Baby, it's COLD outside!

As usual in this cold weather, my first task after hauling myself out of bed was to give the birds their breakfast. They were right on it!

It had snowed in the night, covering up the tracks made the day before, giving us a brand new piece of paper to scribble on.I stayed warm inside while my eager offspring bundled up and headed outside to throw snowballs at the windows.

After breakfast (hot porridge with brown sugar!) we went out sledding. There is a nice little slope about 100 yards away from the house... very convenient. We stayed out for a good hour before my toes were just far too cold and I insisted we all came in. There wasn't too much argument so I suspect they were cold too. Maybe it was the offer of hot chocolate...

But right after lunch they were out again, trying to make a snowman.

Unfortunately the snow is very crunchy. The kind that sticks to your gloves and not to itself. In Feb when we had our last snow it was perfect snowman snow. A small ball rolled around the garden gathered everything up to itself and we made a huge snowman...

This time, however... not so huge (bucket for scale):

So they turned their attention to sledding again. Well, not the downhill sort, but the pulling-each-other-around-the-parking-lot-next-to-the-house sort.

It was 2:30 and the sun was already starting to head low.

An hour later and this is the situation.

More snow is forecast for tonight, and the temperatures remain well below freezing, so I think this will continue for a few days. Luckily the roads are clear and we have no-where to go - until Tuesday morning that is, when we gather in our Grandma from the airport!