A Winter Walk

Skating

We've really been enjoying skating recently, with everybody, except Laurel, on their feet -- well, most of the time anyway!  Yesterday we were at the university rink and everybody had a great time.  We snuck in during the parent and tot / senior time -- hey we have tots, some of them are just bigger than others! -- but nobody seemed to mind.  The boys are all improving and, although they tire quickly, are eager to go back.  

This is Owen's first year on skates, so he has inherited the bob skates.  I love that they fit right over his boots and require no lacing and he loves that he can be on the ice with everyone else with a little bit of extra stability.  It also means that I (or Dada) am not holding him up and dragging him around -- ouch, that gets hard on the back.

Aidan, Mr. I can buckle my skates myself, has improved the most since last year.  He is even confident enough to go off on his own which is a BIG step for him.  He's not much of a sports guy, but seems to really enjoy skating -- maybe he has found his niche (aside from Lego!).

Isaac is in his first pair of lace up skates.  I really need to remember to add lots of extra time for lacing up!  The year that he was in school, they took the kids skating weekly (the rink was next door to the school), so he got a lot of  good practice that year and has continued to improve.  Falling is almost as fun as skating and he is always up for a race!

One of the great things about the university rink is that nobody protests the use of strollers.  How else is Laurel supposed to participate is these activities if not from the comfort of a stroller?  Let's keep practising our walking first, then we'll work on skating.  But we have run into some opposition at our local rink as well as the Oval in Halifax.  The "mobile ice monitors" (my made up job title) stopped us when we were only a quarter of the way around and told us that having a stroller on the ice was too dangerous -- I thought that I was doing a good thing by not carrying her.  Anyway, we were escorted around the rest of the way and that was the end of that.  Here are a couple of pictures from our one lap around the Oval.

 

Oh well, we were getting cold anyway.  So we shared a Beavertail (soooo yummy -- don't think that I've had one since we left Ottawa!), took our skates, and went home.

Snow Day

Another Thursday and another load of snow -- Mother Nature seems to have something against Thursdays!  Our regular Thursday morning plans were cancelled which left plenty of time for some shovelling and outside play for all.  

The boys love to shovel -- at least they do now, just wait until they get older when it will not be optional.  They each have a shovel -- although when they forget to pick them up (which is often), they get buried in the new snow and then it's "America's Funniest Video" just waiting to happen!  Dada (grudgingly, I'm sure) usually leaves them a spot to do.  This morning, after moving the vehicles out of the way, but before the boys could get out to do their part, our neighbour thoughtfully came along with his truck and plowed the whole driveway -- Yipee!  But, the boys were disappointed until, that is, they realized that shovelling would not have left such a large pile at the end of the driveway to play and dig in -- can you say snow fort?

The white of the snow always makes our house look dirty.  I guess that I'll have to add "clean the house" to the to-do list in the Spring.  And why Owen feels the need to shovel the road, I'm not really sure.  I guess that with the driveway all done, he still had energy to burn -- oh, to have that kind of energy again!

The neighbours have a much bigger pile of snow in their yard, the boys discovered.  Great for bum sliding, hiding behind and just some good old climbing around.  They should sleep well tonight!

Tobogganning!

This year for Christmas, our family received a good old fashioned toboggan (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!).  This classic Canadian winter activity is very popular in our house (well, not actually in our house) and, as you can see, everyone was pretty excited.  It is a six foot, wooden sled, complete with a red pad (probably more to protect the older bones and butts that hope to also get a turn)!  We couldn't wait to try it out on our favourite hill.  

Well, today was the day!  We headed out after lunch with high spirits, warm clothes and our back-up plastic sleds (just in case).  It was a great day -- not too cold, not too sunny -- and we had the hill to ourselves.  The snow was a little too wet to go very fast or very far, but we left with wet mittens, big smiles and plans for the next time (like how to fit all 6 of us on the toboggan)!  What a great day and they are calling for more snow tomorrow!