snow days

I'm indulging my need to be chronological and have decided to complete the snow posts from long ago. I'm sure that no one in Oklahoma is interested to hear about snow anytime soon, and so I do apologize!

Does anyone else think that it takes WAY too long to get bundled up for snow? We had enough layers to make even a Chinese grandma proud. My kids were very nearly waterproof. No wonder they were willing to stay outside for so long!

Emma started off the action with snow angels:

Samantha soon joined her - and you can see that she inherited Emma's awesome purple boots.
This was our driveway, covered in about 8 inches of snow. Shoveling it was Samantha's idea, so I'm thinking child labor laws must not apply if the labor is done willingly.
Emma's face was freezing, so the scarf kept her a bit warmer. I thought she looked darling all wrapped up.
Abby woke up from her nap and wanted to join in the snowy fun. Until she actually got out there. Turns out, the girl hates the snow.

It was hard for her to walk. It was wet. It was cold. She was unhappy. She was so relieved when I told her she could go inside.
While we warmed up inside for a bit, Josh went to the backyard and pelted the glass door with snowballs.
We eventually warmed up and went back outside to start pelting Josh with snowballs. An all-out family snowball fight ensued. Red-faced and out of breath, we finally called a truce. Good thing the camera was left inside for the snowball fight - I remember taking a few dives hoping to avoid the sting of a Josh-snowball.

We decided that with that much snow, a snowgirl was in order. [Side note: In a houseful of girls, the traditional "snowman" gets transformed to "snowgirl".]

There was tons of snow, but it was really fine and powdery. Great for skiing, not so great for snowgirls.

We waited until the next day, when the snow had melted just a bit. That gave the powdery snow a bit of "stick".

I was dreadfully unprepared for an awesome snowman. I had to improvise. We had lots of leftover Oreo cookies, so those got used for buttons...
...and thanks, Dad! for the hat I've never returned to your collection. It came in handy for Snowgirl.
Samantha is concerned that our scarf won't stay on Snowgirl.
...but with a little bit of work, we got it.
By this time, it wasn't terribly cold so the girls wanted to play with these two-feet icicles that formed on our house. They were huge and frigid...and surprisingly sharp and dangerous! I quickly nixed the playing-with-icicles idea.
We had a fun afternoon in the snow - well, everyone except Abby, who sat on the floor of the living room and watched from there! I was so glad to come in and make cups of hot cocoa for the fam!

I especially enjoyed using my new mug.

We busted out my our favorite wintertime poetry book and snuggled on the couch for the next hour...and waited for Spring to arrive.

Because we live in Oklahoma, we knew it wouldn't take too long.