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!
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