Oh look. More snow.

So winter was late in coming, but it's determined that we don't get shortchanged.  Yesterday we got about 7 inches of snow (New York readers:  "oh you poor babies.").  It was perfect packing snow, so it ended up being fun.  Down to the Donald's as usual.  This time, the grownups played outside, too.  So we had 6 adults and 9 kids sledding and making snow forts and "snow goons" (the kids all read Calvin and Hobbes, it would seem).  It's blurry for whatever reason (certainly not my photography skills.  Stupid camera), but here's Julianna and Molly with their two-headed snow goon:

Here's Lily and I working on our goon:


I wanted to put bulgy eyes and a snout on our goon.  I put sticks in the eye bulges to make them look like evil slitty cat eyes.  "Mommy, what are you doing?"  I'm giving our goon evil eyes.  "NO!  It's a snow bunny and it's NICE."  So, I had to add eye sticks below what are, apparently, ear bulges.  So here's August, posing with the snow frog/bunny/goon thing:


There was sledding.  The sound effect you need for this photo is "AAAAAAAUGH!  DADDDDY!  I WANT TO STOOOOP!":


Even the grown-ups were sledding.  Here's Jerry and Bev, lookin' all cute:


"Oh," I thought, after I took this picture," look how cute.  What a nice memory.  Steve and I should sled too, and Bev will take the photo."  Well, Bev and Jerry are smaller than Steve and Deana.  We could barely squeeze our bodies onto the Big Sled.  And once on, we couldn't steer.  And while careening wildly from side to side, we were taking on snow until finally we stopped.  Dismount, shake the snow off the sled, try again.  Careen.  And the camera didn't snap the pic.  Sigh.  And no WAY were we trudging back up that hill.  Seriously, Bev.  Drag line.  We'll all pitch in.  So just imagine that we are looking all fresh faced and wintery and going down the hill, laughing joyfully.  The beauty of imagination is that we can leave off the part about "We're going into the brush!"  And "I can't steer this thing!"  And "My pants are full of snow!"

Snowball fight!


Here's all the kids, looking impossibly healthy and sweet.  Except Lily, who is crying b/c she wants water and it wholly unamused by our insistence that snow IS water and she should just eat some.


And then, the bonfire!  And marshmallows!


Followed by trudging home and realizing it's 7pm and we haven't had dinner and we can't get the cars out and GAH!

And school's open two hours late, rather than closed entirely.  Whatever.