The Snowy Day is a 1962 children’s picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. Keats received the 1963 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in the book. It features a boy named Peter exploring his neighborhood after the first snowfall of the season. The inspiration for Peter came from a Life magazine photo article from 1940, and Keats’ desire to have minority children of New York as central characters in his stories. Source: Wikipedia. 

Yesterday we finally got what most of us diehard Minnesotans have been waiting for: Snow! After a bone-chilling, soul-searching cold blast of Canadian air (with temperatures down to 20-30 below wind chill F) I was really hoping we would get some long anticipated snow. For what fun is it to live in a cold climate with a long winter and have no snow to play in?

It started last night and picked up heavily around late afternoon coating the trees and ground in fluffy white magic. The kids and I were out after dinner playing in the snow and building snow forts with Dad. And this morning, my daughter and I hit the nearby hill for some good old-fashioned fun….sledding!

Sophia opted for riding down head first on her belly board and I went for the old standby purple plastic sled. It sure was fun and I felt like a 41-year-old kid again! I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be back at the hill tonight with my son after school. We’ll see what kind of energy I have left.

Let’s hope for some more white stuff before winter is over!