What’s a dad to do when uncooperative snow refuses to be rolled into a snow man?

Despite the best efforts of this dad and his two sons, we just couldn’t get the snow to stick.

Instead, we played with ice for a while. I chipped chunks of it off the driveway. (Have I mentioned that I really dislike icy precipitation?) One boy delighted in throwing the chunks up in the air to watch them smash on impact with the asphalt. The other crushed them into slushy chunks with his shovel.

But that couldn’t last forever, so we ventured once again into that snowy wilderness known as “the backyard.”  We braved icicles dripping frigid droplets of water.  We dodged the minefields of brown pellets left by bunnies.

Finally, we made it. We had trudged the 25 feet through the knee-deep snow, (well… knee deep for the two-year old), and arrived for attempt number two at Operation Snow Man.

And… failed again.

So, we shoveled the snow into a big pile. First it was a mountain. Then a volcano. Well, it sort of looked like one.

But then, we strategically placed a couple slabs of ice into the mountain. We found a toy bucket that became a nose. Sticks for arms. Eyes and toothy smile gouged out.

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Now guarding the backyard: a snow monster.

His name is “Monsterrific.”