NEW YORK (AP) – While some New Yorkers began digging out from under a record snowfall, many others spent a leisurely Sunday in Central Park, which became a playground for cross-country skiers, sledders and snowball warriors.

With many of the city’s cars buried under the more than two feet of snow, children took over streets on sleds pulled by hardworking parents in a continuous line of migration that converged on the park from all directions.

Once inside, the children charged up hillsides and turned slopes into hazards of small careening objects. Many expressed hopes of school cancellations in coming days.

“We’re hoping for a whole week off, so we can go skiing and make snowmen,” said Inez Coulton, 12, a native of Sydney, Australia, who said she had never seen so much snow in her life.

The fun was not only for the young. Jonathan Burkan, 35, who was out sledding, said the storm reminded him of a blizzard in 1977, when he was seven years old and an avid sledder.

“School was closed for several days then,” he recalled. “Although I’ll have to go to work tomorrow this time, I feel like I’m a kid again.”

Nor was the fun only for humans. Large dogs galloped happily through snow meadows throughout the park, while smaller ones, accustomed to hard city ground, had to learn new strategies for getting places in the deep snow.

At the edge of the Sheep Meadow, a squirrel took a soft landing from a low branch of tree and disappeared under the snow before re-emerging from a hole a few feet away.

No amount of snow would stop some fitness enthusiasts, who were breaking sweats on cross-country skis and even jogging with snow shoes.

Jane Levinson, 66, was seeking deep powder on snow shoes in the Ramble, one of the less manicured corners of the park.

“It’s a good ol’ winter wonderland,” she said. It was about 4 p.m. and the tracks she had made earlier had already disappeared under fresh snowfall, which had added up to nearly 27 inches by that point.

Many snowshoers and skiers said that after one of the warmest Januarys on record for the city, they were happy to see any snow at all.

“I got these skis for the family for Christmas and this is the first chance we’ve had to use them,” said Michael Strage, 46, who was making a loop of the park with his wife, Jonna Espey, 40, and son, Mark, 14.

“The park today is like an exquisite zoo filled with birds and animals and white creatures, which might be humans,” Espy said. “It’s beautiful.”