Snowman lives

I guess it has been a while since I last wrote! January flew by and now we are at the end of February!

We have had very little snow this winter. The girls had their bikes out one weekend in January!

(well, guess time really flies by since it is now the middle of March and I am still working on this blog entry!!)

True, we had very little snow this winter. We got a week of snow at the end of February, just in time for the Szollosy's visit with us during their school break.

Now the snow is gone again (except for the shady areas on the lawns). The last couple of days have truly felt like spring. Lighter jackets are out and the snow boots are being tucked away for another year.

I think we made 1 snowman this year. The snow has to be just perfect for snowmaking and those days seem rare that when the snow is right - drop everything kids, we are going outside to play! Our snowman this year was a little small (we only had about 5-10 cm of snow to work with in the first place). He had broccoli eyes and a celery nose and a couple of baby carrot 'toggle' buttons. We enjoyed him while he lasted (about a week). We did replace his (or maybe it was 'her') pink Las Vegas cap with a old sun hat right after this picture was taken. Didn't want to the new cap to get all wet or blow away!

Family Skating

We have had very little snow this winter. I think the girls have had the sleds out maybe twice! I think I can count the times I have scraped the driveway on one hand (that is scraped since there never really was enough to 'shovel'). I almost gave up hope and took the snow brush out of the car. (thank goodness I didn't since we did get a dusting last week, which definitely required clearing the car but not enough to cover the grass on the front lawn!)

We have been enjoying getting out this winter and skating as a family. (Eric just commented that 'out' means out of the house not outside, since Toronto doesn't have very many outdoor rinks and with this winter's weather, they probably wouldn't have been in great shape.)

Both girls are getting really at gliding and staying on their feet! Last week, the girls' school had their skating day for winter carnival and they had a great time. Today, Alia was very much into playing in the middle of the rink, trying some figure skating moves (ie: skating on one foot and trying to spin). I think the new socks and bandaids before putting the skates on really helped.

We tried a new rink today. Normally, we would go to the local arena which is just down the street from our house. Today, we tried Cummer Community Centre. There seemed to be fewer people there today, making it more enjoyable to skate with little ones. I wonder if it being a holiday (Valentine's day and Chinese New Year) had anything to do with the crowd numbers. We will definitely go back. They also have the indoor pool in the same complex which might be a good option for our Saturday afternoons!

Le sacrement du premier pardon

Jeudi soir, Alia a fait son premier sacrement du pardon. Bravo ma belle!

Le pluriel au niveau préscolaire

L'autre jour, on faisait la dictée avec les deux filles. Alia étudie pour la dictée PGL à l'école et Kyra voulait faire 'des mots faciles'.

Maman: Kyra, épelle 'pomme'.

Kyra: p-o-m-m-e

M: Bravo. Comment est-ce qu'on écrit pomme si on a deux pommes?

(réponse voulue: p-o-m-m-e-s)

Kyra: p-o-m-m-e-p-o-m-m-e