weather » Stop, Drop and Blog

Firefighters in the Rain

Parenting, Photography, fire life 4 Responses »

Mar 292010

A co-worker let me know that a local store had firefighter rain jackets and umbrellas in LittleBrother’s size. Instead of running right there, I took my time. I forgot. I remembered. I forgot again. Eventually, one sunny morning after we dropped BigBrother off at preschool, we made our way to the store.

Only to find the rain jackets were all gone.

Thankfully his rain jacket from last year still (mostly) fits. I figure he’ll outgrow it by fall but that’s okay. They did, however, have a firefighter umbrella left. LittleBrother has been looking longingly at BigBrother’s Lightning McQueen umbrella for months now. Not that said umbrella got much use during The Snow That Never Ended but it was present in the truck and both boys would talk about walking in the rain and puddle jumping. So, we bought the firefighter umbrella.

And there it sat.

For weeks.

I’m not complaining at the lack of rain (even though I have awesome new boots). But when you’re two (or four) and all you want to do is use your new umbrella, I’m sure day after day after day of gorgeous, sunshiney days is as big a let down as you can imagine. Every day he asked me if he could use his umbrella. Every day I had to explain that we use our umbrellas in the rain. Every single day he gave me that sad little pouty face that breaks my heart. I may or may not have prayed for a little bit of rain.

And rain it did.

He Loves his Umbrella

I think he was happy.

Happy

And that little grin almost makes the rain tolerable. Almost.

Wordless Wednesday: At Least It's Pretty, Right?

Photography 13 Responses »

Feb 102010

Sky Behind a Branch

Pine

Snow Bokeh

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For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

How an Angry Snowman Made me Happy

Living Life 15 Responses »

Feb 082010

I had been wanting to build a snowman for awhile. Snowpocalypse, round 1 didn’t involve much packing snow by day two and we missed the window in which to build our snowman. So on Saturday, day two of Snowpocalypse, round 2, we bundled up, traipsed outside and began to build a snowman. By we I mean that FireDad began to build a snowman. I just took pictures.

BigBrother helped a bit.

BigBrother Helps

LittleBrother mostly fell down in the snow, cried, got picked up, took two steps and fell down again.

Falling Down

And again.

Again

This was the first time we’ve been able to use the Snowman Kit that we got from one of my Grandpa’s friends during the week of his funeral. In the plastic bag came two black circles for the eyes, an orange carrot-type nose, a yellow pipe for the mouth, three brown circles for the buttons and a black scarf to tie around his neck. All pieces but the scarf were handmade. It’s totally awesome. So, once the pieces were in place, I thought FireDad was done and I took a picture of him with his creation.

FireDad with his Snowman

We went about slipping and sliding and tripping our way through the snow. Then FireDad told me to go look at our snowman. I did. I laughed out loud. Really, I lol-ed in the snow. My awesome husband made me an ANGRY SNOWMAN.

ANGRY SNOWMAN

We’ve been talking lots about Calvin & Hobbes for the past few weeks. Even before Grandpa’s sudden death (for which this particular strip is totally appropriate), we had been talking about rebuilding our Calvin & Hobbes library so that the boys have access to what we both feel is the epitome of comic strip awesomeness. And so with the angry snowman in mind, my husband made my day. Or weekend. But we didn’t bring him to life. Promise.

Win, Win, Win

We did some sledding.

BigBrother LittleBrother

We had a snowball fight. Or two. Or three.

Fight

Laughing

GOT HIM

And, really, despite the fact that we haven’t left the house since Friday and they cancelled not only soccer but church, we really had a wonderful weekend. I mean, with smiles like this, how could it be anything but good?

Big Smiles

I’d be singing a different tune if we had been without power (like my parents and grandmas and some other bloggers I know). I hope everyone was able to be safe and warm this weekend. Let’s hunker down for Round 3, set to begin on Tuesday. (By the way? Despite the cheer of this post, I’m over winter.)

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The Magic of a Snow Day

Parenting 5 Responses »

Jan 042010

I loved snow days when I was a child. Even though I loved school (yes, I was a nerd), I loved snow even more. On The Farm, we had the perfect sled riding hill, somewhat viewable in some recent pictures I shared with you. On Snow Days that didn’t make for horribly treacherous driving, my parents would occasionally let me host sled riding parties. The memories of those fun days stick with me even now. The wonder of a Snow Day. The laughter of teenagers whipping down a hill, forgetting to be too cool if only for a few minutes. The red cheeks as we all gathered in the living room for hot chocolate and 90′s music.

Ah, Snow Days.

But today I almost changed my tune to, “Bah!, Snow Days!”

BigBrother was supposed to return to school today after his two weeks of Christmas vacation. As much as I love the child, I needed him to go back to school today. Having him home for two weeks with the added interruption of holidays has left me with a huge pile of work to do. I had plans to not only do that work but do it well, hit the gym and maybe even have a special one-on-one moment with LittleBrother.

Then they canceled schools in our area.

My plans for the day went out the window and got lost in the swirling snow. Thankfully FireDad is home today (another bonus of fire life) and he was able to wrangle lunch and put the kids down for a nap. I’m trying to work and be generally productive but children keep asking me what button to press on their Leapster or ask, ever so cutely, to put a puzzle together and, dang it, that’s hard to say no to when they bat those super long eyelashes that they have both been blessed with thanks to their father’s genes. And so, it’s 12:44pm and I’m behind on my day’s goals.

And I’m kind of okay with that… mostly.

You see, once we found out school was canceled and we fed BigBrother his breakfast? Well, FireDad and I snuggled under the covers for a good hour until LittleBrother woke up. Then we fed him breakfast and snuggled a bit more, this time with two kids crawling all over us. Why didn’t I just jump straight into the workload I have?

It’s that Magic of a Snow Day.

It really is magical. Sure, I’m waiting desperately for return emails now and maybe even kicking myself a little bit but I’m figuring it is okay in the end. I’ll forever have that memory of the glorious light reflecting off the snow and shining into our (clean!) bedroom as two little boys climbed all over us while we pretended to be asleep. I love their laughter. And if the temperatures don’t drop too badly by the time (glorious) nap time is over, I hope we make a few more memories out in the snow. The gym can wait. That’s what Wii Fit is for. The work will get done. That’s what the hours after bedtime are for.

It’s a Snow Day.

These days of their childhood will pass by too quickly. My parents, who both worked outside the home, tried to make Snow Days a little magical for us. I hope to do the same for our kids. I hope to remember to keep things in perspective and not allow the worry of work and life to interfere with the Magic of a Snow Day. I hope that someday, maybe on their child’s first Snow Day, they can look back and say, “Remember when Mom and Dad did that one thing on that one Snow Day? Let’s do that with the kids today.”

Sled riding. Hot chocolate. Bird stalking. Magic, indeed.

Female Cardinal