I made it back to Oklahoma just before the snow arrived. Friday night, the roads were clear; by Saturday afternoon, ice and snow had covered the ground. While driving 875 miles straight through is never particularly enjoyable, the desire to see one’s kids combined with the fear of getting stuck in a blizzard are powerful motivators.

Today, the children wanted to play in the “snow” — or what there was left of it. And as usual, once the two of them got outside, the never-ending fighting between them continued. Desperate for something to keep them busy and out of each other’s hair, I invented the first annual O’Hara Winter Games. The events and results were as follows:

Event One: Run to the neighbor’s driveway and back. The catch? Mason had to run backwards, while Morgan got to run forwards. One your mark, get set, go! Although Morgan took an early lead, apparently running backwards looked like more fun and so when she also turned around backwards Mason blew past her. Mason 1, Morgan 0.

Event Two: Five laps around the tree. Each kid was to run around the tree in our front yard five times. Mason was doing three laps to Morgan’s one; however, mid-race, I announced that if you were wearing a pink hat (like Morgan) that each lap counted as three. Upon Morgan’s second lap she decided eating snow was more important than finishing the race. I actually got seven laps out of Mason, telling him one didn’t count because he “cut” and another didn’t count because he didn’t hit my hand. Mason 2, Morgan 0.

Event Three: Snow Angels. On the word “go,” each kid was to run to the neighbor’s yard, make a snow angel, and run back. Both kids performed the task so each were awarded a point. Mason 3, Morgan 1.

Event Four: Sledding. How far can you go down the icy driveway? Each kid was lined up and slung down the driveway while riding our old plastic sled. The much lighter Morgan slid further than Mason (also partially due to a harder push). Mason 3, Morgan 2.

Event Five: Candyland Hopscotch. With our Candyland yard decorations pretty much ruined from the rain, we turned the colored-patchway into a color-coded round of hopscotch. This game had no real point. I randomly called out colors and the kids ran to those colors, like a simplistic version of twister. Without any rules defined I eventually declared Morgan the winner. Surprisingly, they were both okay with that. Mason 3, Morgan 2.

After five events Mason was officially declared the winner. That suited both kids just fine, as I’m not sure Morgan even knew we were playing a game. After the games, Morgan celebrated her defeat by eating snow mixed with grass, while Mason dumped handfulls of snow into his own hair. Everybody wins in Winter Games!