У дочки покраснели губы и лоб от ветра, поэтому мы зашли в кафе.

In Russian, body parts are very often expressed with the pattern у + person in the genitive + body part as the subject.

So:

• У дочки покраснели губы и лоб
  literally: At the daughter, the lips and forehead turned red

This sounds more natural in Russian than using a possessive adjective like дочкины here.

You can say дочкины губы и лоб покраснели, but у дочки... is very common when talking about someone’s physical condition, appearance, pain, symptoms, and so on:

• У меня болит голова = My head hurts
• У него замёрзли руки = His hands got cold
• У ребёнка поднялась температура = The child got a fever

So this is a very typical Russian way to talk about what is happening to someone’s body.

Дочки is genitive singular of дочка.

It is in the genitive because the preposition у requires the genitive when it means at, by, or in this possessive-type structure:

• у дочки = at the daughter / the daughter has ...

Compare:

• дочка → nominative
• дочки → genitive singular

This is the same pattern as:

• у мамы
• у брата
• у сестры

Because the grammatical subject is губы и лоб.

That is a compound subject:

• губы = lips
• лоб = forehead

Together they mean the lips and forehead, so the verb must be plural:

• покраснели = turned red / became red

Even though лоб is singular, the whole subject is still plural because it is A and B.

Because Russian normally uses the plural губы to mean lips as a pair, just like English.

So:

• губа = lip
• губы = lips

In this sentence, the person’s lips reddened, so the plural is natural.

Покраснели is the past tense plural of the perfective verb покраснеть.

It means:

• became red
• turned red
• reddened

The perfective verb focuses on the change/result.

By contrast:

• краснели from краснеть is imperfective and usually describes an ongoing process, repeated action, or general background description.

So:

• покраснели = they turned red
• краснели = they were turning red / used to turn red / were reddening

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a completed result caused by the wind, so покраснели is the natural choice.

Because the preposition от takes the genitive case.

Here от means from or because of:

• от ветра = from the wind / because of the wind

So:

• ветер → nominative
• ветра → genitive after от

This is a very common pattern:

• дрожать от холода = to shiver from the cold
• плакать от боли = to cry from pain
• устать от работы = to get tired from work

Yes, but the nuance is a little different.

• от ветра focuses on the wind as the direct physical cause
• из-за ветра means because of the wind and often sounds a bit more general or situational

In this sentence, от ветра is especially natural because the wind physically caused the lips and forehead to become red.

So от ветра is the better choice here.

Поэтому means therefore, that’s why, or so.

It links the first clause and the result:

• У дочки покраснели губы и лоб от ветра, поэтому мы зашли в кафе.
• The daughter’s lips and forehead turned red from the wind, so we went into a café.

It is a connective word that introduces the consequence of what was said before.

The comma before поэтому is standard because it joins two clauses.

Зайти / зашли often means:

• to drop in
• to go in
• to stop by

So мы зашли в кафе suggests that they went into a café, probably to get out of the wind, warm up, or take shelter.

Compare:

• пошли в кафе = went to a café
• вошли в кафе = entered the café
• зашли в кафе = went into the café / dropped into the café

Here зашли sounds very natural because it implies a practical stop prompted by the situation.

With в, the case depends on meaning:

• в + accusative = movement into somewhere
• в + prepositional = location inside somewhere

Here there is movement:

• зашли в кафе = went into the café

So grammatically it is accusative.

However, кафе is an indeclinable noun, so its form does not change:

• в кафе can look the same whether it is accusative or prepositional

Compare with a noun that does change:

• в парк = into the park (accusative)
• в парке = in the park (prepositional)

They both mean daughter, but the tone is different.

• дочь = the basic, more neutral/formal word
• дочка = affectionate, everyday, warmer

So у дочки sounds natural in ordinary speech, especially in a family context.

A more formal version of the sentence might use дочери instead:

• У дочери покраснели губы и лоб от ветра...

But in conversation, дочка is very common.

Because Russian often avoids possessive pronouns when the owner is already clear from context.

Instead of saying:

• её губы и её лоб

Russian naturally says:

• у дочки губы и лоб

or simply uses the body parts directly once the person is established.

This is especially common with body parts, clothing, and personal states.

English often needs her, but Russian often does not.

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, though not random.

This sentence:

• У дочки покраснели губы и лоб от ветра, поэтому мы зашли в кафе.

sounds natural because it starts with у дочки, setting up whose body parts are being talked about.

Other orders are possible, for example:

• Губы и лоб у дочки покраснели от ветра...

But that can sound more marked or put more emphasis on губы и лоб.

So the given word order is a natural, neutral way to present the information.

Word-for-word, yes, that is close to the structure.

But that is not natural English. In English we would say something like:

• My daughter’s lips and forehead turned red from the wind, so we went into a café.
• The wind made my daughter’s lips and forehead red, so we went into a café.

This is a good example of how Russian and English often use different structures to express possession and bodily states.