In Z House: Snow Fun

We've had some decent sized snows in the Kansas City area in the past month.

I thought it would be fun for you to compare what Brandon looked like in the snow last year to what he looks like now. Here he is at 6 months old, last January:

Cute snowsuit, huh?

Well I'm glad you like it because you are going to be seeing a lot of it in this post. I have not gotten around to buy Brandon a new snowsuit for this year, so I was so pleased that this one still fits him (well...sort of).

Here is a video of Brandon (now 18 months old) going outside in the midst of our first snow of the year. I wanted to take him out this day rather than wait for all the snow to fall and then take him out the following day because we had wind chills of negative 15-20 the following days.

The next snowfall happened a few weeks later, and we got about 8 inches. Here are some pictures:

I love how perfect the snow looks before anyone steps in it, and I love when the snow piles on the trees like that.

Brandon was just not super excited about being outside in the snow. He just stood there and made this face for the first few minutes we were out there. I was expecting him to love it, so here are my theories for why he didn't:
1. He was cold.
2. He loves to run and wasn't able to move very fast in the snow without falling.
3. His crotch was numb because Mommy put him in a 6-9 month snowsuit.
4. All of the above.

When we lived in Michigan we had several sleds, some of which would have been perfect for toddlers. When we moved to NC, we gave them all away except for this one (because it was the most expensive...), but it is hardly toddler friendly because it only has a flat surface like a boogie board (I relate more to boogie boards than to sleds as a girl who grew up on a sub-tropical island). So I did my best to keep Brandon on and pull him around the yard (with some rope I found in the garage and attached to the handles), but it was only marginally fun for both of us. I think we need to invest in a Brandon-friendly sled.

He kind of liked playing with his cups and sand toys in the snow. I think he was wondering the whole time why we couldn't just play with all of these toys inside instead.

I made somewhat of a snow angel. Brandon thought it was funny to see me laying in the snow and flailing around.

So that was our snow play at home. Here are some other winter activities we've done.

We went to the Plaza where they had an ice carving contest. It was really neat to see the works-in-progress and then the final result.

There is a place in Olathe called the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm that offers horse drawn sled rides some weekends when there is snow, so we took advantage of the opportunity to do something so unique so close to home.