We've been geting some wacky weather lately. This past Saturday, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon scraping two layers of snow and slush from on top of the remaining layer of ice that still coated the driveway. Since then we've gotten more snow, some sleet, snow again, and then freezing rain. The driveway now has several strata of different forms of winter accumulation, including an crusty outer shell that crunches satisfyingly whenever you take a step.

Ben and Christopher had great fun with the snow tonight. They spent nearly two hours strip-mining the backyard of big US-state-shaped sheets of ice from that top, crusty layer that they then deposited in their red wagon. Ben identified one chunk of ice as roughly matching the shape of Pennsylvania. There was also a Minnesota-shaped piece that he recognized, although he referred to it as “the soldier's hat,” instead.