Snow day: Nothing to do but have fun

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The powers that be say it's a snow day. So did you build a snowman? Plenty did on Wednesday, along with sledding down hills, flopping flat on their backs to make snow angels, and taking up arms in snowball fights.

Meet you at the Armory

At the Cranston Street Armory in Providence's West End, the snowman was a redhead. Not auburn or strawberry blonde, but as red as a cherry -- thanks to a red wig someone scared up.

Correction: it was a snow- woman.

"This is a representation of the West Side," said Judy Croyle. She and about ten others -- adults and kids alike -- had gathered in the field at the Armory to collaborate on the figure -- prompted by a Facebook invitation from Mike Ritz.

The snow-woman's nose was as round as a potato, with a mouth of a twig -- and an XXXXXL-or so T-shirt reading "I (heart) PROVIDENCE."

No coal for the eyes, though. The sun wasn't out. It was overcast. Nevertheless, some cool sunglasses gave her peepers.

"This was a special shopping trip, really!" said Ritz.

"We might as well enjoy the snow while everybody else says they dread it," he said.

Snow makes you a kid again

Max Galpern, 8, voiced a common theme. He likes snow days: "We can have snowball fights and make snowmen, just like this one."

Hilary Kraus didn't bring her kids to the park to join the snow-play; she doesn't have any. "I'm out here BEING a child," she told Eyewitness News reporter Nneka Nwosu cheerily. "Might as well come out and enjoy it."

But this operation was serious, too. "The snow is kind of hard to pack, so we're trying to pack it separately and lay it on top," like building blocks, Kraus said.

"I'm on a snow day from work. I'm sorry you're not!" she said with a grin.