'Snow' much fun

What a Monday. The kids were all home from school. I had to drive to the orthodontist twice - once to get his braces off and again in the afternoon to get his bottom retainer. And it snowed all day. We got about another six inches. L, though, had a great day off. She had her neighborhood friends, sisters E and B, over since about 11:30 a.m. and two other neighborhood friends, siblings M and L, came over around 1 p.m. All day they were in and out of the house to play in the snow. Here they are on one of their many treks to the parking lot at Irving where they were working on building a snow fort:

E was supposed to work for two hours at the Women's Exchange, but they called early in the afternoon to say they were closing the shop for the day because of the snow. (She did get some good news this weekend that four of her temari balls sold at the shop for $10 each. The shop keeps 30 percent so she gets $7 per ball!) She was supposed to read a few chapters of Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms," but kept procrastinating. She watched all kinds of crazy TV shows (bad tattoos, a reality show of a veterinary in Michigan, a guy who builds fancy treehouses, etc. - you get the idea), she played games on her iPhone, she texted her friends. She did everything except read. When Andy came home from work (after E spent the entire day nonproductive) I sent her out to sweep snow off the front steps. She did it, and left a little message in the snow:

The left side of the front sidewalk says "winter" in Japanese. The right side is a peace sign, a heart and her signature smiley face. She'll apparently do anything to put off that reading.