Life's Whirlwind Adventures

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...

Lil Man loves (and needs) to play outside!! He has so much energy all the time so it's very important that he has appropriate clothing and opportunities to be outside.  Last year we built a snow fort in our front yard, this year we've now done two in our back yard.  t he first one was really basic, but it was fun and Lil Man played outside for hours in his fort, it even had a garage!!   The second snow fort was built thanks to our neighbours and their snow blower!! So the neighbour kids came over and snow blowed our yard into a pile and then Lil Man got to build in that fort. We missed the good days for tunnel digging and there was some freezing rain and melting so it became more of a hill, but Lil Man still loved it!!  Last year while we were working on the snow fort, we let Lil Man 'paint' his snow fort, and that activity kept him busy for hours over many days.  It was so easy too, just fill a squirt bottle with food colouring and water and send him o...

I'm not a big fan of winter I don't care for many winter sports and I HATE the cold.  Despise, loath, detest the cold, after -15 it's all the same really, too cold to function, in my opinion.  So when I had boys I had to decide, did I move somewhere warm, or did I learn to embrace winter?  I learned to embrace winter.  I still don't like it, but it can be pretty, it can be nice and warming up after being out in the cold is a favourite activity of mine!! Lil Man loves being outside, he loves being active and he loves the outdoors.  It's not always his first choice, because of the generation he's apart he likes those technology things and covets time with them.  This may be because I limit his use of iPads, computers, video games etc to the weekends and then only for 2-3 hours.  Even TV is limited in the house, so if he thinks he can get me to allow him to watch TV, he'll try to play that game, but once you get him outside, he will stay out until he's ...

This year we had a long winter, a REALLY long winter.  It snowed in October, it stayed for November, December, January, February, March and we even got snow in April.  And not little amounts of snow, like record breaking amounts of snow.  I was sick of winter back in February and having to go through 2 more months of winter type weather just about drove me batty.  However, I persevered and made it through to spring which i am LOVING!!! But throughout winter we did make the best of things and here are some of the things we did!! Lil Man enjoys the snow much more than I do, thankfully we have a fenced back yard, so he was able to go out after the first snow fall and Hoe the snow off the sidewalks. He was determined to help with clearing the sidewalks haha. This is the first snow fall of the year!! It was a huge dumping and we got about three of four more snow dumpings just like this one!! It was a crazy amount of snow, nothing that I have seen in years, like yea...

Uncle Nellie came by with Aunti Rhi this afternoon!!! It's really nice to have them come visit!!  The boys always enjoy having Uncle and Aunti over, and it gives the other adults in the house a break from being the only entertainment on the block. Today Uncle and Aunti took Chan out for lunch, they tired to take him to get his hair cut but the place was closed.  So after lunch they returned and had a visit with little man. After much cajoling we took Lil Man out for a short skate. Lil Man is still pretty uncertain on his feet in skates.  He would much rather have his boots on to play hockey on the ice then his skates.  But he is willing to try if you are persuasive enough with him. We took out two mini sticks, a soft puck, his skates, helmet and a red chair to do the skating today.  Lil Man had a little anxiety about putting the skates on, but he put them on and was out skating for ten minutes before he began to want to call it quits. First he skated aro...

So week three came and I thought I might have to give up, I mean I had ideas but well I couldn't find a way to photograph those ideas safely.  But I am getting ahead of myself so let me start at the beginning. Week three's theme was Find the Beauty. Which essentially meant take something ugly and use light and make it look beautiful.  So I began to think of things that are ugly, in my mind and opinion only, and well graffiti came to mind, as well as snow, garbage, clutter, but I really wanted to get some photos of some graffiti. Now on my drive to work I pass by this area by the river where the runoff from the streets is put into the river, you know where the street water ends up going down the drain and draining too.  I am at a total loss for what that is truly called but I think you understand.  Anyways, in the summer when we go rafting on river we always go by this spot and my hubby and his buddy call it shit rocks, because in the summer it's covered in graff...

It's not often that I will willingly go outside in the winter.  It's just not my thing, to be perfectly honest, it's too damn cold out most of the time for me to even enjoy the activity.  So I don't do it, but I have a Lil Man who loves to be outside, he is very outdoorsy, even my other oldest was the same way but he got out lot's at Daycare so he didn't bug me to go out as much. Last Sunday it was quite tolerable outside so I agreed to take Lil Man out into the front yard to play. He trekked through the snow and made all kinds of paths, then he tried to kick the snow around for awhile but that was not enough for him. He began to waddle, and I do mean waddle, he even told me he was moving like a penguin. "Waddle, waddle just like a penguin." He made it to the neighbours when I called him back and he looked up at me with his baby blue eyes and asked to go for a walk. I couldn't say no, so I grabbed one dog, because we may as well kill ...