Day 81

Day of the snows again.  This time, the kids were well enough to take advantage of the many inches of snow that descended upon us.  The last time we got snow, which was just after Christmas, Luke was sick and Emily was still recovering.  They lamented the fact that they couldn't go outside.  Today they made up for it in spades by going out twice, sledding, rolling, writing with sticks, pretending to be rats, clearing snow, shovelling for Nana and generally running around.  They had hot chocolate the first time they came in.  Actually, it was Hoth Chocolate, from the Star Wars Cookbook. 

It's so easy, I can't believe I tried to make complicated hot chocolate when the kids were little.  All it is is milk with vanilla, cocoa powder, and sugar.  It's easy enough to guestimate the amounts, and they think it's super special.  I very much prefer it to giving them chocolate from a bottle with who knows what chemicals involved.  It's also a recipe that we made together the first time.  Luke made a few recipes from that book, which we got from the library.  At this point, I'm thinking we need to get it for him because he's starting to get into cooking and wants to prepare dinners as does Emily.  More on this in the future, without a doubt!

The other thing we did, which we have done in the past, is insist on math being done by the end of the day.  We were trying, on advice, to simply let it go, but I just don't get the whole let-them-fail-and-they'll-figure-out-it's-important philosophy.  Maybe I'm too 'school', but I think they have to do their work.  They both managed to do so.  Since this was day 2 for Luke, he managed to get pretty cheerful, which meant that Emily took a nosedive in the attitude department.  Luckily for her, she decided to snap out of it, and managed to get her math done so she could play the Xbox K'nect, which she loves.  She's never liked a video game or system quite as much as she likes this one!  It also makes her fairly active, so it's cool all the way around!

Despite some screamage here and there, the day seemed to turn out pretty well!  Tomorrow, Shovelling Part II...