A rare lie-in and why snowmen are so passé

I was lucky enough to despatch Things 1 & 2 a short way southwards to their nanna and grandad's house for the night last night - yes, even through heavy snow and strong winds, the grandparent taxi service was still running. This last minute, well- thunked out plan allowed me to have the rarest of all treats, a LIE-IN! Albeit a rather short one as I was awoken by a bouncy Thing 3, a mere 10 minutes after I'd have ordinarily been woken up. But, 10 minutes is better than a foot in the gut (which, incidentally is what Thing 3 proceeded to do after waking me up, but as she's a little Thing I'm sure it was completely accidental).

A mono-Thinged morning was spent ensuring as much housework as feasible was completed, with mounds of washing to work through and the plentiful debris of the Things brief time at home between getting in from school and grandparent taxi pick-up needing to be gathered up, put away and neatened this was no easy task, but the Things' dad made it a much less impossible state of affairs with his jolly dusting, vacuuming and dishwasher emptying. Brews made, bottoms just about to hit seat ..... 'Knock knock!' At the door.... Our set of Things is complete again....

Grandparents say their cheery 'bye-byes', Thing 2 lies on the floor wailing as she's so tired and had just been drifting to sleep in grandparent taxi. Thing 1 upturns a box of Lego on the nice tidy living room floor, Thing 3 greets her siblings' return with as much shouting as is possible by a 1 year old (believe me, that's a heck of a lot) and then proceeds to smack her hands repeatedly upon the face of the still wailing, still floor bound, Thing 2.... Alas, chaos reigns supreme yet again at Thing Central ....

So, I leave Thing 1 with his Lego, Thing 3 with a bottle of milk and convince Thing 2 that we should head into the garden and into the snow to build a snow something .... We decide we don't want to make a snowman, snowmen are so passé, so instead we create a snow 'cat in the hat' ..... It stopped Thing 2 from wailing (until it all started up again when her hands got too cold) but I credit those extra 10 minutes in bed with my ability to carry on until the Things finally went to bed. Now I've sat down with a well deserved (albeit now cold) cup of tea.