We had our first snowfall Wednesday night but it was mostly a dusting. Saturday night brought the real stuff. We got about 4″ but other parts of the state got up to 18″. Wet, heavy, powerline downing snow. We lost power twice Saturday night but were part of the lucky crowd that got it back quickly. Other parts of the state were out for a day or more. We woke to a beautiful winter wonderland. Beautiful if you don’t mind the fact that it’s still October.

The kids were thrilled, of course. We went outside and shoveled off the porch, made snowmen, and played on the swing set.

Lex wrote his name on the tree with snowballs. You can sort of see the E and X here. He was so proud of his idea :)

I thought my quince tree was a goner. Turns out it just needed a good shaking out :)

After lunch we went to a Halloween party at Eve’s school. When we got home the snow was mostly melted and the snowmen were looking sad. Eve and I shoveled the porch again and then she decided to finish off the snowmen with the shovel! Then her and Parrish spent a good amount of time trying to rebuild them. Crazy kids.

October snow, you decided. Trick or treat?

(Not that it matters what I think, as I’m pretty sure mother nature doesn’t give a hoot about my opinions on winter. When I was buckling the kids into their carseats Lex complained that he was too cold and I said “Get used to it. We’ve got six cold months ahead of us!” Seriously, six months! Sheesh!)

Going through the pictures on the camera I came across a few random photos I meant to post over the past few weeks. I didn’t get around to it then, but here they are for you now… (turns out it was more than a few and mostly about Eve!)

Eve made her magazine debut last spring, but once again her face is around town. Here is a picture hanging on the wall outside her old preschool classroom…

… and here she is promoting a Good Beginnings lecture earlier this month. When I asked if she minded seeing her face on posters in the schools and around town, she shrugged and said, “nope.” She’s cool like that.

I love her artwork.

Lex made a really cute treasure box in Pre-K art class and Eve has waited two long years to make one of her own. Sadly Pre-K this year doesn’t get art class (apparently they normally don’t, Lex’s year was an exception) so on a whim we decided to make her a treasure box at home. With an empty milk carton, scissors, paper, and lots of tape we went to work. The closure isn’t great, but otherwise it’s a pretty cool treasure box.

Don’t think I forgot about the other artist in the house. Here is a picture he drew of the aquatic center. We got a membership this month and they start taking swimming lessons again (starting tomorrow, in fact!) They’re both pretty excited.

Grampy Don came to visit a few weeks ago and brought Eve a make-your-own book kit. She got right to work.

Page one says “This is mom baking a cake.” I especially like the crown. And the legs.

Every night I lay down with the kids at bedtime. Most nights they argue about who I should lay with first. I like to think I’m a genius mommy, but sometimes it comes to me slowly. After many months of this, and all kinds of lame threats on my part, I finally solved the problem. A simple sign.

We got our first snowfall last Wednesday night. Eve wanted to play outside all morning.

A (pretend) nap at the bottom of the stairs? Yes, please!

Eve’s weefy puppy had NO stuffing in her, at all. Eve has been asking me to do surgery on her, just like I did on Lex’s doggie years ago (I tried to find a link for this but instead found this adorable photo and this post about previous surgery on Eve’s puppy, I’d forgotten about that!) Yesterday I got brave and donned my surgical hat (figuratively!) and fattened puppy right up. Eve says she is feeling much better now.

Lex filled our living room with puzzles yesterday and then took pictures of them all :) He is definitely a budding photographer. A boy after my own heart.

Eve had a playdate this morning with two little girls from her class. She has been so looking forward to this day. It went fairly well. The girls were all nice and well behaved and they played really nicely together. It was fun.

Lex brought home his pumpkin pot home today. He made it in art class at school. They’ve been working on it for weeks and I get happy every time he tells me about it. Mostly because I love hearing him say “pumpkin pot.” :)

Ok, I guess that’s enough random photos for tonight. Now on to the Halloween photos!