Embracing winter with a trip down memory lane

by Carly As I trudged out the door to shovel for the third time today, I was quickly struck by how beautiful it was.  The sun had set, the streets were quiet, save for the sounds of shovels and the falling snow was alight with sparkles.

Since I'd already been out twice, this last shovel of the day was an easy one (for me, at least - no so for Dad as he was stuck with the plowed-in end of the driveway).  When the driveway was clear, and with the Little Man happily stumbling around helping me, I started a little project of my own.

As a child, my favourite winter memories are of the snow forts, slides, homes, tunnels, stairs and chairs we'd spend hours building, refining and tweaking in the snowbanks along the driveway.  We have snowball fights with the neighbourhood kids across the street, then all pitch in to clean up one another's "bank" before heading in for the evening.  We did this all winter, just about every day.  Our forts ended up being quite elaborate and sometimes we'd even be allowed to use water to set the walls and furniture.

I couldn't resist a quick trip down memory lane this evening, and so we made some stairs and a slide from the biggest snowbank down to the driveway.  He was thrilled to have his very own sledding hill, and even though the hill wasn't very big, it was enough to shoot him all the way across the driveway so he'd end up crashing into the opposite bank.

The Mom in me really can't recommend the tunnels, or the slides we made that shot us into the street rather than the driveways back in the day, but the rest of the play was great fun.  For our Little Man who isn't the best sleeper, this was a great way to tire him out before bed and fun and healthy way to spend an evening as a family.

Carly has red hair and occasionally the temper to match.  She loves potatoes, rainy nights, photography, her husband and her 4 year old son, Jacob.  Probably in reverse order.   She also blogs.

Kids in the Capital is conducting a survey this week to learn more about our readers and better understand what kind of information you’d like to see here.  Please take 5 minutes to answer, and you’ll be entered into a draw for a free photo from Sara McConnell Photography at the Red, White and Love event on February 12. Click here to take survey