The great meltdown of 2008

No, I'm not talking about one of the kids throwing a tantrum here, I'm actually talking about the snow! I am utterly amazed by how quickly the mountains of snow have melted in the past week. To say that they were melting before our very eyes would not be an exaggeration - we actually paused on the street one day to stare in amazement at a snowbank as it slowly drip drip dripped and melted away one tiny drop at a time.

On Monday of this week our neighbourhood park was still covered in snow, but it had gone down enough that we could trudge through it in our boots to make it to the swings and go for a quick ride. By Friday, only 5 days later, the snow had all melted and squealing and delighted kids (including my own!) ran around the in sand, built castles, climbed structures, slid down slides and took turns on the swings. And all of this in t-shirts and bare feet no less.

We have sort of been scratching our heads lately at the irony of the fact that we are dressed for summer as we walk by the piles of snow that are still scattered here and there. I took a funny picture of Gabe that really represented the incongruity of the remaining snow with the oh-so-high temperatures we have had over the past few days. It is a photo of him in the backyard with no shirt on, standing in front of what remained of the snow. (Note: his pants are all wet because he accidentally splashed in the melted snow that pooled in our empty sandbox - this also explains the lack of shirt!) It was a gorgeous 23 degrees Celsius that evening and the only thing that belied the fact that it wasn't actually June or July was that darn pile of snow...! Looks like spring is finally here. :)