Every once in a while, when we leave the deck door unlocked, Molly lets herself outside. Because the door doesn’t close behind her completely, she lets herself back inside as well. This is a good thing.

However, because the door doesn’t close behind her completely, the door is left ajar for other creatures to make their way onto the deck. This is a bad thing.

Like the other day, for instance. Molly left the door slightly cracked open, and before we knew it, a sparrow had flown onto the deck.

We didn’t know if it was scared or smart, but whenever we’d go out to escort the bird out the door, it would tuck itself into the wood pile.

This happened over and over and over and over again.

After six hours of creative–yet fruitless–attempts, the boys were finally successful. It was quite a sight to see four boys, each with a shoo-ing tool, chasing after a tiny sparrow.

We asked for snow, and here it is!

Take a look at some wintery scenes from the past couple weeks.

The three middle boys were thrilled that they finally had an authentic snowy backdrop for the Hoth scene of their movie.

Jake shoveled.

A lot.

Ruthie was his little helper in the front. She took care of the front walk.

She was very “helpful”.

Jake also shoveled the ice in the backyard. Jeremy was his helper on the ice.

Ruthie eventually joined them to “help”.

Jeremy had his best buddies over for a play date. They stopped their snowball fight for a brief moment to pose for the camera.

Even Molly has been excited about the snow.

Yeah winter!