Best snow fort ever

Last year, Ed built the girls a snow fort in the back yard. After building it, he realized that if he'd thought of it, he could have grabbed our chiminea -- new that fall, because it was his birthday present -- and built it into the wall of the snow fort, and then they could've had a fireplace in their snow fort. Which would've been really cool.

So THIS year, when they asked for a snow fort, he put the chiminea in place first, and then built the walls up around it. "Oooh," Molly said when she saw it. "You gave us a pretend fireplace!"

Tonight, we told the girls they were getting a surprise dessert that they'd find out about after they'd cleaned up. Ed built a fire, set up chairs, and carried out the supplies, and when they were done picking up we told them to put on their snowpants, coats, and boots. And then we went outside, toasted marshmallows over the fire in the chiminea, and made s'mores.

There are a couple of downsides to making s'mores in the snow.

1. You get marshmallow goo on your coat, and your coat will then require laundering.

2. When you lick marshmallow goo off your fingers, they get cold. Much colder than they do in the summer.

3. The marshmallows cool off quickly, as do the s'mores.

The upside, however:

1. Your kids think you are the BEST PARENTS EVER.

2. And you know, a campfire in the snow, complete with marshmallows, is really fun.

It was the perfect temperature for it tonight. Since you really can't eat marshmallows with mittens on (unless you think mitten fuzz makes a good condiment) you want a fairly warm night. However, if it's TOO warm, there will be puddles and slush, which is no good, either. It was above freezing this afternoon, and just below freezing when we went out after dinner, so not too bad when you're sitting around the fire.

And their coats really needed laundering anyway.