Extra day

We have an extra day for family this weekend... The boys decided to spend some of it here: 

Always makes me want lasagna when I come here... Had some yesterday before singing at the Maundy Thursday service at St Margaret's... So nice the conductor had food for us after practice and before service... I love singing with that group... There are always such talented singers with beautiful music chosen to add to the ethereal and reflective feeling in that church... I consider myself lucky to have been asked to sing with them for so many years...

Ooo! New addition! Nice to see the encouragement of music... They have another music area too... Experimenting with creating music is soooo important...

BAKING! Paska time!

Went to get ice cream after school yesterday!

Today, I was baking paska for Easter next week (we will eat it all week plus I have an exciting idea for next week for at least one loaf), and making cupcakes for my niece's party tomorrow.

She wanted moustache cupcakes!  I have a Pinterest page set up with cupcakes that I would love to try, so when family asks, they can pick from my page.  Here is the recipe and idea for what she picked:

http://ohsweetday.com/2013/06/mustache-cupcake.html

Making the moustaches was fun... drawing with chocolate:

That is a good chocolate cupcake recipe... try it!

While I was making cupcakes, I was also making paska... really it doesn't take long to mix up... it's all the rising of the dough 3 separate times!  Below is the second time:

This guy helped make it... he helped with getting the oranges and lemons ready... he was really interested and asked to help!  Cool!

MMm..... icing....

A treat before bed!

Finally, someone's super loose tooth came out WHILE he was eating paska!  Ha!  I promise, the paska is really soft!  

Kurt made the icing, and then I could assemble the cupcakes... fun to make!

The rest of spring break!

So!  With the last few days of spring break, we tried to go to the beach!  It was beautiful!  Sunny and warm... well... 4-5 Celsius anyway!  Warmer than it has been, anyway... seeing as this is the coldest winter in more than 100 years!  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/citys-worst-winter-since-98----1898-254004961.html

So... we tried to dig out our parking spot AGAIN (as we had done in January)...

But when Kurt tried to get the car into the spot, the ground was too soft and he was worried about getting stuck either trying to get in, or stuck in the spot... so we decided not to stay.  We didn't care, though, because we were going to get up in the morning and leave anyway because there was a family friend party the next day... besides the kids only cared about how we were invited to for dinner at the cottage of beach friends!  So we tried to go down to at least see the beach but even then we were sinking in the roads... so whatever!  We'll see it later!

Brothers:

Sunday evening, a nice time to walk to the park and play!

The river is right next to the park... so pretty!  Love the little leftover snowman!

We live in a super special area where there is art, music, poetry everywhere... it is completely expected to hear people playing instruments while you are out walking, see people with guitars sitting in parks, see poems written on mailboxes, see art painted on buildings or - park benches as we see below... It is common to have everyone say hi as they walk past, whether they know you or not... I have seen people not wearing shoes... just talking in the middle of the street, sweaters knitted for trees... there are artists, actors, creative people everywhere and it is evident.  I expect that I will recognize most people who drive by or bike past... there are people walking everywhere all the time... kids playing outside all the time... all the things that the news, and studies etc etc tell you do not happen anymore.  In my community it is like this all the time.  So wonderful.  It's a small pocket in a city... and because it is a small pocket with people outside all the time this is what contributes to everyone becoming familiar and friendly.  Love it.

Do you see the heart in the tree branches?  It's a little game of ours :-)

More spring break fun

I love the Polar Playground at our zoo... No one has to tell kids how to use it... They just naturally figure it out with their innate curiosity and tinkering skills... It is a wonderful balance of wonder, discovery and physical activity that each child experiences slightly differently, in their own way...

The snow leopard family was having a nice cuddle in the afternoon sunshine...

Sargent Sundae is also open! The little one and I went here while Kurt and the big kid are at the new Captain America movie...

Huge caramel sundae for him! Well... It was size small but even the small is a great size!

Spring break so far

Made some homemade ravioli with the older one... 

Went to BDI and got our first ice cream for "spring"... Pretty snowy for spring!

Went to the Pancake House before MTYP ...

A flame thrower after MTYP:

Fun winter weekend!

Before I start, these pictures look really tiny, but if you click on any of them, they become huge and you can even watch them in slideshow format!

It finally warmed up by the end of the week!  We've been having temperatures of -30C to -35C or colder... and with the windchill it was sometimes -47... so we were not that excited about going out and doing winter activities...

... Until this past weekend!

We drove up to the cottage!  It was -6 which felt absolutely balmy in comparision to the entire previous month.  We had to dig in to our yard to park the van...

Then we had to heat the place up by getting a good fire going and putting some heaters on... it took hours to warm up, but then it stayed quite nice and was even a bit too warm at night!

Once it there was some heat, we went off to the community centre area where there is a hill, a skating rink and what I think is supposed to be a cross country ski trail but it doesn't look skied on... instead it looks like people walk on it.  So, the boys did a bit of sledding...

... then we snowshoed through the trail for a bit.  It was so beautiful in there!

In the evening, we watched a movie (Mr Popper's Penguins), ate leftovers (we have no water after Thanksgiving, so getting too many dishes dirty is not so fun... so leftovers are the way to go).  After the movie, we played cribbage.  First time for the boys!  Great game for kids - lots of adding practice.

The next morning, after a pancake breakfast, we went snowshoeing down our back lane to the beach...

 Again - super pretty!  Today it was only -1, but -10 with the windchill.  I decided I would focus on the -1 part of the weather report... until we got to the path to to the beach.  Every step felt colder and colder.  By the time I was at the top of the stairs it was very windy and unpleasant. The kids and Kurt were down on the beach waiting for me.

I asked them if they really wanted to stay down there and walk around or anything but Kurt said they didn't care and really wanted to go skating back at the rink.  So, I said that they could come up and I wasn't going down!  Too cold!  Kurt took pictures on the beach for me.

So!  Off we went to go skating!

Then, more sledding...

Then back to the cottage to clean up and leave.  On the way home, we went to the cross country ski trails at Grand Beach.  Wow!  That was a great idea!  There are several lengths of trails.  We went on the shortest one, which is 2.6 kms and was just perfect for the end of the day, and for our new little 7 year old skier.  He's been taking skiing lessons with Red River Nordic Club, which has been a great way to get him positive and confident about skiing... they play great games, and work on balance and posture.  He was so positive and energetic today!  We were so proud of him!  And Mr. 10 year old?  Wow!  He has a great stride... so smooth and calm.

We all decided that was our favourite part of the whole weekend!  This weekend is going in the jar of good times for sure!

What I love the most, and we spoke about this on the way home, is that we have always hoped we could gently influence our kids by modeling our love of nature so that they would love it too.  We keep seeing great weekends like this where the kids just love being outside and are really appreciating how pretty it is, and enjoying noticing things around them... So grateful that they love to be outside with us, and to be active.

Makes me think of the song I sing to them (either on a recording I made for them, or live) every night.  The poem, called "For a Child" is by Fannie Stearns Davis, and when Kieran was born I made up a melody for it and sang it as a lullaby... then a few years later I recorded it for them so it can play for them whenever they want:

For a Child

Your friends shall be the Tall Wind,
The River and the Tree;
The Sun that laughs and marches,
The Swallows and the Sea.

Your prayers shall be the murmur
Of grasses in the rain;
The song of wildwood thrushes
That makes God glad again.

And you shall run and wander,
And you shall dream and sing
Of brave things and bright things
Beyond the swallow's wings.

And you shall envy no man,
Nor hurt your heart with sighs,
For I will keep you simple
That God may make you wise.

Some new things for the new year!

Just had some of this yummy pizza for dinner with my family!  Kurt made me my own gluten free pizza that was really tasty!

We had so much fun doing our Advent activities, that I thought I might make a jar of activities that are fun to do whenever we have time and we think we would like to do something... it's modelled after the Advent calendar ideas, but not (obviously) focused on Christmas themes... so that opened it up a lot.  Included are making crafts, doing environmental related activities, physical activity, visiting local attractions, doing seasonal related activities, citizen science activities, making food, art, etc.  How do they pick?  I created boards on Pinterest for many of them, so if they pick craft making, then I have selected a bunch of things they may like that they could choose from.  Here is one of them as an example:  http://www.pinterest.com/djembefer/activities-with-kids-making-food/

I also made this family memory jar, which I found out about from Pinterest last year.  It is empty, except for it has little notepads in it.  Every time we have a special day or event that one of us wants to write about, we will write it on a card and put it in the jar.  Next New Year's Eve (or day) we will read them all :-)

We are all now watching Despicable Me 2 (which we've seen before but it's so funny) after eating some yummy chocolate fondue... cuddling on a super cold day!  

Because it is so cold, the boys do not want to go out to see the fireworks at 10pm.  We also had plans to go with another family to Fort Whyte Alive tomorrow, but again, it is soooo cold that we wouldn't get much (if any) enjoyment out of it... so we will wait for a less cold day!

Happy New Year everyone!