The Snowman: By 1 wimp and 2 tough kids!

I've always been too wimpy to get out in the cold and build a snowman with my kids. Or too preoccupied with other things. Well, this past Saturday, when we had my nephew with us, I took him and MC to the park because it was finally such a warm, sunshiny day (even though it was still pretty cold, it's all relative) that I just couldn't come up with any excuses not to go outside with them. :) We went to a park that is around the corner from us. It's a climbing park with no traditional swings or slides or anything.





I figured they'd tire of the cold or the park pretty soon, but it was I that got bored long before they did. Finally I pointed to a bridge that goes over a little lake in the neighborhood and asked them if they wanted to go venture across it. They both agreed with alacrity so we headed over there. When we got to the bridge, instead of going on the paved path that spirals up until it reaches the bridge, they both proceed to head straight up the side of the hill through the snow, slipping all the way up. I only had backless slip on shoes (I originally got them as house slippers, even though they are meant to be shoes) and some fairly thin leather gloves but I couldn't very well take the conventional way, they'd be long gone. So I climb up after them, slipping and sliding all the way.







Then we headed over the bridge and down the other side. I figured we'd just head back after this, but that was hardly on the agenda! I finally catch up with them when they spontaneously decide to lay down and take a rest in the snow. MC makes a snow angel and then they're up and running again. After a while they have a half-hearted snowball fight, and then MC decides she wants to make a snowman. She starts piling snow in a little mound and I groan inside at my slothfulness in not having taught my daughter to build a proper snowman by now!! My poor deprived daughter. :) So we start rolling balls in the snow, my nephew in charge of one, MC another, and I the third. Despite my confidence that I'd make the biggest ball for the base, they were all surprisingly close in size. After we stack them all up and the kids adorn the face and torso with various sizes and shapes of bark, MC laments that we cannot take our first snowman ever home to our own yard for all to admire and enjoy. So we've consoled ourselves with a few pictures of our beloved snowman:







On the way back they want to go down the snowy, muddy hill instead of the periphery sidewalk and so once again I have to follow them. I'm also a wimp at going down steep hills so I sit down on my feet and proceed to scoot/slide down the hill. Between the mud, the snow, and my slick shoes I fly down the hill rather quickly yelling, "watch out below!" and MC says with envy, "I wish I had shoes like yours". Meanwhile I'm at the bottom with mud all over me and wondering why I get myself into these messes. :P The things we do for our kids, sometimes, when we're (I'm) not too wimpy. :) How is it that as an adult I've become such a wimp?!!?