothing, but I feel like you need to know that we were locked in the house for about four days prior to being snowed in. :)

We did head out in the snow and ice, despite our runny noses and poor energy, and I have to say it was worth it. Anna loves the snow! The granular texture meant she could play in her simple cotton gloves and they wouldn't get wet, and it was pretty much like a big sand box to her! We started off with a bucket and shovel, and she would shovel off the steps, fill the bucket, and walk it down to the woods to pour out. Poor girl has already been doing yard work (she "helps" put sticks and acorns in buckets and we take them to the woods) and thinks that we must clear the yard of everything... even snow! Mommy also made a nice redneck sled- when I looked in the basement storage for something to slide on, I saw a laundry basket filled with our summer lake stuff (lifejackets, etc... don't judge us, we still haven't quite organized everything!). I figured it would make a good toddler sled, so I emptied it out, and discovered a wakeboard handle, which was the perfect compliment so I could pull Anna around without killing my back bending over all day (am I old now that I typed that statement?). She loved it! And, despite the lack of smiles seen in these photos, Anna really did enjoy herself in the snow!!

First I pulled out Anna's hat and gloves, since they were easy to get to... she was ready to go!

Checking out her new snowy yard!

A little smile for the snow!

Her favorite was the steps... of course they were, they are the most dangerous!

Filling up her bucket so she can help get rid of the snow!

Trecking back up the hill for more steps snow will wear a girl out!

"Helping" make hot chocolate by drumming on a bowl. Two seconds before this she was crying, because making hot chocolate means it should be ready yesterday.

I'd say she approves of hot chocolate. Or in her case, lukewarm chocolate. Since she has a big stigma with the word "hot" (if she hears you say dinner is hot, she will cry when she puts it in her mouth and then tell you it is hot... even when it is very very not hot) I told her it was "warm", so as she drank it she kept saying, "hot chocolate warm mmmmm yummy".

The redneck sled...

She likes it!

Discovery Place Kids & Greensboro Children's Museum!

One of Anna's Christmas gifts from Nana and Grandpa was a membership to Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville. We had visited once before for Paxton's birthday party and loved it, but it is pretty pricey at $10 per person (adult or child) when you don't have a membership so we hadn't been back. Since the new year we have already been several times and loved it! If you're local, a membership is the way to go, it only takes a few visits to make it worth it- especially when you don't know how long a toddler will last anywhere on any given day. Mark and I also decided to add on a guest pass so we can bring someone (adult or child) with us any time we go! Thanks Nana and Grandpa!

Here are some photos from our (semi) recent visits- I'll try to take better ones soon, because I am sure we will be back shortly!

Prepping her for summer!

Nana making sure Anna doesn't fall out of the...

Bakery display cabinet! Anna is obviously engrossed in her cupcake ice creams.

One of the more beloved areas of DPK, the water tables! Fortunately Anna isn't so ga-ga over them that she insists on going there first and getting all wet. There is so much to do, she is easily distracted to another area!

Avery and Anna (and Spaghetti) also bought Gigi and Ru a "Grandparents Pass" to the Greensboro Children's Museum which is good for the grandparents and all of their grandchildren. Again, the passes are fairly worth it, especially as gifts, as long as it is used enough- and I'm sure it will be used, especially during football season when Avery stays at Gigi and Ru's! Anna and I headed to Greensboro last week when Mark was working until 8-9 every night (and he knew he was going to be ahead of time) and headed to try out the museum one morning. It was very similar to Discovery Place Kids, but with more space and some different elements. I don't know if it was just the day we visited, but it also seemed much less busy, which was wonderful! Gigi didn't want to bring in a camera, so she helpfully insisted I take some photos for Ru to see. Apparently, I need someone to remind me to take pictures these days...

The outside of the museum is pretty cool!

Little girl in a big chair!

Anna is unsure of her future career choice at this point, but she tested out being a grocery cashier, a news girl, and a secretary. Funny story about the grocery store... she wanted to open and have a juice box, so we told her she had to pay first... she promptly took the box over to the register and started to "check out".

She also tried out truck driving, but she decided it would be best if she could see out the window, which led to her not being able to reach the pedals and we were left at a stand still...

The airplane has an "emergency" slide you can use!

Oh and Gigi bought Anna sunglasses while in Greensboro, which led her to wanting a four wheeler... Just kidding on the four wheeler part, she really wanted the ice cream truck.

Heading to dinner with Ru!

Last Weekend!

So, everyone knows that last weekend was the most beautiful February weekend... ever. We spent a large part of Saturday inside after Anna experienced some throwing up, but she was a little better by Sunday so we took advantage of the sunshine!

The other day, Mark discovered that the previous owners of our house had placed some eye hooks between two trees in the back yard for a hammock. Because the weather was so nice, he decided to pull out his old ENO hammock that I bought for him for his graduation (too many years ago) and see if Anna would like it. Of course Anna liked it... swinging, outside, cuddling with her two favorite people (we all got in there- it's made for two people, so two people and a toddler is okay too, right?), I only got pictures of Mark and Anna, although I'm sure the neighbors would have loved to come take our family photo in the hammock... ha!

Perfect hammock trees!

Someone was a little wiggly at first!

After nap, I convinced Mark to drag the sandbox out to a flat spot in the yard where grass is most likely never going to grow, and I filled it with the one bag of play sand we have. Big thanks to Gigi and Ru, since Gigi found the sandbox for an awesome deal at a yard sale (and knew I was really wanting one for Anna) and then also got some sand so Anna could play while we were staying in Greensboro. Anna had a blast, and wasn't really excited about getting out- not that she threw a fit, she just repeatedly got back in or said "no" when I asked if we could be done. I'm looking forward to many warm days playing in the sand!

Anna surprisingly insisted I brush off any sand that she spilled on her. Here she is asking for the sand to be brushed off of her feet... I ended up just taking her socks off, but I was not expecting her to not want to be dirty!

She was just as content as can be to play in the sand with her toys!

Moving the sand back and forth between some bowls. I feel like this outfit needs explanation... Anna wore that dress to church that morning with tights. Anna is not a tights kinda girl (who is?) and apparently when Daddy got her up she wanted to wear these pants. Snazzy.

Baby toes in the sand!

Paxton! Kylie!

Mark has been working lots and lots (what's new?) so Anna and I have been trying to keep busy while he does his regular work and tackles the company Apprenticeship things as well. We planned last week out to have plenty of things to do, which included a playdate with Paxton and Kylie! Anna was very excited, to say the least:

We ended up heading to Chickfila for a late (and second, for the littles) breakfast since they were giving out free minis and coffee. After a yummy meal, we hit the play place and then came back to our house for some more fun. Everyone seemed to have a blast, and Anna was talking about it for days. In fact, when we talk about our day at the end, if you ask her who she saw, she still likes to say "Paxton! Kylie!".

Paxton was all about the play place... Anna was pretty unsure. She would climb to the top, and then get really upset. She never did come down the slide without me very close by. Paxton wanted to ride down the slide with me too... Luckily Maggie was at the bottom waiting to take this picture! Haha!

While helping Maggie pack up I looked over to see these two playing peek-a-boo. I didn't catch Anna, but Paxton was still trying to play. It was adorable, of course.

Paxton: BOO! (Anna, indifferent)

Anna did get in on the blowing bye-bye kisses!

I love Anna's "throw" here, haha!

And Bye-Bye hugs... Awww

These two kill me.

I think Paxton was quite happy with his morning!