2014 in Pictures: Snowflakes and Shovels

We haven't had much in the way of snow this winter, although the temperatures have been terrible, with seemingly constant complete and utter cold. I've been waiting for a good snow so I could take the kids outside and play in it, and it's been snowing since the middle of the night last night, so today fit the bill.

For Christmas, I decided to get Joshua a small shovel, because he's at the age where he always wants to do whatever we are doing, and I thought it'd be fun for him to help me shovel sometimes. When he saw the show this morning when he work up, he was super excited and asked if we could "scoop snow" together. While I actually removed snow from the driveway, he randomly transferred it from one place to another. It was really cute, because he really felt like he was contributing to the process.

But what I hadn't anticipated, but probably should have, was Clara's desire to help and to have her own shovel. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the dustpan I keep in the garage and gave it to her and told her it was a special shovel for her. She loved it, and she happily scooped snow like the big girl that she is.

Initially, Hannah stayed inside with Meghan. Not wanting her to be left out of the snow fun, Meghan gave her a bowl of it, which delighted her, as you can see. But after while she tired of it and wanted to go outside with the big kids. So Meghan bundled her up and brought her out to me. She didn't want to crawl around, and she certainly wasn't interested in any manual labor, but she did like to look around at the snowy landscape, even if she wasn't entirely sure what was happening.