Be careful what you wish for...

It's my own fault, really. If I had never installed this cute little penguin at our back door, we wouldn't be in the meteorological fix we're in right now. There she stands, holding up that adorable little message, "Let It Snow". We've had 60 inches of snow in the past 30 days...yes, that equals 5 feet. Ten inches of that fell yesterday so of course it was another snow day for our five cherubs. Yeesh, enough is enough already! Penguin Girl is headed for the basement.

Say goodbye to the penguin

She brought out the snow blower...again

She brought out the whole family for plenty of shoveling as well

I think one of our greyhounds is under this drift...dig, boys, dig!

OK, don't tell Penguin Girl but we also had some fun. We all slept in; even Craig was able to avoid a dangerous commute by working from home. The snow stopped around mid-morning and all 5 kids helped with snow removal without complaint (mostly). Once the work was done, the boys had a blast chasing the dogs around the yard and digging tunnels in the snow. The girls took themselves inside and made tea to warm up. The sun shone brightly all afternoon, the sky was a cloudless winter blue, and the temps rose a bit. The neighbors were all outside so the clean up was more like a block party than a chore.

We spent the afternoon and evening with all my chicks safe in our nest, just the way this Mama Hen prefers it. While Dad worked on the server he brought home from his office, The kids and I did some homework, played some games, made dinner, and baked some cookies. There were no major meltdowns and no bloodshed between siblings. (In the interest of honesty, I must disclose that we had one round of unkindness between a brother and a sister. Even that was pretty easily resolved with a review of the Golden Rule and the reminder that no ice cream would be served that evening until the matter was resolved. A heartfelt apology was extended pretty quickly.) As snow days go, this one was pretty darn good...but I'd really like to skip the snow part next time.

Just in case there's more snow to come, we have these musclemen!