Celebrating the end of February Break, with a snow day!

I know you don’t know where we live — (Here’s a hint! It’s somewhere between Alaska and Florida) — so just take my word for it when I say that it’s very strange to have NO snow, let alone good packing snow, until the end of February. Today, though….today that particular bizarrity ended, and we had a couple of inches of play-in-able goodness. That being said, ok, sure, I’m still sick, but for once Ash WASN’T sick with so much as a snuffly nose, and it was the last day of his February break, and it was his first and….at this point in the worrisome world of weird weather, who knows….maybe his last chance, too, to build the snowman he’s been looking forward to all winter. So, y’know….I kind of HAD to go out into the white.

Last year, there were plentiful snowball fights in the driveway, but only one no-one-had-a-cold-and-there-was-the-right-kind-of-snow-and-it-wasn’t-bloody-freezing-or-too-dark-already-by-the-time-we-had-free-time chance to build a snowman, and we never did get to go sledding like the year before. Well, now 2012 has had at least one occasion of everything being covered except the sledding.

Ash and 2012's snowman! After we were done building him, I carried him to a spot that still had snow on it, so his butt wouldn't be muddy.

We bundled up, and headed into the front yard to make a snowman. Well actually, first I gave Ash some options to consider, at his request, and then he sat and decided between them to determine what supplies we’d bring out with us, in terms of snowman features. The arms were made from broken pieces of dried stems from last summer’s lilies, which had been saved in the garage as material for a scarecrow we never got around to making in the autumn. That saved me from having to tromp all the way into the back yard, to seek branches. Thankfully, he decided that a pretzel rod was a reasonable substitute snowman nose, since we didn’t have any carrots. The mouth was made from a red-spaghetti-string from the Pull-N-Peel Twizzlers that were used as one of the decorating materials for the snack day cupcakes I haven’t posted about yet. The eyes were googly eyes glued onto caps off of sauce bottles waiting for recycling. The eyes actually gave us a bit of trouble, because Ash really wanted to be the one to carry them. Since this activity was not planned much in advance, however, the googly eyes were only attached via freshly applied glue stick, which meant they easily stuck onto Ash’s fuzzy fleece mittens and detached from the bottle caps. “It’s my job to carry the eyes,” rather quickly became, “It’s my job to find the eyes in the snow.” Yeaaaahhhhhhh.

Eniways, that up there is our happy snowman. I started off the bottom snowball, and then Ash “found” and brought over mitten-fulls of snow to add. He tended to pack his on in small lumps on top, and while he was fetching more, I’d round things out. He decided when it was time to add the next snowball, and then the next one, and then when it was time to add the arms and facial features. He aimed things, and I actually braced them in place with strategic bits of snow. It was a team effort. I think he’s pretty darn cute, even if he doesn’t have ears like last year’s snowman.

Happy snowman will be happy to welcome Daddy home, later that day. His shadow helps him stretch his arms out further, for a hug.

After finishing the snowman, Ash decided to taste some of the remaining fresh snow. If it wouldn’t have required going in and out of the house, I would’ve gone and gotten an ice cream cone and some maple syrup, and made the kind of snow cone that my classes always celebrated the first good snow during a school day with, when I was in elementary school.

"It tastes cold, but I think maybe sometimes my lips will melt it because kisses are warm."

Next up came a snowball fight. Ok, more of a snowball tussle. There were only about two exchanges, because by the end of that, Ash decided his mittens were getting too damp, and needed to dry.