Yesterday we woke up like every other day to the sound of Kato opening and closing his bedroom door, trundling down the hall and opening and closing the hallway door, and trundling across the living room to our bedroom/studio door. This is usually followed by the sound of the bedroom/studio door opening, Kato trundling down the steps, and then Kato sidling up to the bed and whispering, “Papa! Mama!” in his loudest whispery voice.

However, today he only made it partway across the living room before we heard the exclamation, “It’s SNOWING!” followed by some excited shuffling over to the window. Alden was not far behind, and so we fetched August out of his crib to have a good look too.

Kato clasped his hands in delight and said, “Now we can get a Christmas tree!” It took some explaining that we wouldn’t be getting a Christmas tree – the “explanation” ultimately proved unsatisfactory to everyone. We created a diversion by calling up Annie across the street and seeing if the troops could head over to her place for their snow day. It was a go, which is a surefire way to make everyone happy, and Matthew ferried them across the street.

Matthew had to work in Baltimore for the afternoon, so I busied myself with preparing the letter that will accompany Bobbledy Books Volume 4 (hopefully mailing tomorrow!).

Soon, I got this report from Annie:

Things were going terribly well, or just terribly, depending on how you look at it. It looks like my Gangnam dancing genes have carried through. Sigh.

When I went to pick up the kids later in the afternoon, they told me that they hadn’t just spent the day dancing, they had also made a snowman with Annie. Concerned that it might already be melted, we headed over to the park to check it out.

I thought it looked pretty good when I got there, and complimented Mr. Snowman on his size and dapper hat/hairdo/small rabbit on his head. But Alden immediately said, “Oh no! He looks terrible! He’s missing his hands!” I pointed out that he did, indeed, have hands. Made out of sticks. “Those aren’t hands, those are ARMS.”

Well, I guess you got me there. They went right to work on a fix. The snow was already getting a little patchy, but Kato managed to gather some up:

and patted it nicely into a ball:

and stuck it on the end of Mr. Snowman’s arm:

Alden had done the same for Mr. Snowman’s other arm. “See? NOW he has hands!”

Apparently something was also amiss with his shoulder, so Kato fixed him right up.

It’s the finely-tuned surgeon’s eye that catches those sorts of problems. I am cut of coarser stuff.

Once Mr. Snowman had undergone his reconstructive surgery, Alden started getting cold, so we headed home. Kato wasn’t quite done with the snow yet, and threatened to get me with a snowball. Alden did not attempt, in any way, to stop him. In fact, I felt quite ganged up on.

And so I fled. With Kato in hot pursuit.

And gaining:

When he finally let the snowball fly, I thought I might have a chance to duck at the last minute.

Alas, no.

A small price to pay, though, for a springtime snow extravaganza. Thanks, weather gods, for this day. If nothing else, we got that killer video to remember it by.