{"id":47012,"date":"2015-03-23T14:07:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T19:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/?p=47012"},"modified":"2015-03-23T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T19:07:19","slug":"we-got-to-build-a-snowgirl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/23\/we-got-to-build-a-snowgirl\/","title":{"rendered":"We Got to Build a Snowgirl!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mike<\/a> \"IMG_2618\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Crazy we were 5 days into March in Texas and building a snowgirl!  We\u2019ve 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!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2594\"<\/a> \"IMG_2597\"<\/a> \"IMG_2598\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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! <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2637\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PondFam5+1!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2605\"<\/a> \"IMG_2623\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019s so funny!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2628\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Malia came over to join in the fun!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2707\"<\/a> \"IMG_2653\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2636\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These girls are so lucky to have each other as neighbors and friends.  I say that often, but it\u2019s just the sweetest thing to watch their friendship grow each year.   <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2670\"<\/a> \"IMG_2675\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Malia\u2019s mommy, Susie, and I took a snowgirl picture too!  We\u2019ve 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\u2019s story, I used Malia\u2019s story as an example.  I said, \u201cHudson was adopted, just like Malia.\u201d  Her mouth fell open and she exclaimed, \u201cMalia is adopted!?!\u201d  I just assumed that she knew.  She was 5 years old at the time and they\u2019ve lived across the street from each other all of their lives.  I said, \u201cRight.  You know how she looks different than her parents?  Her mom and dad had a home and love to share and Malia\u2019s birth mom needed help, so they adopted Malia to come be a part of their family.\u201d  It took me so aback that it never struck her as anything different than anyone else\u2019s 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\u2019s it, end of story.  <\/p>\n

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, \u201cHe was a man that wrote a speech about not being judged by the color of our skin.\u201d  I was very shocked my 5 year old could tell me that, for one, so I continued, \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d  And she said, \u201cWell, you know Malia and I are different colors, right?  But Susie still let\u2019s her play with me.\u201d  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\u2019s Malia play with her even though she\u2019s white.  This is our world.  It\u2019s crazy when you think about how relatively close in history to us such injustices were commonplace.  Not anymore.  It\u2019s a non-issue to my kids.  Simply a history lesson and reminder that color of our skin doesn\u2019t matter at all.  It\u2019s 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\u2019t come into the world with prejudices or hate.  Let\u2019s keep it that way!  <\/p>\n

*I didn\u2019t 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.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Crazy we were 5 days into March in Texas and building a snowgirl!  We\u2019ve 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47013,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47012\/revisions\/47013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pondfam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}