Gettin' Into Spring.....

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  The kids were SOOO excited to plant some seeds in our little early planter tray.  They planted some peas, green beans, sunflowers, and zucchini.  We also planted one of each seed in a clear baggie with a damp paper towel and taped it to a sunny window to watch them grow from the very beginning.  This is the earliest we have ever started garden preparations.  After all, in Calgary we can get snow until the end of May.  Which is partially why I thought we'd try and plant some already started plants this year so we can enjoy them before the end of August!  We also made some goodies for close friends and dropped them off.  I have some friends who have been doing a lot of extra for me while I have been busy so felt yesterday would be a good day to thank them.  At the end of the day yesterday we made a Lazy Daisy cake (from Company's Coming - a family favorite for many, many years!) to end our Spring celebrations.

Today we enjoyed Poppy's Music class.  She gets SO excited sometimes and jumps about with absolute glee.  While she napped in the afternoon Rowan and I played Yahtzee.  I love that he is old enough to play some of these games and he's really good!  Last night we played Crazy Eights and Rumi 500.  We spent the afternoon outside with our friends and neighbours.  The wind is so strong right now I get a terrible headache being out there for a few minutes.  I had spaghetti sauce in the crock pot ALLLL day so when supper came around, it was so amazing.  We stuffed ourselves and Rowan and Rand scooted off to Rowan's music class.  Rowan and I practiced REALLY hard today.  We have been slacking for the past 4 weeks or more.  He has a test coming up for the first time in his music career (spanning back 4 years now!) which I am totally giving him the option of taking.  It sounds a tad intense for 6 year olds, to me, but he's keen so far.  there will be no pressure from my end.  In order to progress to the next level in Music Rowan needs to pass the test.  But we haven't decided if we're going to move on or not.  9 - 10 months is a really long time to take part in one activity and we're so pooped by March.  So we'll decide closer to the end of the session - or after the test!

Winter Fun

 Getting ready for Chinese New Year 2012!  The kids made Dragon masks to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

 At the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for the show Charlie the Cello.

 After the CPO we wandered Olympic Plaza.  The owner of the Mediterranean Deli was very taken with Poppy and took her aside to give her a free ice cream.  Luckily she was in a loving mood and shared with Rowan.  The dress she is wearing was made by Zoe for Christmas.  Poppy refused to wear it for quite some time but it is so beautiful (the print is all poppies in case it is hard to tell from the photo) and looks so lovely on her! (Oh, and yes this was taken in Winter in Calgary.  Poppy has a very high tolerance for cold and would not wear a jacket but as you can see, doesn't look bothered by that very much!)

 In February we drove Zoe out to Olds to begin her training as a Race Horse Groom!  She was very hesitant about going but has been enjoying it immensely ever since.  She moved from Olds to Edmonton to the Race Track to continue her training for a few more months.

 Celebrating Rand and Nathalie's February birthdays.  Caramel cheesecake for Rand and strawberry cheesecake for Auntie Nathalie!

 First time using the toboggans from Santa.  We just have not had much snow this year to get out tobogganing as much as we would have liked.  There must be a trick to getting these toboggans to slide quickly because these were pretty slow.  We ended up going back to the cheap ones after a few tries because they were much faster.

 First skate of the year at Olympic Plaza.  Rowan is signed up for a home school skating class so we thought we better get a little practice in before he started.  The kids have asked many times to skate at Olympic Plaza when we've walked by so we made a special trip downtown to skate.  It was perfect ice and we shared it with no more than 4 people at a time.  Ahhhh....the life of a homeschooler!

 Poppy wearing Rowan's old bob skates.

 A winter picnic lunch and hot chocolate!

 Poppy tested her helmet, particularly the cage, several times (also a hand me down from Rowan!)

 This is hard work!

 I'm up!

 Skating lessons at the Rec Centre.  Rowan LOVED the first and second lesson.  He learned so much in just 30 minutes.  There were 4 children initially in the class and one of the girls had such a struggle.  She could not, no matter how hard she tried (and she was trying SO hard!) stay upright on her skates.  Fall after fall after fall.  The Instructor helped her several times but even hanging on to him she slipped and fell.  You could see her discouragement mounting and her trying so hard to hold back her tears.  Eventually her Dad went out on the ice and she led him away from the class but he appeared to be trying to encourage her to continue.   It was so hard to watch her because it was clear she was trying so hard but it was just a skill that was so difficult for her.  She left the class early and was crying in the change room when we went back to take off Rowan's skates.  I made a point of telling her how we all noticed her work so hard on the ice and it was very hard work to get up again and again, and boy did she ever do a good job out there.  She just whimpered.  Her Mom and Dad were quietly encouraging her and supporting her but she didn't return to the class.  I am relieved to see parents being encouraging of their children but also supportive of where they are at at the same time, rather than pushing too hard and contributing to more discouragement on the part of the child.

Rowan is now asking if I can sign him up to play with the Hitmen.  Luckily, it's not that easy!  He prefers skating over swimming at this time so we'll stick with it for a while.

We're continuing with music but both getting tired of regular practice and classes in the evening. Any activity that lasts the whole year can get very tiring - it's a long time to participate in one thing.  Rowan finished another french play series with our homeschooling teacher-trained neighbour.  It was a performance of The Three Bears.  Rowan loved the classes (which included many of his friends) and was the star of the show playing the part of Goldilocks.  One more class of gymnastics for Rowan which he has also really loved this session.

Spring is around the corner and we're looking forward to sunny days outside, Dance class for Rowan, more Music for both Rowan and Poppy, a trip to Edmonton to visit Zoe, a trip to Drumheller to see the Tyrell Museum, a home school day at Fort Calgary, and some Easter festivities.

Marching Along

 Time has just been flying right along!  Life has been quite hectic outside of life with children but we've managed to fit lots of fun and interesting things into our days.  I must apologize for the picture quality in this post.  I used my ipod for most of the pictures which usually takes great photos but most of these are a bit fuzzy.  The above photos were taken at Fish Creek Park on a mild day in January.  It looks much colder in the photos than it was that day.  We found an icy spot where a bit of water runs through the park from the river and played on the ice for a while.  Rowan and Poppy used some sticks and a rock to play hockey.

 We bought a pass for the Glenbow Museum for the first time which I was very excited about.  It's a great place to spend cold days other than having to spend a lot of money on parking if we don't take the train downtown.  There were hardly any other people there the day we went but for some reason we must have looked highly suspicious (maybe all 2 year olds in museums are looked at that way?) because we had Security following us and keeping a close eye on us for the first hour or so.  We went to the Creative Kids Museum where there were two activities the kids can participate in based on the work of the artists who have current exhibits at the museum.  The first activity was creating a textured landscape with various materials, stamps, cardboard, paper, and so on (based on the current exhibit of  Edward Burtynsky).  The second activity was creating a watercolour painting of  a favorite memory (based on the current exhibit of Laurie Anderson's One Grey Rabbit).  There was a bowl with slips of paper and the children chose one.  Rowan's first one was "A time I was at the amusement park...." so with watercolour pencils he drew a John Deere Tractor that he recalled from a visit to the Stampede.  Then he took a small paintbrush with a tube of water attached to it and brushed the water over the pencil lines to allow the colour to bleed and be moved about the page.  After I finished cleaning up and gathered out paintings I walked to the large chalk board area and found Rowan's writing on the wall.  So lovely.   

 To celebrate Rand's birthday this year we took him to a Calgary Hitmen hockey game.  We bought a Family Pack of tickets at Co-op for $60 which included the 4 tickets to the game, 4 hot dogs, 4 pops, and a large bag of popcorn.  A great deal and a fun evening.  We find the Hitmen hockey games first of all more affordable but also much more family friendly than the Calgary Flames games (although there is definitely a more exciting atmosphere at the Flames games!).  Much less fighting on the ice and much less drinking in the crowd.

In March we made a trip to the Bow Habitat Station (our local fish hatchery).  We have been once before and the kids loved it.  Poppy remembered very clearly holding a fish a year ago and was quite desperate to do so again but the woman working wasn't quite as accommodating today.

We learned about and saw each stage of development of the fish from egg to full grown Rainbow Trout.

 The kids thoroughly enjoyed getting to feed the trout and they made a huge splash if we threw the food too close to the edge of the tank, or if (as Rowan delightfully learned) anyone dumped the entire bowl in all at once!

 Rowan and Poppy both packed their sketch pads and pencils to draw the fish while we were there.

Going to the Fish Hatchery always brings up a lot of childhood memories for me as it was a place my Dad took us often as kids.  Back then it was called the Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery and entrance was by donation.  Now it is quite costly to enter ($22 for the 3 of us for access to the entire building and Poppy is still only 2).  However it is a very educational place with a focus on conservation, preservation, environmental awareness, and history of Calgary and our Bow River.  It is a place we will probably visit again and again over the years.  Rowan took away a beautiful poster on Biodiversity, the Fishing Guide for 2012, and a trout identification guide (free).  I found a sweet T-shirt for my cousin's soon-to-be-born baby that says "I'm a Keeper!" with a picture of a fish on it.  I don't think I could count the number of times my late Grandfather said of all of my children, "Yep.  S/he's a keeper!"  If you have spent anytime around fishermen in your life, you will have heard this phrase as well!

As I write this we are a few days from Spring.  The winter was mild this year and we are ready for the newness and change that comes with this time of year.  The winds have been quite severe at times and Spring tends to be windy in Calgary anyway so that part I am not fond of.  Hopefully we can look forward to some green grass and buds on the trees very soon!