P52 Photo Challenge - A Great Leap - Week 9

For the ninth week of the P52 Photo Challenge, the theme is "A Great Leap."  Since Leap Day was on Wednesday, February 29th, I thought I'd focus on a literal leap on Leap Day.

On Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, there was a big snowstorm - the first major one of the winter season. By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, well over a half of a foot of snow had fallen.

It was the heavy, wet kind of snow. The back-breaking kind that needed to be shoveled; and provided a formidable challenge when pulling garbage and recycling cans over 150 feet to the end of the driveway. 

Despite the challenges this type of snow presented...it also was the perfect snowman-making snow. The snow packed well; and easily rolled and picked up even more snow to create snowman parts.

So the first thing each of us did after we finished homeschooling for the day was make a snowman - adding carrots and raisins for noses, eyes, and buttons. Sophia created a rather large snowman - it was almost her height.

Olivia created a medium-size snowman which she proudly noted was her first snowman she has ever made.

My snowman was the miniature variety - about a foot tall.

For the picture, the girls said it would be impossible to leap over Sophia's snowman. "It's too tall!"

"That's okay. Why don't you try Olivia's snowman and see if you can jump over it?" I encouraged. Despite being of moderate height, it still posed a challenge for the girls to jump over. Perhaps it was trying to run through dense, heavy snow in clunky boots and puffy snowsuits.

Regardless, the poor snowman was decapitated after a few runs and leaps.  So much for using any pictures of the headless snowman. So, onto the tiny snowman.

We moved the little snowman from the limb of the apple tree to the middle of the backyard - a place where the girls could get a running start before leaping.

Olivia jumping over the snowman.

The only minor injury the little snowman received was that its nose fell off. 

Sophia leaping over the snowman.

If you look closely, you can see its little stick arms

behind Sophia's calf.

The girls had a lot of fun jumping over the snowmen...and certainly have a memory of something they did that was a bit out of the ordinary on Leap Day 2012.

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A bit of trivia from Frugal Friends Network: you can tell if it's a leap year by what day of the week it is.  How?

Every year January 1st and December 31st (the first and last day of the year) fall on the same day of the week.  Unless, of course, it's a Leap Year. See the example below.

2007 Monday January 1 – Monday December 31 Not a Leap Year 2008 Tuesday January 1 - Wednesday December 31  Leap Year! 2009 Thursday January 1 – Thursday December 31 Not a Leap Year 2010 Friday January 1 – Friday December 31 Not a Leap Year 2011 Saturday January 1 – Saturday December 31 Not a Leap Year 2012 Sunday January 1 - Monday December 31 Leap Year! 2013 Tuesday January 1 – Tuesday December 31 Not a Leap Year

On Teach With Me, there was some interesting information about animals and insects that leap.

"Most sources agreed that the highest leaper is the puma or mountain lion that can leap 5-6 times their height in a single bound, but when you compare the 'contestant'” in terms of their actual height that they can jump, relative to their body size, the tiny flea wins the gold medal!

"For example, kangaroos are about 6 feet tall; they can jump 2 times their height, but fleas, can leap more than 130 times theirs!

"This means if we would scale up a flea to our size, that would be like us jumping  halfway up the Empire State Building in New York!"

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At Time and Date, "According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Bridget struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every four years. This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how Leap Day balances the calendar.

"In some places, Leap Day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day” for the same reason. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day.

"In many European countries, especially in the upper classes of society, tradition dictates that any man who refuses a woman's proposal on February 29 has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. The intention is that the woman can wear the gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. During the middle ages there were laws governing this tradition."