snow fort supper

We celebrated the end of January in epic style last night. Inspired by the snow forts of my childhood and the chili and cornbread supper we shared with our best friends and next door neighbors, The Andersons, we worked all weekend trying to build the walls of our winter picnic fort. (That's me in the purple hat pictured below.)

Rory helped on Saturday to shovel the foundation, and I rolled snowballs on Sunday to build up its height. A few things were realized right away: 1) wet snow is very, very heavy snow. And 2) I am not ten years old anymore. It was a strength and cardio workout that felt awesome. and cold. and after a while, hard on my knees. Again, I'm not ten anymore.

But Ivar and I persevered and in the end, the snow was so wet (think snow cones) that I could pull the snow up on both sides of the fort to make it taller. It felt a lot like throwing pots, when I used to use the wheel in high school to make clay pottery. But instead of pinching the pots higher, I was pulling the snow taller. It was strangely fulfilling and made for a creative afternoon. It didn't get nearly as tall as I had hoped, but my five-year-old helper was easily distracted by the cats and working hard to dig a "secret hole" most of the afternoon. I missed Jennifer and Betsy Anderson! 

I found the Ikea tea light candle holders we used at our wedding (becoming quite the wintertime accessory) and then went inside to make the chili and cornbread muffins. Harriet kindly fell asleep just as we were about to head out for our picnic, and napped in the living room while we went outside to eat. We sat on our kitchen chair cushions and ate our steamy chili and Elsie only cried about her cheese not melting properly for a little while...

After we ate, we sat there and celebrated the end of January as we watched the sun set. January flew by, even though we were sick for most of it. (All five of us got pink eye, staggered all month long...) But we are glad for a new month and hopeful for better health!

We went back inside and I cleaned up the kitchen while the rest of the family played a new board game Rory has created. As it got darker we saw the candles begin to glow in the night and Ivar wanted to go back out for hot chocolate with me. We bundled up and sat out under the stars and talked about how fun it is to make a memory. I thanked him for being my helper all afternoon and told him I saw him working hard, and hard work can lead to really special times. Special times like drinking hot chocolate by candle light right before bed, under a starry sky.