Winter Festivals

We didn't go skiing this weekend as there were several snow festivals on around the city. We wanted to get out and see what was happening. Our overall reaction is that it is too cold for outdoor festivals!

Some pics from the weekend.

Friday night was ice-skating on the local rink. There are rinks everywhere and they are free. You need to bring your own skates. This one was lit up with music as well. We have been able to borrow skates for the family except me ...so at these neighbourhood do's, I am chief supporter and photographer (mental note: how many photos do we really need?!).

They have these frames that you can see the girls using, to help learners get their balance. It is amazing how good all the local children are: Canadians really do learn to ice-skate as they learn to walk. There are little kids flying past us all the time! Lach and Olivia were actually sharing skates on this occasion. Lach didn't mind at all because he still loves just being IN the snow! We have since resolved that and found skates for all three of them.

It was pretty cold though!

 

 

 On Saturday, we headed into the city where they were having a festival of snow. Again, the temps prevented us from really enjoying it. There were lots of new things for the kids to try. Lach proved to be pretty good at curling. Shame its a boring sport!

 

The kids all got to dress like ice hockey players, but it was just for a ball throwing game. They looked fierce though!

We saw some ice sculptures. Unfortunately we didn't see the sculpturer in progress: we would love to see how they do it!

 

Lach did some rope climbing; the girls went on a luge track but just slid on bottoms. Too cold for me to do that!

 

It was freezing. Note the photo here and I'm in jeans: I went back to the car soon afterwards and put my snow pants on over the top. Too cold for just one layer on the legs.

 

There was a lunch and hot chocolate stop, then more ice-skating. I was able to hire skates here, so I joined in.

 

Sunday was a festival in our local suburb. Very similar things once again. You will notice we are all in the same clothes ... we do change the 6 million underneath layers regularly! 

 First stop was at the sugar shack. Yep, sugar shack. And you just eat maple syrup off the stick! Once spring comes, you eat the freshly tapped maple syrup from the tree. Here, boiling maple syrup was poured into troughs of ice. You use a stick to scoop it up and eat it. It was pretty yummy!

 Another aerial climbing activity. This was a challenge for the kids but they did well. Sophie is rather high in the air in this photo. The back ground is a dull sky: not white snow!

 Hot chocolates again. Its the only way you survive being outside. Liv found an easy way to cool hers. Try drinking from a cup wearing a woollen pair of gloves with big thick mittens over the top!There was ice-skating also, which our kids did: third time this weekend. No photos this time. But they are improving!

We decided that the longest we can be outside is about 90mins. The temps were around -10 and below, so if you stand still for too long, the coldness from the snow permeates into your feet and its so hard to warm up. In these photos, we are all wearing two layers on our legs and pairs of gloves (except Lach ... who knows why he had bare hands!),plus scarves, beanies that cover the ears and neckies. The extremties just get so cold and its hard to warm up again. Even when we go skiing, we really only last about the same length of time before you need to go into a hut and warm up.

I'm enjoying the challenge of living in this environment but I don't want to do it forever!

And now its Sunday night: things are the same as in Australia. Making lunches, following up homework (of which there is heaps - much more than Aust), making sure the uniforms are ready ... and watching Canada do well at the Sochi Olympics!