Homemade snow cones and quality time

"Dad, I want to do something fun" my five-year-old says as I walk in the door. My wife was on her way to scouts with my 8-year-old son and the other two girls were sleeping. I scooped her up and gave her a huge hug, feeling that soft long brown hair tickle my cheeks as she nuzzled into me. I've always been a sucker for my daughters, probably because of the massive amount of affection they give me on a daily basis. As I put her down and look into her big blue eyes I ask her "what would you like to do?" Being a typical five-year-old she is of course obsessed with candy, and she looks up at me with a greedy grin and says "let's go get ice cream!" I smile, because I should've anticipated this response in the first place. "We can't go anywhere, Katie and Lola are still sleeping. We wouldn't want to leave them all alone would we?" 

Her face screws up in a look of five-year-old concentration.   I can see that she's trying to concoct some way to get what she wants without leaving the house. I head her off at the pass: "it snowed last night, do you want to make some snow ice cream?" Her eyes illuminate as though it was Christmas morning. "How do we do that?" She asks giggling and jumping up-and-down. "I don't know," I reply, pulling out my phone. "But we can look it up" 

After googling "how to make snow ice cream" we paw through a few of the sites on the web looking for an easy recipe that contains ingredients we already have in the house. They all seem to have one thing in common: get a big bowl full of snow. 

Out to the backyard I went with a ladle and a large green plastic mixing bowl. Carefully scooping the freshly fallen snow off the top of the previous snowfall I loaded the bowl to it's brim and brought it back inside. Ellie could hardly contain her excitement. "can I mix it? She asked, holding up a large wooden spoon she somehow it been able to locate in the kitchen. 

The first batch was awful, and we tossed  into the sink, laughing as we watched the flakes melt down the drain. I sent Ellie outside with the bowl and spoon to get a second batch, and this time we abandoned our ice cream idea and went for more of a "Snowcone" concept. Mixing a few spoonfuls of sugar and a packet of Kool-Aid mix we yielded a bright yellow powder that tasted simply fantastic. Packing it into plastic cups we feasted on it with spoons and laughed as our tongues turned orange. 

As I smiled at this beautiful little girl across the room from me I realized I would do almost anything to make her happy, and I knew we would both remember this moment for years to come. It wasn't about what we made, it was the process of making it together. A parent, working with their child to have fun and enjoy a rare moment together. That's what being a dad is all about.