more winter fun

Emora has gotten brave and skilled enough to attempt her first glides on skates without the bar.  Here she goes off support!

This was our second excursion of sledding.  Several minor injuries resulted.  It was very slick!  The weather here is being very bizarre this year- lots of warm days, lots of snow, and windy- so things are icy:  streets, highways, hills.  It's caused some havoc since a lot of people commute around here.  Dance class has been cancelled a lot.  I saw an optometrist in town and she said they've had to cancel a lot too.

This day, we went on a walk along the road of the house Brian is working on.

It's a nice walk as it winds up over the lake and is closed off to traffic.

Someone is getting ready for a birthday!  She dressed up in Dominique's winter clothes and about made me cry!  I told her she could turn 4, but not be school age grown up yet!

Papa and Saba bonded over the holidays.  He misses his dog and Saba was glad to get the attention of going on walks.

This puzzle is harder than it looks!

Wow- Emora let someone brush her hair!  I think grandparents must have secret powers.

I remember seeing our neighbor at the acreage create this giant Moose for the city of Moose Jaw when I was a teenager.  Also in the back is one of the snowbird airplanes.

Who knew that Moose Jaw has the prettiest library ever?  It's in this huge old building and the foyer is all marble.  The library is spacious with lots of great sections and materials and very helpful workers.  We loaded up.  It's nice to be able to get some things that may not be available in town.  LOVE LIBRARIES!  Me as a pre-teen would be so shocked with me now!  I used to HATE reading with a passion and now I'm a bit addicted.

OK, so the puzzle's not quite done yet, but the most important parts are in place!

Ivan got to go skiing with his class today.  He was so excited.  He offered to make his own lunch last night.  Unfortunately, he still didn't make it off the bunny hill- but maybe some day he'll get up on the lift!  Glad he had tons of fun!  Next year Dominique will get to go, and Ivan traditionally masters a new skill the same day his sister learns it, so maybe next year he'll try to show off for her and make some leaps and bounds! I think we are going to take him to a trial class of tae kwan do this weekend.  It would have been nice if Judo were offered in town, since that is what the rest of my family got into and since that is more a defensive sport?  I think.  I really don't know anything... but Ivan's cousin and best friend are in Karate, so he's been interested in it too, but I'm not committing to driving him out of town, so we'll try this and see if he likes it.

RCMP museum

The same day we went to the Royal Sask museum, we went to the RCMP museum.  I hadn't been to it in ages.

It's all new from when I'd last been there.

The kids liked it a lot too.

They even got to dress up!

I think that part was their favorite.

I think my grandpa drove one of these Bombardier things to take kids to school if I have the story right.

Gotta pose like the mannequins.

On other news... Dominique had her first spelling test today and she was so excited!

She was especially excited about the bonus words.  All the words were 3 letter, one vowel words and then as a bonus:  animal, alphabet and around!  She studied and studied!  It was so cute!

Ivan's getting so much better at getting to his work and focussing- even though he'd much rather be playing lego!

Or doing some "real" work- like building something with his dad.

So far the year is starting well for us and we're thankful for that.  

We were without a fridge for half a week, but were mostly just inconvenienced with that.

The weather is being so crazy!  Minus 20 one day and melting the next!  Warm and windy one minute and snowing like crazy the next!

These 3 have their ups and downs too- as we all do, but I'm so thankful for them and enjoy them so much!  Little treasures they are!

Trip to the city with Nana and Papa

We went to the Royal Sk museum in The City- as we call Regina, when we are from smallish town Sask- as I guess we are.  Love this museum.  It's amazing!  and Free! Some day I may even get to read some of what they say!  The kids pretty much rip through it at a fast pace, but really if you didn't, you'd be there all day!!

This was at the entrance and the pic made me laugh- looks like some cat creature is about to attack Emora.

So much to see and take in on Sask history, geology, animal, plants, ecology...

My favorite part was the huge section calling us to environmental responsibility.  It is done in an artistic way and Ivan was asking what it all meant- but instead of telling him what I thought it meant, I asked him what he thought it was saying.  He didn't come up with much, but it's fun to try to get him to see beyond the physical to the meanings behind things.

We watched a video about tanning hides the traditional way.

The scenes they set up are so fun.

It was great to read about plants I've seen all my life and never knew what they were or what purpose they had in the greater scheme of things.

There was some game for kids to play- but we didn't have time to do it.  I think this flag went with the game, but it's always part of us!  We are part Scottish, Norwegian, Jamaican, Canadian.  From Brian's side, she added English and American to her pot pourri of cultures.

Some ladies were telling us about this wolf and the other animal furs here.

We made a quick run by the legislative building and after all that went to another museum!  The kids did super awesome!  I was so sure that we were filling the day too full for them, but they did great!

Nana and Papa visit part 1

I've finally uploaded the pics from Nana and Papa's visit.  They came the day after Christmas and left a couple of days ago.  It was pretty cold their first few days there, but we went to the rink where it was warmer indoors and they got to see the trio skate and join the walkers for some rounds around the rink.

We also got to go sledding a couple of times.  Papa said that Nana had never been sledding before in her whole life!  Glad she got the chance.  She was quite the trooper.  Papa grew up in Ohio, so he'd been sledding before, but not for a while I bet!  Just look at all the things having grandkids lets you do!

This little stinker was being too chicken to go down.  Of course all the other times she would be in front and get a face full of snow, so she'd decided she wanted to sit on the side, get cold, then demand for me to take her home.  But once I got her warm in the van, everyone else was ready to go too and have some hot chocolate!

Anyone in there?  Can you see Papa?  He got a purple bruise on his eye lid and we thought it was snow or ice that hit him from sledding, but really, how did anything manage to hit him?

Whose's the driver?

Another fearsome duo!

I liked this pic with Ivan's arms around her.

All smiles!  It's always nice when the sun comes out and the sky turns blue.

a race!  I had to get another sled.  They had a sale and our big one is starting to thin.  It has been 2 years and Emora's main transportation to school as well as sledding!  Now we have enough for everyone to have their own, if Emora will brave it.

I like the little workout we get going up!

Look ma- no teeth!  ha ha, he was already like that before he went down.  I did look online to see if it's normal for his teeth to take so long.  He had to wait 'till grade 2 to finally lose a tooth and now his new ones aren't wanting to come in!  (His bottoms are adult, but the top ones fell out in July and nothing has broken through the gums, but one site said it can take a year for those top teeth to come in).

We've been using some new techniques with Ivan and it is really helping to have more peace between us.  He is having a much better attitude about school, so that's awesome.

It's been an adventure since Nana and Papa left.  There were terrible roads the morning Brian drove them to the airport, then the temps dropped, we got a huge dump of snow and our refrigerator stopped working!  The good news is that he drove carefully and they got to the airport without event, we have a warm house and working vehicles, we got exercise shoveling and pushing the van out of the alley when it got stuck and we have the biggest deep freeze just outside the door.  However, I'm looking forward to the fridge being fixed- hopefully soon and easily!!