First snow

 This morning Clara woke up grumpy. So I dragged myself out of bed (usually I just wait for them to come to my room, and hope that takes a while) and headed downstairs. And, by the time I got down  there, I had the perfect end to the grumps.

"Clara, I have a surprise for you."

Surprises are irresistible. And happy.

So both kids followed me upstairs, and wazam, I pulled up the blinds.

"Snow!"

They wanted to go right out, but the mean and grumpy (read: still tired) mom said we had to eat breakfast and get dressed first. And I added teeth brushed and hair combed for good measure--if they don't get done first off they don't get done at all.

It took longer to hunt up and put on all the snow clothes than they actually spent playing in the snow. Alice enjoyed curiously touching a handful of snow for a minute but then, it was time to eat, and she was swaddled in a ridiculously large snow suit, and she was beyond done. I spent my time wrangling a wiggly baby and putting on mittens on--again, and again. Why don't mittens stay on? Nathan had a great time chucking our pumpkins into the snow. Clara was frustrated it wasn't working out to shovel the snow off the grass. And we did have some cousins come to have a snowball fight, share some pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and feed slushy snow to the neighbor's dog. And, the dog was actually eating it. That dog must have been crazy bored.

And now the snow has melted. Clara saw it was gone and said, "Oh, no. The snow got broken!" And put on her sad, give-me-sympathy face.

Now, back to fall. Come on, weather. I had to turn on my furnace and everything. And, since I am my father's daughter, that's not something I like to do before November. What can I say? I'm a little stubborn, especially about things that don't really matter.