Thursday, January 1, 2004:
Outside the snow is on the brink of melting, so that it’s perfectly sticky. Sarah dresses Claire up. With her two coats and little blue toque, she becomes the cutest child in the world. Sarah takes the boys out. The big girls are extremely sitting around. I’ve got my own well-documented idle impulses, but when the active members start building a fort, I’m shamed out of my seat.
We make a three-tiered castle just west of the sandbox. We fill in the gaps with shovelfuls of snow, leaving arrow loops for defense purposes. Then the battle begins. Claire is the princess, the children a military retinue of sorts. I’m all the bad guys, attacking from the outside. Snowballs fly. Claire decides that now she’s the grinch. Matt sallies out for his engagements, making sure by firing only when he sees the weave of my jeans. I discover that big bombs of this increasingly sticky snow can take out entire wall sections. “Hey!” says Sarah, and starts blocking each lob.
After some more rebuffing I’m forced to change my strategy. (High lobbing ones that keep just missing Miss Claire.) I rush over and do not a not quite successful western roll over the east wall, which ends up in complete ruins. Much rolling and yelling ensues. The funnest thing ever!