This winter that isn't

My love snapped the kids playing in the mud puddle this weekend at the park - sorry for the horizontal flip.

Because despite my blog posts of skating and skiing, we have actually had almost no snow in Toronto. I think it has stuck through a night only once so far. Dry and / or mild spells mean little or nothing to shovel. So, sorry Maritimers and Montrealers, but we are more like Vancouverites this year. And as for the Brits who log in, some of your winters (especially northern ones) are worse than than this.

The Grove Community School's Open House

The Open House is tonight. In attendance will be:

Sophie - to co-lead a tour of the school with her mum
Sebastian - to co-present about French at the Grove with his mum
S&S's dad to welcome people and hand out registration forms
S&S's mum - to do the tour and presentation
S&S's visiting auntie - to check out what all the fuss is about

Our school is lovely, tidy and clean and above all colourful - check out the new mural that a dad did with a few of the students.

Arrgh, me maties

Woke up one morning and there were pirates in our house. Could have been worse, could have been monsters. On 2nd thought, I have woken up to those too.

A family that skis together (year 3)

Everybody dance now.

Family dance nights. That's where the action is and when we show off our moves.

Soph on skates

Another weekend, another birthday party. This time it was Nuan's and it started with a skate in Trinity Bellwoods park. The perfect winter party according to her dad.

Then, it was home to pick up the soup-making mum and off to join Seb at the home of a friend from his old school. There, the two families collaborated on a hectic supper; while the kids played (magic, lego and wii), we had a chance to get to know the parents better - lovely family. Their older daughter (10) is so sweet with Sophie who came home with the most garish nailpolish ever!

Looking forward to skiing tomorrow en famille.

January is for...

snowflakes and snowberries and snowmen and snowshoeing. Well, you get the point.

Just wishing for some fresh snow to greet my sister next week.

Seb's first candle

The snowman candle has been a big hit and our son is very responsible to neither leave the room while it burns nor flail around near it. But our attempts to enforce the "this is a SITTING room" are still in vain, sigh.

In chilly Montreal

We spent 3 days in Montreal over the holidays. We drove both ways in the daytime, so we had lots of time to appreciate Jeannette Winterson's Tanglewreck on cd. It is awesome! And then, War Horse on the way back.

The main aim was to see Grandma of course and then secondarily, to see the new Tintin movie in French. Hopefully, we showed my mum a lovely time, and provided quite a spread (bringing up quiche and cheeses and German cookies and homemade mincemeat pies - with lids). Tintin in 3D was so worthwhile. And we got to see our wonderful ex-Hamilton crew too.

Our sitting room over the recent holidays

With the candles lit, the vintage game of Buccaneers spread out awaiting players, and Sarah's cozy blanket. Join us some time!

What we wore today

Sophie's Auntie Sarah gave her a lovely smocked purple top last year. Funny thing was that I had a similar one. Today we finally wore them on the same day.

Now we are trying to persuade the fellas to wear simultaneously their similar striped shirts; surprise, surprise, they are purple too!

First ski of the year

Here then is a bit about that first ski of the season. The kids headed off with their dad, while I made some soup (which I had promised to a French Club raffle winner), did some prep for my work week and hosted our friend Lorraine from Vancouver. Seems like it was slightly icy conditions but fun. And they got to hear the first few chapters of Auntie Roberta reading Winter Holiday.

3/4s of us head out tomorrow as Sophie has a birthday party of a close classmate instead.

Lac aux castors

Not many snaps from Montreal but perhaps a few to come. In a an effort to be more timely, here is one of the kids all suited up for an outdoor skate in a short but heavy snowfall. As I type, they are off with their pop to the first ski lesson of the seasons - I swear all of them bounced out of bed giddy with excitement

(I am trying to build evidence that the wii has not yet corrupted us)

Glam it up, sugah!

(We will be in the glamourous capital of Canada when this post pops up)

Yup, about twice a year, I dig out the goop from the makeup drawer and voila:

Ladies and gentlemen, the wii is in the house

(Remember, we have fled the province - our reputation in tatters...)

We debated this one long and hard. Almost as long and hard as the which school? saga. And then we crashed into the 21st century. We opted for the wii because we want to believe that it is more social. We want it to bring friends into the house to have some fun - we had three kids over so far and all were amused. We want to believe that the 'agreements' will be respected - but nothing is perfect.

But dancing together can be fun and we will ALWAYS have family dance night.

The only problem is, we now need a rec room (it's in our bedroom) and a 21st century tv!

Our New Year's gifts

(We will be in Montreal sharing out the bounty when this post pops up)



As is our tradition, we opened gifts of the immediate family - and a few extra - on New Year's Day. You have seen my lovely quilt (please come and sleep under it soon, y'all - but on 2nd thought, not all at once).

However, there were many other gems:

+ purple (and pink) and sparkle-hearted Converse (ok, they were self-bought and made my partner sigh that he never would have picked them; it's like my hair - I keep him guessing)!

+ loads of novels for the kids (including some new series, the next 2 installments of The Magic Thief, HC Anderson's Illustrated Fables, and Seb's first adapted Shakespeare)

+ lovely t-shirts from Babush in Ethiopia - and a special holiday letter which Seb read all by himself


+ funky boots for my main man

+ snow-boots for the next in line

+ bright red wool ski socks for the kids - not home knit...

+ regal purple wool scarf for me

+ tons of lovely art supplies for Sophie (plastecine, thumb print art kit)

+ several new games (one seems to be about a favourite topic: cheese)

+ a wonderful paint-your-own pottery platter that the children made their dad (CBC, Dad, Ski, Tennis painted on it)

+ a magnificent professional pottery bowl (do come and dine from it soon!)




+something that we dare not admit publicly...

Where did you go, Lego?

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/should-lego-be-gender-free-or-just-less-complicated/

As all of you no doubt know, my kids love Playmobil. And it's better than the Polly Pockets, Barbies, Cars (TM) of the world for a variety of reasons, but it's still not the same as unfettered play materials (crayons, building blocks, etc). It is a scene that is laid out and the kids often settle to play within that framework.

Lego isn't like that, right? It's just colourful blocks to create whatever you want. For me, it was architectural structures and floor plans.

However, over the past couple of years I have noticed two things: 1. the gender coding through colour (pink blocks for girls - Yup, you read that right) and 2. sets for making specific - often trademarked - items: Star Wars, Harry Potter, beauty parlours (yup, you read that right too), etc.

Seb got a trademarked dragon set for Christmas - which he loved assembling and then put on the shelf (though there is an extenuating circumstance). While Soph got an odd box jumble of 2nd hand blue, green, red, white, black and transparent blocks for New Year's. Can't wait to see what she creates and how it interfaces with the dragon!

Loooong legs

Not the best snap of our lass but check out how grown-up she is getting!

An interlude to all this bright, happy, festive stuff

It's late. Sophie is asleep, but on the top bunk, Seb is restless and reading. He had a bath and then bed but still after 40 minutes, he is not switched off. He knows enough to ask me to lie with him, so I do. He asks if I will read to him, but the rule is lights out and a cuddle.

He starts to rattle off all sorts of information about books he has been reading. After a few minutes, I ask him to tell me how his body feels. "Not tired" he says, as I feel it buzz away next to me.

I ask him what would help him wind down. "Counting sheep" he says. "Except there will be blood and guts because I don't like sheep. So they get stuck on barbed wire".

Being a parent of an 8 year old boy with a vivid and to be honest folks, violent imaginative, I try to take this in stride and suggest that there might be better things to count before sleep, such as ummm, how many cupcakes could an 8 year old bake, decorate and eat.

He is asleep within 4 minutes and I am left sleepless and fretting.

New Year's PJs!!!

Every year, Auntie Dorothy and Nana Lorraine give our kids new pjs for the holidays. So to ensure that both are thanked in equal measure, I wisely decided that the kids should have a bath and then open Nana'a package on Christmas Eve, but wait until New Year's Eve to bathe and open the 2nd parcel (I assure you that they do bathe about twice in between!).

But that way, they are wearing Nana's when she arrives on Christmas morning (http://wedgley.blogspot.com/2011/12/now-back-tracking.html ) and Auntie Dorothy's for our family New Year's gift opening. And both get in the photos for posterity!

As you can imagine, there is by year 4 (?) of this tradition quite a collection of excellent pyjamas, especially for Sophie who inherits her brother's. Her favourite had been the Nutcracker/double decker/Christmas present pair from 2009 (?) but I think she will love both new pairs all year long: bright Sophie-wisdom owls


and an appliqued puppy dog top (never knew that bright yellow looked so grand on her) , plaid bottoms and a coordinating 'stuffie' (as little stuffed animals are currently called).