7/52

Skating at the Governor General's house - the first half was totally clear, and then big fat wet snowflakes began falling down, and it was total magic:-)

Skating on our lake, wishing we could do this every day......

I've been studying birds with Ry's class, and it's such a joy to spend this time with him.  He always greets me with a great big hug (as do quite a few of the other kids!), is enthusiastic with our various projects, and it is such a joy watching him help others and ensuring that everyone gets a turn.  On this day, we were creating bird houses......

6/52

Tiegan had been throwing up the night before, so both of the kids stayed home from school and Ry and I went on a fun little adventure down to the lake.  We put our skis on, created new trails through the woods, finally made it down to the lake and started to put our skates on.  It was at this moment that Ryland declared that he was too cold and he just wanted to go home - and there was NO WAY I was going to skip skating after all that hard work to get there:-)  Thankfully I'd smartly packed a whole bunch of extra warm clothes, so I wrapped him up as warmly as possible, and we enjoyed a lovely skate and then ski home again for some hot chocolate........

Tiegan had her regional competition for cheerleading this past weekend, and was so nervous and excited and spent hours doing her hair and make-up!  They did an awesome job, and won first place......

And as I search for a photo of Kea, I'm realizing just how few I've been taking of her lately.  Crazy, I'll have to rectify that:-)  Here is a shot from yesterday, where she is completely wiped out after skiing down to the lake, creating her own trail by shovelling lots of snow, and skating around the tracks a few times......and then she was DONE!  

I'll also include this shot of her Valentine's Day gift to Keean, though the photos didn't turn out as well as I'd have like:-(  She gifted him a lock to put on the Sommerset Bridge over the Rideau Canal - and she put K squared on it:-)  Ahhhhh, young love. 

5/52

We've discovered how incredibly perfect our local lake is for outdoor skating, and have been trying to make it down there as much as possible.......the kids are having a blast practicing their hockey skills and working on their skating......

The kids have become experts at clearing off the cars each winter, which is so handy - they get all dressed up and head out ten minutes early, giving me quiet time to finish getting ready and then I arrive at a car all cleared off:-)  Ahhhhhhh, it's moments like this that I remember WHY we had kids!

And a shot of Ms Kea as we hike out of the lake - through a marsh that is frozen in some places and not super frozen in others so we often get a surprise soaker while trudging through here.  We've learned to bring extra socks along with us:-)

4/52

The kids joined our neighbours for a costume skating party.  Kea always LOVES to dress up, and this time she opted to go as Pop Art.  Where does she get these ideas????!!!  It was kind of lost on the Lanark crowd, but they definitely recognized the effort as she won first prize for most creative costume:-)

Tiegan's class held a bake sale to raise money for their upcoming Ecole de Neige......I'm so glad she's now at the age where she can tackle much of the baking, bake sales are one of my nemesis/ :-)

This guy has been playing so hard, doing cross country skiing at school, hockey, skating, sledding - every night he comes home drenched in sweat, and I FINALLY convinced him to soak in a cleansing bubble bath while I washed his snowsuit:-)  Clean for a few minutes anyways......

3/52

Jamie is determined to cut his hair at home, but usually runs into situations where that's too tricky.  Since past experiences have taught me that me trying to cut his hair does not end well, emotionally and literally, but we've discovered that Kea and Jamie seems to be a good combo - so she's working on her barber skills these days:-)

Tiegan has decided that she wants to learn hockey this winter, so for now she is just joining Jamie and Ry on Saturday mornings.  Which works perfectly as she loves being out on the ice with her dad, and she's learning some great hockey skills out there!

And although this isn't a fabulous portrait of Ry per se, I love the moment between him and his dad - Jamie's been revisiting many of his favourite samurai movies, and is here showing Ry some new moves.  Ry is LOVING it, laughing at Jamie's goofiness, and asking for more and more moves to try in his various sword fights with friends.......

2/52

Jamie found some rollerblades at the dump this summer, and the kids have loved practicing their skills in the house.  Kea's the most nervous on them, and insists on wearing a helmet - and would probably pile on the padding if we had that too:-)  She cracks me up!

Tiegan spends tonnes of time here in her little loft these days.  She loves to write in her journal, colour, craft, and listen to music.  And I suspect that you'll be seeing an assortment of fun facial expressions from her over this project - that definitely seems to be her go-to these days:-)

And this guy is all gung ho to FINALLY have snow - sledding, fort building and skiing!!!!  He used to whine and complain whenever we dragged him out for a cross country ski, but then this year he came home with a notice that he'd signed up for the school's cross country ski team.....so we've been out practicing and I'm curious to see how the season will go:-)

1/52

I'm determined to return to the weekly portrait of the kids - I'm sure they won't be so thrilled during the process, but we all enjoy going back and looking through them all so I keep on keeping on!  And I figure once a week is going to be MUCH easier than once a day:-)

To start off the week, I didn't quite realize how colour coordinated everyone was, but here we are with shades of blue - 

Such a classic smile from Kea, I LOVE how she always crinkles her nose:-)

Tiegan, the queen of funny faces:-)

And Ry - usually far too busy to stop for a photo:-)

15/52

I was in New York for a few days visiting Anja, so of course we decided to do our portraits for this week together:-)

We went to go see Sleep No More which was quite an experience.......

We also went for a delicious brunch at the restaurant Anja currently works at - Jack's wife Freda

And other than that, we walked and walked and walked all. over. the. place.  And talked, and shot photos, and ate too much food, and generally had a wonderful time together! 

One more shot, as we took the ferry to Williamsburg, under the Brooklyn Bridge - 

14/52

First swim of the year! Feels so good! ;)

Dropping my baby girl off for gymnastics - she's so excited!

Sorry for the break once again, life has kicked me in the butt, and now I'm packing up to head south on a grande adventure (NYC!  Washington!  Orlando! The beaches around Punta Gorda!), flying out first thing tomorrow morning.  It seems so much easier to post quick photos from my phone rather than regular blogging, so though I plan on catching up here, you can always catch me on Instagram:-)

13/52

One chair for me, one for Didi ;)! Set myself up with a paint corner by the window....so excited for spring sun and warm breezes!

Can't believe how long my hair is getting - perhaps after two years, it's coming time to go in for a haircut?!!!!

12/52

It was 80's day at school, and since I was working an afternoon shift, I had lots of fun with blue eye make-up:-)

So, i had all these plans for pictures last week and forgot to do any of them. So here it is. Me, after a long day at the restaurant, freshly showered and back at the computer trying to get the new blog up. Which is where i've been for much of the week so i guess it's representative of something....

11/52

Vernon shot this the other night at my favorite NY bar, Pleaiades. Thankfully it's on the other end of the city and we almost never go, but it's a great spot for date night. And that's his rose petal gin martini! ;) i had Earl Grey punch. 

The maple sap is not free flowing quite yet (-15 degrees today, with frostbite warnings overnight, oy!), but there's been enough over the past week or so for me to start boiling down - so I spend hours chopping wood and filling this wood stove, looking forward to a fresh batch of syrup, yum!!!!!

10/52

I am so sick of feeling sick.  Jamie, Kea and I have been fighting this BRUTAL cold and it just will not go away.  Jamie has had it for two weeks, Kea and I are on week one.  We're up and about now, and over the worst, but still very full of phlegm, needing to lay down in the afternoon, chesty cough and low, low energy.  Ugh.  I've been drinking copious amounts of ginger tea, bathing in hot ginger baths, making juices with raw garlic and eating tumeric honey........trusting that this too will pass:-)

I love the moment of my commute when the train goes over the East River with views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. 

9/52

It's a good thing Anja and I agreed on doing these weekly portraits, otherwise there would be absolutely no updates on this poor little blog at all!  I have a whole bunch of photos and stories lined up, one day that ambition will line up with some free time and energy to post some updates:-)

For this week, a portrait of me in my happy place - many days end with me taking a soak in here, usually with epsom salts but lately more with a lot of ginger as I try to beat this crazy chest cold.....

And Anja says - "I've been shooting food all week. How about that reflection in the camera lens... double selfie ;)"

8/52

Saturday fun at the Met ;)

And in the frozen north (but FINALLY with some heat to the sunshine!), Saturday fun on the Rideau Canal.  It's been open for the most consecutive days in a row ever, one perk of such an extremely cold winter this year:-)

7/52

Determined to carve out moments of self-care here and there.......some weeks I'm more successful than others:-)

No explanation really.... just wanted to start playing more ;)

Portraits

I was going through a bunch of the photos I took of the kids over the last year, and will have to put together a bit of a slideshow of some of the portraits.  Definitely not all 365 (times THREE!!!!), but a good sampling of them.  Soon.  I know that I stopped posting them each week on here during our big road trip, but I still made a point of taking them.  Not necessarily every day, but I took an awful lot of portraits - many of which I shared on here in other posts, and others that I promised the kids I would never share on-line.  Here's a few of the portraits as I was sorting through them - I definitely think Ryland changed the most over the year, wow!!!  I can't believe how much his hair grew in just one year:-)  And Kea looks the least changed, but all of her growth must have just been happening internally as she seems like a very different person this Jan from last Jan.

I know that at times this project felt like a pain in the butt, other times I lost steam or the kids protested the camera being constantly in their faces, but as I look back over the photos, I'm so so so glad I persevered.  So fun to look back at, and what a lot of grande adventures we've had together!!!!!