Snow day - "Helping" Mom Clear the Driveway

We've had four really good snows this year but this one that happened about two weeks before Christmas was the first one that had super good snow man making snow from the get go.  It was heavy and wet and there was a ton of it.  I know because I had to shovel it off our driveway.  Each snow has conveniently happened while Dr. J is at work, which either means that Dr. J spends most of his time at work or the universe is conspiring against me....  So this day of the big snow I got up bright and early to get is shoveled.  The snow before this I couldn't find the shovel (hanging in the garage) and so for three days it just sat getting driven on and became a huge ice mess that took me days to finally clear.  I was not going to be caught in that situation again.  So I shoveled the driveway and since of course Cheetah wanted to come up I bundled her in snow gear and let her go in the front lawn, which worked out pretty nicely except I'd have to stop shoveling to retrieve her from the street or when she'd fall face first into a snow drift and have to be mom lifted out.  

After about an hour of this her siblings finally managed to make it outside. The plus side of this was I not longer was singly responsible for pulling her out of snow drifts.  The downside, someone thought it was great fun to pelt me with snowballs while I shoveled.  Remember when I said this was heavy snow, well even with the light power of a nine year old arm, these suckers kind of hurt.  I had to peg the kid a couple of times in the face before he packed it up and started building a giant snowball.  Gigi was out there to help him, although she spent quit a bit of time complaining that her hands were cold.  "Well sweetie why don't you put on your real gloves."  In the last few years I've bought her several really nice pairs, but my kids always complain they can't move their fingers enough so when she gets to choose she always picks a pair of those $1.00 knit pairs...guess what, they don't keep you very warm, especially when they get wet, but you can't argue with a six year old.  Well you can but let me tell you a secret, YOU WILL NOT WIN!

Then right before we went in Peach came out dressed like a college co-ed rather than a child ready to play in the snow.  Oh she had her snow boots on, but she also had leggings and an oversize sweater and hat perched on her head like a beret.  She made me laugh.  She pretty much just stuck to the cleared spots and stayed dry but they were all happy.  It was nice to have them outside enjoying the "fresh air" and I was glad to have the driveway cleared, even if it took me two hours to do it!  Like I said, heavy snow!

Love this panda bear!  Best Costco buy of the year.