If this family and their army of snow people want to take over the world, we just might be willing to let them.
After all, the Mannings of Leesburg, Va. took an ordinary snow day and turned it into a piece of eye-popping awesomeness. Steph Manning and her daughter Caterina, 9, chilled (heh) with no less than six -- SIX! that's half a dozen! -- snowmen. Not only that, but they had a full feast of snowballs... and snow wine? (We'll bring our own food and drinks, thanks.)
Manning said when she cooked up the scheme, she initially faced resistance from her family. "A friend of mine posted a photo like this on her Facebook, of a bunch of snowmen playing poker. We had all this snow outside and I said, 'I know what we're doing today.' No one in my family wanted to help me," she said, laughing. The kiddos were more interested in building tunnels than snow guests.
"I was building them all by myself," Manning said. "Then my husband and my daughter started getting involved and my son was a little more interested."
The crowd of snow guests only took her about an hour and a half. "All the snow was already on the chairs," she said. Ahh, convenient!
"When we were done, my daughter Catie and I told the snowmen to stay as long as you like, don't bother to clean up, we'll do it in the morning," Manning said. "And to not make too much noise, please, since we don't want to disturb the neighbors."
And how are the snow guests faring in the aftermath of the storm? "They're looking a little tired now," she said. "They lost some of their eyes. One lost a carrot nose and my daughter stuck it on his head." Oh, we hate it when that happens!
In the meantime, we hope the Mannings make many happy memories with their new dinner guests. One caveat, though. These guests might not stick around for the family's summer barbecue.
