Ah, Ottawa the week before the official first day of spring. Snow, cold temperatures and wind chill. Wouldn't expect anything less! Okay, it hasn't actually been that bad the last couple of weeks. There's been the odd day above zero, and some sunshine which has made it nice to play outside. Quite a relief as the official meteorologists are telling us it's been the coldest winter in 20 years. Anyway, despite the weather, we've been carrying on as usual, trying to get as much as possible out of our last Canadian winter.
The weekend after I last wrote, hubby and I spent a day skiing at Mont St-Marie. It's about an hour north of us and quite a bit bigger then our local hills. It was a nice day to be out, sunny patches and not too cold, but there hadn't been much fresh snow so the slopes were really icy. I'd had a bad cold the week before, so ran out of energy by lunch, but was prepared and had a book in the car. Worked nicely - I relaxed next to a window for an hour after lunch while hubby skied some more before he'd had enough of the icy conditions too. We finished the weekend off with a family dinner out at a pizza place - the kids love going out for dinner.
Another week of business as usual. I did break it up by going to the pub one night with some other mum friends which was great fun - it can be so hard to talk during the week without being interrupted by kids. A busy weekend followed - friends over for Saturday morning tea, my neighbours annual Ladies' 80's night on the Saturday (a real hoot once again, and even more people dressed up then last year) and a trip to the Science Museum on the Sunday. The kids even managed to sit still (kind of) through half a demonstration on cryogenics, although the big hits once again were the trains and the crazy kitchen.
The following weekend and daylight savings (aka 'summer' time - ha!) began. We did have beautiful blue skies with relatively mild temperatures and managed to make the most of it. Saturday saw us lunching with friends who live in Chelsea - it's across the river in Quebec and is like 'hills' living if you want an Aussie comparison. After eating, we walked to their local park so the kids could all romp around in the (deep) snow. Hubby even started throwing the bigger kids into the air - they left quite an impression as they thumped down into a metre of snow and thought it was hilarious. Sunday we were up bright and early for a morning of dog sledding. We went to a place only half an hour north of here, and after meeting the dogs had a 10 minute lesson on how to drive a sled. Then we were given our sled with 6 dogs each and a guide to follow and off we went! It is actually harder then it looks - corners in particular felt tricky as you lean your body the opposite way to skiing (which we've been doing a bit of) so it felt counter-intuitive. I must confess to falling off a couple of times, including when the sled hit a tree! Going up hills is pretty funny too - one dog will decide to stop and pee, so of course all the others then have to pee on the same spot! It was an amazing experience though - following trails through the snowy woods and even across a frozen lake under a bright blue sky. Just to finish off the weekend, we walked down to the Rideau River with the kids in the afternoon to see the explosions. Yep - it was the annual blowing up of the ice on the river before spring. Quite entertaining watching columns of ice shoot into the air with a bang. Because it was such a lovely sunny afternoon the kids were loving being outside and played for ages in the snow by the river bank.
This week just gone has been the first week of the March break school holiday. I've been working hard trying to keep the little monkeys entertained all week. (I must say that school holidays were much more fun when I was a teacher and not a parent!!) We've filled our week with lots of playdates, baking, drawing, a trip to the Aviation Museum and playing outside. I even managed to take Miss 4 out for a special big girl afternoon out with mum - Subway, shopping and the movies. We saw "Free Birds" about 2 turkeys who travel back in time to get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu. (Very North American, but had some good voice talent and was pretty entertaining as far as kids movies go.) So it's a quiet day at home today (Saturday) as we get ready for next week.
Tomorrow, we board a plane with the kids for the first time since we arrived here (at a stupidly early time too) to head to Banff! We are excited about seeing the Rockies and skiing, not so excited about the plane trip. This entry is a little rushed as I need to go and pack now, but will be sure to let you know how it all goes - if we still have our sanity that is! Bye for now.
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