Shoveling Snow

 We bought an old snow blower last summer, knowing it needed work.  My dad worked on it when he was here, but this was the first we've had enough snow to try it out.  Something still isn't right with it.  It sort of worked - but without as much power as it should have had, and it kept dying.  It was going okay until we ran out of fuel for it.  Then it was back to shoveling.

 We aren't sure how much snow we actually got because it's a wet, heavy snow and it packed down between the storm I showed this morning and the additional snow we got tonight.

We were out shoveling, and the two year old was trying to get dressed to come help.  I found him wearing his dad's tennis shoes.  I guess they looked big enough to be boots.

The five year old improvised and showed up outside in snow boots, a cowboy hat, and with socks on his hands for mittens.  No coat.  I figured out why when I went in to get it for him.  He had taken it off with the arms inside out and the zipper still half zipped.

But he was a trooper.  He went right to shoveling.

He was helping his dad.

I did get his coat for him. And later, when he came in looking for new socks for his frozen fingers, we found some actual gloves :)

I dressed the two year old in boots and coat and he went out to help daddy too.

He spun in one circle with the shovel and handed it back to his dad, saying, "It's your turn."  Smart kid.

The nine year old finally came out but wasn't a very willing helper.

 He was more interested in pretending he didn't know how to operate a shovel.

The five year old saw Dad clear the snow off the car with a normal broom. He found the shop broom and thought he would help.

Back inside I found this scene, which he informed me was a "minion snowmachine."

 The two year old has started fighting for camera time - ha.  He saw me take a picture of the five year old, then insisted I take a picture of his blocks.

This is the view tonight.  Hard to tell but the snow is piling up against our sliding glass door.  I'd guess it's a foot and a half deep now, but there was a little on the deck before the storm.