Snow Indeed

There was about 45 minutes of bundling up (that is only a SLIGHT exaggeration!) that included about 20 minutes of trying to get/keep Master J's mittens on. We marched out back and played with Fred, and then decided to go for a little walk to assess the situation. We marched down the street to the secret sidewalk where it got ICY (James had already eaten it a couple of times and Miss Ava had "ice skated" in front of the house 2 doors down) and turned back to return to Fred who was wimpering and whining loudly at our disappearance. While we were gone he managed to scare a squirrel up the chimney who seemed to be hanging on for dear life. Not sure what took him so long to go up to the roof but he got there eventually. Also in the meantime a scratch appeared on our Ava's face where he had jumped on her in his excitement to finally have someone to play with. It's not too bad. I put some Windex on it. (Can you spot the movie?) Anyway, reshoveled a bit and salted the rear sidewalk, took some tupperware out to use to build something, and Ava got the dumptruck and garden trowel out of the garage and got to work. She also helped me sweep the walk with the broom that is her size. James had been working with the one we keep indoors earlier in the day. We were out for a little over and hour, and James and I came in first. His mittens were not staying on, at least not with his little thumb in the thumbholder, and he was having a hard time without that opposable digit. I put my gloves on him (no fingers of course) but he would not have that either. So Ava opted to come in. She played on for about another 15 minutes by herself, then got tired and/or hungry and so came in for the half hour disrobing/hanging/footwear on rack process that occurs when a group comes in from playing in the snow. It was pretty fun. It wasn't really that cold-just about 30* I think- and the only bummer was the mitten thing for J. Not much to be done about that though, it's a rough time for a little one to have to wear mittens. It will improve with age. "They" have backed off the original extra 4-8" for today and now are at maybe another inch or two tonight. I have a haircut booked for the morning and I don't care if I have to cross country ski down there I will go because I am beginning to resemble Carrot Top! I am still undecided about whether to let it grow or cut it back into the style of the Christmas card. I asked PJ, and he said to let it grow, which made me want to cut it. Geez! Have you seen that phone commercial where the girl asks her boyfriend several times out of two choices which one he likes, and when he answers her she picks the other one? That is me! Just hope I end up with a cut I like as I am taking it to the Valley of the Sun in a couple of short weeks.
Am off to continue the laundry adventure and make some bread. Ava helped herself to some apple juice this morning which equals a sticky floor that needs to be addressed as well. A woman's work...