Crazy we were 5 days into March in Texas and building a snowgirl!  We’ve had a blast during snow days with outdoor fun, extra cuddles, hot chocolate by the fire, all of that good stuff.  Excited for spring but totally enjoyed all the weather excitement late winter brought our way!

  

Anna Kate was the most excited about the snow.  She worked hard helping us roll snowballs.  We had to work quickly because it was melting quickly!

PondFam5+1!

 

Rose was all over the place, and it was adorable watching her play in her first real snow.  Anna Kate tried to pick up this snowball that she had made, but it was too heavy.  She’s so funny!

Malia came over to join in the fun!

  

These girls are so lucky to have each other as neighbors and friends.  I say that often, but it’s just the sweetest thing to watch their friendship grow each year.  

 

Malia’s mommy, Susie, and I took a snowgirl picture too!  We’ve been talking about adoption in our house lately.  Not for our family, but just the concept in general.  Anna Kate found out last summer that Malia was adopted.  She was asking questions about her cousin, Hudson, and trying to understand what it all meant to be adopted.  We were in Florida at the time, and I vividly remember our conversation.  To help her understand Hudson’s story, I used Malia’s story as an example.  I said, “Hudson was adopted, just like Malia.”  Her mouth fell open and she exclaimed, “Malia is adopted!?!”  I just assumed that she knew.  She was 5 years old at the time and they’ve lived across the street from each other all of their lives.  I said, “Right.  You know how she looks different than her parents?  Her mom and dad had a home and love to share and Malia’s birth mom needed help, so they adopted Malia to come be a part of their family.”  It took me so aback that it never struck her as anything different than anyone else’s family.  I can honestly say skin color means nothing to our children, and this brings me so much joy.  We are simply all unique and beautiful and that’s it, end of story. 

One other interesting conversation I had with Anna Kate this year was during her open house at school.  I saw she had colored a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. on the wall.  I asked her who he was (just to see what she knew) and she said, “He was a man that wrote a speech about not being judged by the color of our skin.”  I was very shocked my 5 year old could tell me that, for one, so I continued, “What does that mean?”  And she said, “Well, you know Malia and I are different colors, right?  But Susie still let’s her play with me.”  It brought tears to my eyes.  She has no historical context to the colors of their skin, so to her, the judgment was in the opposite direction, as in, Susie still let’s Malia play with her even though she’s white.  This is our world.  It’s crazy when you think about how relatively close in history to us such injustices were commonplace.  Not anymore.  It’s a non-issue to my kids.  Simply a history lesson and reminder that color of our skin doesn’t matter at all.  It’s just the science of the amount of UV ray exposure at the place of origin of our ancestors, how close or far away they were from the sun.  Kids are awesome and don’t come into the world with prejudices or hate.  Let’s keep it that way! 

*I didn’t plan on writing all of that in this post, but it has been a topic of conversation this year, and I hope it may enlighten you as it has me to see these subjects through the eyes of our healthy middle child.