Winter Wonderland!

Finally as promised, "Yes, let's put up the tree!"

Feeling the spirit?

Last Saturday the weather was perfect. -1 to 0 degrees, no wind, just a touch of sun. We invited our friends over for a skate and a campfire and an afternoon of just hanging out. I left my camera inside but they had theirs and took some wonderful pictures!

It is so nice to enjoy the our backyard rink with friends.
The girls practiced their skating together then played red light green light.

Meanwhile the dogs kept trying to join in the fun so I wrapped one arm across Maggie's chest and one under her tummy and yelled "Ok Maggie GO!" and she tried to take off running and pulled me a few feet. Once she realized I was using her to pull me around the ice the game was over! This dog has incredible pull power. She is 6 and I still have to walk her on a prong because she has the strength to take me anywhere if the mood strikes her.

While all this skating was happening, the men worked on the fire! The wood is kept outside so it was wet and resistant but the guys got it done!

This made for a nice warm heating up place for the parents!

Then just as the sun was starting to set the biggest fatest snowflakes began to fall.

Ken was showing Sid how to pick one out and catch it :)


At this point the kids were pretty much done skating so they got to go for Steph rides across the ice.

Watching the dogs watching us.

I love this picture so much because this captures Groovy doing what Groovy loves to do. Eat embers or fire fairies as our friends call them. Groovy loves everything that flies. This list includes embers, wasps, bees, hornets, frisbees, rc airplanes, kites etc. etc.

After some warm drinks and a warm up inside we had spaghetti for dinner. Even at five this is a messy task!

Accepting the challenge

Slurpy goodness!

Thank you for the wonderful day friends, another fab memory in the making.

We heart Winter!!!

Today was my favorite day of Winter so far. I am sure there will be many to chose from but today was so special because it was the first real play in the snow day we've had. It has been cold and snowy but we now have "it's here to stay snow" that covers everything with a nice white coat.
Today Sid and I went out to play after lunch and didn't come back in until after 4:00. Due to all the rain this fall and particularly the week before the big snow, Mother Nature made us a nice long rink in the backyard where the property floods in the spring. I pulled out a shovel, put on some skates and ta-da an instant rink.

Look at the confidence as she skates with her hockey stick!

Practice makes perfect

Snow 'Dales hung around the rink for the entire afternoon too. Groovy really enjoyed the steal the puck game which she invented and continued to play regardless of the shrieking.

"Leave IT GROOVY!"

Waiting to spring on the puck...

Watching over her kid.

Snow Break!

Hapiness is.......

We had so much fun that after supper and dad getting home, we went back out for a skate at 8:30. Dad came too and next time we will go out earlier with hot coco and a campfire. These are memories that will last forever!

Tuesday Sid and Isabella graduated from Intro to Drama. The teacher has said they can go to the next level which is for 6 and 7 year olds but they get the games and are extremely creative so they will do fine. I am excited because they will have to memorize lines and put on plays. I hope they enjoy it as much.

Sleeping fishy play.

Wax Museum game. Daddy sure is fun!

Freeze dance. Do the Mash Potato.

Freeze Dance. Do the Twist.

Sid talking on the phone with Uncle Greg to wish him a happy birthday. She is getting soooo big!

Sid's winter snow globe with chalk. I cut out a large circle and taped it over the black paper and Sid coloured around it to create the globe. I thought it turned out really well!

Last week we had Nature Club at Mer Bleue and did the boardwalk. The chickadees were so happy to join us for lunch!

We put some seeds on the table and they joined us instantly. There is one on Sid's head!

They kept landing on my thermos of tea. I suspect they were heating up their chickadee toes!

Winter Nature Club is a smaller group but still loads of fun for the kids. We were supposed to go to a local trail where you can feed semi-tame deer this week but it was -23 with the windchill so we will try for next week.