Yesterday’s storm, which only began about three in the afternoon, dumped almost 9 inches in our backyard before midnight. This morning’s picnic table begged for a measurement. Yesterday, knee deep. Today, armpit deep.

Armpit deep the morning after the spring storm

How deep was it really? Armpit deep...

Still, that’s pretty deep, even for these Emotikin. It was too cold to play this early in the morning, and the sun had stayed asleep behind the clouds. The Emotikin decided to crawl back in bed and watch Kung Fu episodes, Season 2, for the whole day.  Too bad Terry didn’t invite them to Starbucks with him. 

I got home from work about 5:30, still an hour before dark. I couldn’t wait to build a snowman, and the dogs couldn’t wait to find a tennis ball under the snow. While they kept looking, I rolled snow. The Emotikin gave me directions, being quite know-it-all about how best to pack and roll the crusty snow. While I rolled, packed, & molded snow into a play pal, the Emotikin refused to put on mittens, and Bella Luna went inside, pouting, like sisters sometimes do. 

Emotikin scaled the ice to afix a nose.

Big Emotikin kept Bella’s scarf and decorated our emerging friend with lava rock stones for eyes and a carrot (one of two that I bought at King Soopers on my way home from work just for this  purpose.) I heard myself singing in my head, “And a carrot nose, and two eyes made out of coal…”  

It wasn’t a perfectly pretty Frosty the Snowman; he lacked a scarf, a magic hat, a corncob pipe, and a better rounded belly…not to mention those great rubber boots for dancing around town. But since we’re expecting more sun tomorrow, Emotikin and I tacitly agreed that Frosty was good enough for a photoshoot–at least this time. Really, we just wanted to play.

Playing on the birdhouse

Posing on a mountain of snow

The sun was dropping fast on the other side of the house. The backyard was becoming too cold. What else could we do? The front yard! Let’s go find Gnome!