Self imposed snow day

The view looking west along our street at 7am.

 This is what we woke up to this morning! And it's now midday and the snow is still falling. We've been outside most of the morning with a break inside for hot chocolate and dry clothes. It isn't cold so the snow is wet, perfect for making a start on a front yard fort.
I had decided ages ago that the first proper snow fall would be a snow day (no school) for us regardless of whether or not school was cancelled. It turns out we likely would have skipped school today anyway as it's the last day before the holidays and the boys have been off since Tadhg was ill on Tuesday, but it's still special.

Good one of the house looking christmassy.

Steve went out to clear the driveway while we had breakfast (this is one element of our gendered culture you will not hear me complain about!) and then I dressed the boys and sent them out. I then set up a clothes drying area in front of the fire and had a nice quiet chat on skype with Bernadette before heading out to join them.

 Caitlin, Paddy and Phil, do you recognise the coat? This was the coat that mum bought when we first arrived in Labrador in 1987 and had to fully kit everyone out with winter gear before that first winter. After 7 years in Saudi Arabia I don't think we owned a single item of clothing useful for a northern winter. I clearly remember the shopping trip, including being frightened of a large stuffed black bear in the shop, and some of the clothes. I'm not sure why I've kept this coat so long but it's quite useful now being the only thing that will do up around my already large baby belly!

Brothers looking like twins here!

 Our house in it's winter coat.

Didn't really get any nice pics of the boys but I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities for snowy photos during the long Ottawa winter!

Sunday Routine, Just What The Doctor Ordered

Well, life is slowly getting back to normal and today was a great day.

To start off, I took the boys for our usual Sunday morning swim at the pool in Cuesmes. It's an older pool but the friendly staff and kiddie pool make it a favorite place in our books. Both of the boys can wade the whole area and Brendan has started to enjoy snorkeling. Even to the point where has started to float and swim on his own while hunting down our newly purchased pool rings which sink to the bottom. As for Tadhg, he loves playing with the toy boats which Nana & Papa bought a ways back.

After that, we headed to the Base, did some groceries and then ended up at the indoor soft play, Imagipark. The boys love it and we actually spent almost two hours there. I really enjoyed watching Brendan and Tadhg following each other around the different play areas. I also love the way I can send Brendan off to find his little brother. He'll lead him back by hand and say "Look Daddy, I found Tadhg and brought him back" with a big ear to ear smile.

From there it was a quick lunch at home followed by their afternoon weekend nap.

Then, the prescription for us as a family once they woke up... I climbed up into the attic, pulled out a bunch of winter boxes and we all suited up in our snow kit and headed out into the backyard. It has been snowing all day and the backyard just had a wonderful feeling of winter about it.

I got busy building a snowman while Siobhan got the boys some shovels to make piles of snow.

While finishing up the snowman, the boys even had a jump around on the trampoline. Brendan put the eyes, nose and buttons on while Tadhg did the scarf. All said and done, we made a snowman, had a jump on the trampoline, shoveled some snow, threw snowballs (at least Brendan did) and we all sat down to have a cup of warm apple cider (yum-yum).


Siobhan will be back up and blogging soon but until then, we just wanted to say 'thank you' to everyone for the great support. It is amazing how life can change very quickly and it is nice to know that when going through a difficult time, friends and family are there to help out.

Oh, two more quickies... This is Tadhg after stuffing his face with the last of my profiteroles and chocolate sauce which B & J brought over last night.

And to my surprise, even Tadhg has become interested in using the mask and snorkel.

Brendan's 3rd Birthday

Brendan had two of his friends, Mya & Grace, over for a birthday supper and cake.

With our backs only turned for a second, Brendan lifted up the plate with the cake on it an stuffed his face into it. Lets just say every one had a laugh. Especially Brendan.

Here's B in his dinosaur costume. Between the three of them, they tried on every outfit we have. A turtle, dragon, doctor, kangaroo, bumble bee, firefighter and more.

Lets just say that Tadhg loves his smoothies just as much as Brendan.


This is Tadhg playing Brendan's new baby grand piano. Thanks Uncle Phil.

Winter Update

Sorry we've been slow at blogging. As they say, not enough time in the day. Essentially, we are busier than before Christmas. Siobhan is busy with the kids and volunteering for the Fredkid Fair and I'm back at Uni taking three courses while working full time.

Here are a few pictures of the boys playing in the snow.

Snow art... Siobhan gave Brendan a bunch of water spray bottles with a water and food colouring mix. He loved painting pictures in the snow.

Making a snowman.Who's looking good.....Brendan making snowballs then breaking them up.

Out & About

With the idea of trying something new and getting some exercise, I went to the Base Gym and rented some snowshoes for us. So, with the sun shinning and a temperature of -12 degrees, we went for a 50 minute wander through the woodlot.

Siobhan and Tadhg getting a feel for the shoes in the deeper snow.

A quick family picture by the pond.

Once we got back to the car, Brendan even had a go at it. The snowshoes where a little bit too big for him so we didn't want to push him.
Here's a video of Brendan singing. I think future car trips and adventures will be interesting to say the least.

A baking day

We tried out a few cookie recipes for our christmas baking. We made orange and raisin cookies, chocolate chip and some sugar cookies. Brendan did a great job of decorating the sugar cookies but of course he had to try everything. I was surprised he wasn't sick.

Here he is checking out the results. I said smile and this was what I got!

In the afternoon we went out to walk off some of the sugar, but it was a little late by the time we finished up the baking and got kitted up in all our winter gear (I hate these temperatures) so Brendan was exhausted. He didn't want to go in the buggy but wouldn't walk either. We got to the end of the road and had to turn back. Nevermind, it was enough fresh air to help everyone have a good nap, me included.

First Snow

We all left the house at the same time this morning- Steve to work on the motorcycle and we went for a walk and to the park. Soon the snow started so we filmed a little clip and took some photos. As the snow turned to rain we headed home and Steve called to say he was coming home again to swap the motorcycle for the van. Good thinking!
So here are the boys heading out for the day.


Here we are in the park.



As the snow started I was thinking about King, the Ghanain volunteer living with us. He works outside and this was his first ever snowfall! Very cool.

And here's Steve coming in after his cold, wet ride home.

More wintery wonder

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a walk so we went for a wander on the farm near our house. Half way across a big field I told Brendan that we were on a farm and talked about crops and tractors and bales of hay etc. Brendan began singin Old MacDonald had a farm but then stopped walking and stood very still and quiet. He started to say "cows moo" and "farm" over and over so I think he was wondering where the cows were since this was a farm and as far as he knows all farms have cows.
His concentration as he listened was intense and made me start to listen too. At first it seemed very quiet and peaceful and then we started to talk about all the noises we could hear... traffic, industrial noises like a giant hammer, metal clanking, a vehicle beeping as it reversed, a snow plough, a helicopter, a plane we could see and one we couldn't, a dog barking, the electricity cables buzzing...
We carried on with Brendan walking and me pulling a sled for when he got tired.
It was probably the furthest he has ever walked, at least in the snow with full snow gear on. We looked for animal tracks (there are lots of deer around) and found these ones below. I'm sure they are just dog tracks but the way they went off into the woods allowed us to pretend they were something else :) Brendan was thrilled at being licked on the face by three different big dogs and I asked one walker to take a rare photo of the three of us.All in all a great morning out. We got home and warmed up just in time for Emily coming for lunch. Poor Steve, he was supposed to fly last night but couldn't because of ice so we were pleased that he was home before Brendan went to bed.

Winterfest

It's been over a week since we posted last. The desktop has been at Steve's work to be fixed and the laptop doesn't seem to recognise the memory card from the wee camera bla bla excuses excuses.... Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from our visit to winterfest in Fredericton last weekend. It was a beautiful sunny day and wasn't too cold. Steve and Brendan went down the ice slides a few times and we went on a short horse and sleigh ride, explored an ice maze (boring really) and Brendan climbed on and through a polar bear ice sculpture with a tunnel.
Afterwards we went to Cheyanne's house for a yummy lunch and some playtime with Gracie. The rest of the week has been uneventful really. Two playgroups, another playdate, a knitting session with our neighbour Maria, and lots of time spent inside sheltering from miserable grey, snowy and icy weather.
And I went to the third meeting of my new book club which is going really well. We just read "A Complicated Kindness" by Miriam Toews about a fictional Mennonite girl's teenage years. It was very interesting but hard to talk about in a way. I wondered if people said less than they might have because we are a group of women who don't really know each other very well. That was true for me anyway. I didn't want to go on a rant about religious fundamentalism incase I offended anyone or was misunderstood. Next one is "A Curious Incident.." which I will have to reread as the only thing I remember about it is that the boy would only eat certain coloured foods and they couldn't be touching each other.

muffin tins and snow

Brendan with his muffin tin lunch. This is the second one we've done and he loves it. Got the idea from a flickr photo.
L-R, back to front: cucumber, red pepper, crackers, raisins, yogurt, spicy humus, ham, homemade apple/oatmeal flapjack, cheese, strawberries, grapes, tangerine.

Had another snowstorm over the last couple of days. Here's the snow on our back deck at sunrise yesterday. With the cold, snowy weather we've been staying in bit more than usual so have needed a couple of things to do. This is one of them. We have a strange space at the bottom of our stairs that isn't really useful for anything... it's too small for furniture, too carpeted for muddy boots and wet clothes and doesn't have a window for doing arts and crafts. So I claimed it a while back as a place to dump all my arts and craft "stuff". I put up a shelf, built that bookcase and put everything in there but have just managed to organise it all. So this is how it looks now and I really like spending time in there.