Winter Activities with the boys

I spent most of my life growing up in the prairies and it would not be unreasonable to assume that I would learn to love some winter activities.  And to be complete honest I do like to go skating, skiing (cross or downhill) and sledding but I have NEVER liked the cold.  I just hate being cold, I hate ski pants, mostly because I don't have any that actually fit me, and winter activities like skiing are so expensive if you don't have the equipment.  So I've always struggled to find things to do with my boys in the winter.

 Lil man is easier, he loves hockey and skating, so even if it's -20 he is happy to go out for a bit and skate it up, often I am sitting in the vehicle trying to warm up before he's even considered that it's time to come off the ice. 

 But sledding and skiing haven't been something Lil man has ever wanted to try, and when he learned to skate, Prince T was born so only one of us (his parents) could go skate with him and usually dad did that and I stayed with the baby.  Now Prince T is the age Lil Man was when we started teaching him to skate and Prince T HATES his skates.  There are a plethora of reasons for this which I will highlight in another blog, but Prince T just doesn't like the winter, he's disdain for it is very similar to mine so we struggled to find an activity he would like.

 The first nice weekend of the new year we took the boys out to the park.  It was gorgeous and we just needed the boys to spend some time outside.  So we got skates, skating support  things and sleds and headed to our neighbourhood elementary school.  There is a hill and skating rink there.

Lil Man obviously went skating, and he made some friends skating as well ( I know so surprising).  He spent the whole time we were there skating, the whole 2 hours, yes it was nice out but I was frozen by the end.

Prince T on the other hand found a love for sledding, a love his brother never had. He must have climbed that hill 50 times and never once did he slow down. We had to bribe him to leave with hot chocolate.   

We did get him skating for 10 minutes, but he much preferred to be on the hill sledding then on the frozen ice skating.  As things start to warm up getting him out skating more and more may be easier, so that is the tentative plan moving forward.

We also built our annual snow fort in the back yard, but the boys have not been enjoying it as much because it's been so bitterly cold and then when it's passably warm it's snowing so much that we have to redo the snow fort.

What are your family winter activities?  

Thanks for reading!