First Snow!

One of my goals for 2012 was for my kids to see snow. Zach and I talked about taking a trip up north somewhere so they could see it for the first time. I hunted for places to go but really we’d have to fly somewhere to be able to guarantee they’d see REAL snow. Anywhere within driving distance they blow the snow so it’s “fake” anyway. Someone on Facebook suggested looking into Snow Mountain and I thought it was a GREAT idea. It’s at Stone Mountain which is only about a four hour drive for us. I researched it and even found potential hotel rooms for us to use. But then someone suggested renting a snow machine at our house. GREAT idea! I could rent it every year and have like a “snow party” or something where all our friends could come with their friends and play in the snow! I loved the idea and was super pumped about it…then I called the place…and it costs $600. There went that idea!!!

We went back to the whole Snow Mountain idea for awhile, even though we heard from a LOT of people that it’s a ZOO. Like someone told me it’s relatable to the highest crowd level at Disney World. No thanks! Luckily a sweet friend, Brandy, told Zach about a snow day at our local library!!! SNOW FOR FREE!!!! I couldn’t believe our luck!!! It was the perfect opportunity to let the kids see “snow” and get to play in it too. It was from 3-5 on Dec 29th so we put the kids down early for naps and had to wake them up to get there by 3:00. My kids do not like getting woken up early…hence Kye’s awesome face hahah

We sat there and rushed around to get there on time and they had JUST started making the snow at 3:30! We totally could have let our kids sleep! Live and learn though, right?

 Luckily they were passing out these AWESOME cookies to everyone so we snacked and watch the snow get ready!

 Creating Snow!

 Little Mama gave Kye the PERFECT Christmas gift: a hat and mittens 🙂

 My friend, Ashley, got this hat for Britt and I found the mittens on clearance for $2 😉

Awesome face huh?

It was a GREAT set up! They had two different areas of snow…one for older kids and one for the younger bunch. And they had target set up where the kids could throw snowballs. They had rules where no kids were to throw snowballs at each other. We didn’t see any of the kids in our section breaking those rules either! The targets being there were SO genius! All the kids were focused on trying to hit the targets instead of each other 🙂

Kye has been asking to see snow for a LONG time. He’s so curious about it and it was SO great to see him be so excited! Of course this snow was more like ice than snow but at least it gave them a taste of the real deal. 

 Making snowballs!

 Regretting not wearing gloves 😉

 IN HEAVEN!

 Aiming for the targets

 He was one of the only Daddy’s there…makes my heart so happy that my kids have such an involved dad in their lives!

 She is the QUEEN of hilarious facial expressions…

She may look fussy in this picture…but it’s only because she wanted to GET DOWN. Girl LOVED the snow. It shocked me! Typically Britt takes awhile to warm up to stuff (hello…remember the pumpkin patch?) but not when it came to the snow. She never once tried to take off her hat or mittens either. She loved them! 

 We saw Jack and his family from church!

 Buddies

 My turn to play 🙂

 Attempting to help make the snowballs…you can tell Kye is thinking “Mom, I got this…”

 I wonder where Britt gets her awesome facial expressions from???

 I always feel the need to say whether Britt is crying or laughing…you usually can’t tell which is which with her haha but my face in the picture makes me think this was a laugh?

 Carla, Jack’s Mom, offered to take a family shot for us!!! THANK YOU!!!

 Crunk for the Snow!!!

So we woke them up early and RUSHED to get to the snow…and only stayed for like 45 minutes. We were done and outta there by 4:30 and weren’t sure what to do. We decided to take the kids to the mall playground and play then go to dinner at McAllister’s (kids eat free EVERYDAY!). It was such a nice, relaxing afternoon. The kinds that I love best: having fun with my sweet family 🙂 

Britt was in such a great mood. She played and played and had a BLAST at the playground. She was obsessed with the slide and we kept putting her up to let her go down it over and over again. It was wonderful to see both of our kids having such a great time together!

 McAllister’s Time!

 1. Love how she’s CRAMMING the food in (girl loves to eat!)

2. Her first time getting a meal at a restaurant…she would NOT let go of the sandwich! 

I’m so thankful we found out about the Snow Day at the Library! It’s so great that our community offers free, family events like these and it was so well organized and so much FUN! 

Since the kids DID love the snow so much it made me want to take them somewhere to see more of it…but it just hasn’t worked out to happen. Zach’s parents own some condos in Gatinlinburg and they have a family place there where they blow snow so we planned a trip up there and planned to stay in one of their condos…but then the condo got booked so we couldn’t go 🙁 And, of course, the weekend we planned on going it ended up LEGIT snowing up there too 🙁 boo!!! Hopefully something will work out where we can go up there next winter! I know for sure though that the Snow Day in Valdosta will now be a must-do event for our family 🙂