snow Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

A Little Snow Equals Big Joy

February 5, 2014 By Deirdre

My husband kept telling JDaniel that there was snow on the way. I kept checking the weather websites and finding the prediction for 1 to 3 inches. I thought that won’t add up to a day off from school. JDaniel kept saying he was going to get a snow day. The second graders at my school kept practicing a musical called the Big Chill about school getting out early because of an early arrival of snow. I should have known something was going to happen.

It turns out my husband, the second graders, and JDaniel were right. Last Tuesday at 11 o’clock in the morning an announcement came through the PA system sharing that school was closing at noon. The students would have to quickly come to the lunch room to get bag lunches by class so everyone could eat lunch before heading home.

I called my husband and asked him to pick up JDaniel from school. School system was closing for students, but I didn’t know when teachers would be allowed to leave.

I stayed until two o’clock to get work done. Many of the teachers left right after their students did. There still wasn’t any snow falling, but the temperature had dropped drastically. When I called home to say that I was on my way, I was informed that small flakes had started to fall.

By 4 o’clock we had tiny swirling flakes that covered our deck, sidewalk and the non-grassy areas of the yard. JDaniel was thrilled. He swept the snow on the deck rails into his hands that he used to create tiny snowballs to throw at me. I pushed some of the small layer of snow on the deck into my hands and tossed it at him. There wasn’t enough snow for a snowman or snow angel. It really ended up just being a dusting, but we sure had fun playing with it.

I loved watching him excitedly run and leap from patch of snow to patch of snow. Even a tiny bit of snow is exciting when you haven’t had any snow in over a year. We finally went into the house. We had cold fingers and saturated mittens. The snow continued to fall and we both kept our nose pressed up against the window to watch it. We wanted to enjoy its entrance into your world for as long as possible.

Thankfully we were all tucked into our house early on Tuesday afternoon. The roads here got really icy and stayed icy in shady spots for two days. Our little bit of snow would start to melt during the day and then refreeze at night. Parts of our sidewalk were still icy and snow on Thursday afternoon. We were out of school for two days and had a two-hour delay on Friday.

That little bit of snow brought a big change to our weekly schedule. One that made all of us leap the joy.

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as an elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5-year-old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Breakfast Foods- Snowman Meal

January 14, 2013 By Deirdre

Most of last week JDaniel was down with a cold. He had very little energy and his nose was running like a faucet. Colds don’t tend to take him down. This was the first time in a long time he seemed really sick. I decided to try to make him feel a little better by giving him a lunch that was filled with breakfast foods. We love breakfast foods at our house. They are always met with great enthusiasm by JDaniel.

For this meal I decided on a snowman theme. JDaniel has been hoping that we will get snow sometime this winter. While many of you have already had tons of it fall where you live. We are looking at days that are still in the high forties and sometimes high fifties here in South Carolina. The only snow he may get to see is in the house so, I have been looking for ways make it snow inside.

The snowman contained breakfast foods that were new to JDaniel. He hasn’t had milk gravy before. I actually had never made it before. It came out a little thicker than it should be, but it was delicious. Even with blueberries, sausage and a tiny bit of strawberry mixed with it on biscuits.

I know because JDaniel came into the kitchen to look at the lunch, but announced he wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to lunch. As I mentioned I love breakfast foods so, rather than covering the meal and giving it to him later I ate it. It might not have been the right thing to do, but it was really good.

The sausage arms and hash brown snow were delicious too. I was in breakfast foods heaven. Yes, breakfast foods are truly heavenly to me.

When we was ready for lunch, he announced he just wanted a cheese taco and cantaloupe. That is exactly what he got. Since he likes cheese tacos for breakfast along with fruit, I guess he ended up with a breakfast foods meal anyway.

If you like this snowman food creation, here are some more food creations you might like:

Breakfast Rice RecipesChocolate Covered Cookie BallsTeepee Themed Snack

Read.Explore.Learn.- red sled Fun

February 17, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie into children’s books.

I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

We loved reading red sled by Lita Judge. There are very few words in this book. The pictures tell the tale of a red sled that is left outside each night by a young child. Each night the sled is borrowed by a bear who likes to go on on evening sled rides.

As the story unfolds, other creatures decide to join the bear in his sled rides until seven animals are sledding under the evening stars.

Finally, one morning the child notices bear footprints outside his house. The child decides to watch out his window to see if the bear returns.

When the bear does the boy joins the bear and his friends on a sled! ” Wheeeeee!” says the boy as he holds on to a moose antlers as the sled slides down the hill.

What did we do?

Craft-Sled Making

I built the red sled using the directions I posted in my How to Make a Cardboard Sled post last year.