First Snow

My boys have been waiting very impatiently for the first snow to arrive this season. We've had a few teasing showers, but nothing that had any accumulation or lasted more than mere seconds...until today.

This morning they woke up to just about half an inch on the ground outside. They were begging me to head outside to play around 7am. I did tell them they had to wait for the sun to come up and for us to finish a bit of school.

Then they headed out to do this...


and this....

and some more of this...


I missed getting photos of the massive snowball fight they had amongst each other plus their aunt who is here visiting from Connecticut for the week.

As you can see we didn't have a ton of snow and the sleds weren't working all that well. Then the snow came back...and back...and left about 2-3 inches on the ground. They headed back out as soon as lunch was over for more sliding (which worked a bit better this time) & even a bigger and better snowball fight plus I'm seeing some mini-snowmen dotting the grounds.

The boys are thrilled. Me? Not so much. Now the weather gets to dictate what my outside activities will be. I'm suppose to go to our MOPS meeting tomorrow morning, but if the roads are still as yucky as they are now, that won't be happening. I find it annoying, but hey, I live in Maine. This is life. And it makes me appreciate spring all the more when it arrives.

Sledding Fun

Today was my Mom's birthday. Since I'm also homeschooling my niece who lives with her, I headed over for a visit. I had to get my niece going on the next semester of school work. I also made a cake for my mom & surprised her with that. I also gave her a gift card to Christian Book Distributors so she can either get some movies or some books.

Shortly after lunch my boys starting begging to go sledding. Their is a road behind my parents barn that was perfect for sledding. My younger sister was there with her boyfriend. My niece was also there with her boyfriend. I think they had almost has much fun as my boys. I was the official photographer along with my Mom. My sister's boyfriend drove the Gator back & forth hauling everyone back up the hill.

This is my niece's boyfriend going down with my younger son. J has NO fear at all. They were cruising & he was just having SO much fun.

My niece's horses headed closer to where we were to check out what was going on with all those silly people. I think Java is the one in the blue blanket & Ollie is in the white. (Dyanne, correct me if I'm wrong, k?)

Notice how J isn't even holding on to anything!!!! I swear this kid will be the one to give me gray hairs.

N LOVES to go sledding. He was having SUCH a great time. He's my other daredevil.

I took this photo of Dyanne (my niece) & B right before they crashed. This is a two-person tube. That makes it fun. However, you simply cannot steer it - at all. They hit the bank & went head over heels. B went inside with Ninny (my mom) & had a bit of TLC & a break. He came back out raring to go. However, he told me, "I'm riding alone from now on!"

See - look at J! His hands are just resting on Dyanne's legs. But the face! You can tell he was having a great time.

This is Jon heading back up the hill. They did walk quite a bit. I took it just to show how much SNOW was on his BACK! ::grin:: He wiped out A LOT.

This is my sister sliding with her daughter. Yeah, they were having fun.

I think this one is pretty priceless. Of course, J is STILL not hanging on! LOL Silly kid.

B heading down alone in his tube. He rode this pretty much all day. It did go up on to the snowbanks rather well.

My sister is crazy. I LOVE the looks on her face in the photo above & the one below. Too funny! My Mom & I were busting a gut watching everyone slide. It was SO funny!

And for the last photo - this is my niece heading down with her boyfriend. Can you see her hair? Can you tell how fast they were going? They were cruising. Let me tell you that! I think they wiped out shortly after I took this photo. ::grin::

I took over 60 photos today. The majority of them were of the people sliding. I loved all the expressions on all the faces as they came whipping by. We did have a really great time. Of course, this does mean that we'll have to bring out sleds with us from now one when we head over to visit.

Sledding Fun at Our House

The conditions here in the snowy reaches of Maine are very favorable for sledding. My boys received "boogie board" sleds for Christmas as well as some inner tube sleds. They have been itching to use them & today they headed out. Since we had just received about 17 inches of snow the day before, they had a great area to sled on!

B & J were on the inner tube that J received. It is for him & Grammy to go sledding on. It's a large two person inner tube & it's FUN. There is no way to steer it though which can prove to be problematic.
I thought it adorable how both of them carried it back up the hill. We actually sled right in our driveway. We have a quarter-mile drive & cannot see the road. They boys typically start up by their great-grandfather's farmhouse & go slightly past where our trailer is located. It's only a few hundred feet but they love it.
B started taking flying leaps on to this inner tube. I didn't take a photo & I honestly didn't laugh until after I knew he was fine, but N also tried doing this. However, he tried to jump on bottom first. I heard him crying. He had bounced off & landed on the snow instead. Poor thing!
I took this photo to show how BIG the snowbanks are around here. The boys have been taking their boogie boards to the top & sliding down. N did this for quite some time. You can just see the roof line of my in-laws house over the top.
J headed down on the big sled alone. He is SO fun to watch sliding. He LOVES sledding!

Okay, I almost didn't post this, but hey, one needs to show more photos of oneself right? Yup, I headed down with J on the two person tube. NO steering. I thought I was going to end up hitting the snowbank at the end & instead ending up falling off. Ha! It was a nice break from all the shoveling I was doing though. Most of our drive gets plowed by either my hubby, FIL, or grandfather. However, the area where we park our vehicles & a couple paths have to be shoveled by hand. I did that today. It took me two hours.

Yup, this photo has NOTHING to do with sledding. However, J asked me so sweetly to take his photo that I had to oblige.