Snow Day in Berkeley

Last weekend we pretended that we get real Winters here in the Bay Area and spent a day playing in the snow and ice. We spent Sunday morning making a snowman and having snowball fights, and the afternoon ice skating at an outdoor rink. A perfect day of Winter fun - without having to actually experience Winter!

I'll be sharing our ice skating fun soon but first let's have a look at our morning of fun in the snow...

Every year the annual Snow? In Berkeley? festival is held in North Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood. A small area is covered in man-made snow and local kids go crazy making snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other. The festival also boasts a small market of local goods, pony rides, face painting and balloons, plus the Snow Queen on hand to meet kids and hear their holiday wishes.

The last two years we've arrived at the "snow" a little later in the day and found it quite compacted and hard. This year we made sure to arrive in the morning in order to play with the softer snow. It was a warm sunny day though so even though the event had only been open for an hour by the time we arrived the snow was already quite compacted and starting to melt.

That didn't stop Ava and Lola from having fun though!

The girls made snowballs to throw at each other. No, scrap that... they made snowballs to throw at ME! Why am I always their target?

When they weren't bombarding me with snowballs, the girls worked together to make themselves a little snowman.

Mathilde fell asleep on our walk to the "snow" so she missed out on a lot of the fun. I'm not sure she would've enjoyed it too much anyway. After she woke from her nap I sat her in the snow but she didn't look too impressed! I guess it was too cold and wet for her.

After all the fun in the snow the girls stopped by to visit the Snow Queen and tell her their wishes. Just like in their letters to Santa both Ava and Lola made wishes for a puppy. Or puppies. They want one each!

We left the snow pretty much drenched through to our skin and with rain boots full of water, but it was worth it. The girls had such a fun time.

Stay tuned for part two of our day of wintry fun...