Ry's birthday party

And here follows a photo-heavy post, showcasing a bit of Ryland's Star Wars party. Every Jedi needs to feel the energy of the force around them, so must practice various yoga moves to feel it in the rock, in the tree, and of course, the warrior pose! Balance is essential, as are mind memory games. Group co-operative games are essential in order to cross the lava beds, every jedi must practice destroying the death star, and avoiding the asteroids can be very challenging on bouncy balls! Lots of fun was had, though I think the biggest hits were the Star Wars lego, and the playdough:-) Ry declared it the best party ever, and really, as the party planner what more do you need??!!!!!

Downhill Skiing

So, after 3 trips up to the ski hill, Ryland has officially figured out how to ski on his own down the big runs, and really has no trouble keeping up with us all. In fact, he'd happily go as fast as possible all the way down, but the poor guy has his nagging mother skiing behind him reminding him to TURN regularly and to slow down!!! But really, he's doing amazing, and it felt crazy to stop mid-way down the hill at one point, watch all three of the kids ski past me and realize that WE HAVE ARRIVED. We are now a skiing family, all of us going down the same runs! Fun times ahead:-)

Of course, I didn't bring my camera to the top of the hill, so here's a couple of photos from the bunny hill - it's right by where we park, and the kids are never ready to go so while we pack things up they go down the little hill as many times as possible! And I didn't get a good photo of it, but in the background you can see Jamie on his new teli-skis, he's so very thrilled to be telemarking once more:-) And yes, Kea is with us during all these adventures, she is just usually very resistant to getting her photos taken these days - absolute torture for her mother, but I try to respect it!!!!!!



And some classic warming up in the car afterwards - this was a particularly chilly day, and all of us froze our hands just undoing our boots and putting our gear in the car. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

maple syrup days have arrived......

We got ourselves a little evaporator of sorts this year, which has been a very exciting development in our maple syrup production. SOOOOOOOO much better than the metal grids over an open fire we were working with last year, I think more of the fire ended up in the syrup then out! A distinctly smoky flavour, for sure!

But this year, we're creating DEEEEEEE-LICIOUS syrup, 2 cups at a time!!!!! The first day we boiled sap we all hung out all day, figuring out how to make it work most effectively, chopping wood, watching the pot boil. And boil, and boil. I took lots of photos this first day, but seem to have put the camera aside every other day in order to chop the never-ending supply of wood needed......I'll have to try and snap a few more before this seemingly super-short season ends.

Now that we're doing it every day, we've managed to figure out a system where we can establish a hot fire, and then come out every 20-30 minutes to feed it and keep it going. We're also able to alternate between the two families, sharing the workload. Hard on the days we have to give over half of the 2 cups of syrup we spent all day making, but fabulous on the days we can just arrive home to a fresh container of syrup:-) We're just hoping that now that we've found our stride, the cold weather will return so the sap will keep running - I'm not quite ready for this crazy warm weather and I want more maple syrup!!!!!

Our baby boy turned FIVE at the end of February, I can hardly believe it. He was so excited to finally be a full hands-worth of years, and we celebrated it in style. The rest of the family REALLY wanted to go downhill skiing, but for some reason he had it in his head that that was NOT how he wanted to celebrate his birthday. So instead we went to see the Star Wars movie in the theatres (in 3-D, ugh), and then went home to practice our lightsaber fighting!!! We finished the day off with chocolate cake, as per the birthday boy's request, and it was a perfect day for our little boy xo



I had to laugh a bit at his pile of gifts that morning......can you tell we have a BOY living in our house?!!!! And check out the scarf Kea spent many an evening knitting, and then she sewed on a little felt yoda, such a sweet thoughtful gift for her Star Wars loving brother:-).

Skating on the canal

We've had a crazy mild winter this year, which actually kind of sucks in my books because I absolutely love many winter sports - all of which count on cold temps and lots of snow. Luckily we did manage to fit in a bit of most things, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding and ice skating, but we only managed to make it to the canal twice this year. Which is too bad, because there's just something so magical about skating on the canal. We went one evening with Sean and Chloe, as we try to do each year, and it's amazing to see how much better everyone is getting at skating. Even Elsie was on skates this year, and as it always goes with the youngest in a group, she was determined to keep up with the rest!!!!!!



Check out the new changing/warming huts they've built now - even with washroom facilities and in-floor heating. Fancy dancy. Apparently they cost a lot of money, and seem rather silly for the TWO OR THREE WEEKS the canal seems to be open these years, but we enjoyed them nonetheless:-)


And, of course, it wouldn't be a skate on the canal without eating a beavertail!!!! Luckily, so far, my kids seem to associate beaver tails with winterlude and the canal, so it's our once a year treat! I'll just have to always avoid walking by the permanent stand in the market during every other season to keep it this way:-)

Kea's version of dinner

As I was downloading the photos from my camera after our dinner at Meg and Ian's, I noticed that Kea too had had a lot of fun with my camera - and I thought I'd share a few of her snapshots of the evening!!!!! Always interesting to see someone else's viewpoint from the camera.........