The Backyard Rink.

We must be among the very few Torontarians who are actually excited it is January and the temperature has dropped.  In fact, as the sun goes down and the children are in bed, we get all excited when we see that it is supposed to be -12 degrees Celsius or colder.  It's almost like a competition; will tonight be colder than it was last night?  Ok, so is that totally weird or what?  But you see, we've been working on a little project in our backyard, one that started back in September when my parents were here visiting.

And it's finally cold enough that we have managed to put down a fine layer of ice on our backyard skating rink.  It's been a total make-work project, with me on day-shift and Jordan on evenings, pulling the garden hose in and out of our bedroom window to water the rink before a good freeze overnight.  Which isn't so bad, if you don't mind sleeping with a garden hose coiled on the floor of your bedroom or spending a small fortune on your water bill over the winter.

But we have spent a ton of time out there already.  In fact, Gabriel and I spent a good hour the first day and when he didn't want to come in, he spent another hour out there honing his skating skills.  And today, a total of four hours! 

Jordan and Gabriel skated around and around swatting the puck back and forth to each other all morning and then later in the afternoon.  It's anyone's guess who is having the most fun.  But Jordan sure has an ear to ear smile.  We've been enjoying watching the boys, but had to get out there and enjoy it too. 

As Gabriel pulled Magdalene around in the sled with a hockey stick in one hand and the pull for the sled in the other, we were all laughing and smiling and enjoying ourselves immensely in this little backyard creation of ours.   Jordan and I both had this moment when our eyes met and I'm sure we were thinking roughly the same thing.  It's pretty hard to beat a moment like this. 

So maybe it's cold out there and people are wishing for spring.  But for now, we are hoping it will stay cold just a little bit longer!  If you aren't loving the cold so much, you'll just have to swing by for a little skate, some hot cocoa and a little fire to warm you up!

You might also like:

• Hockey Night. In our Basement.
• Homemade Hockey Sticks and Indoor Rinks.
• Baby it's Cold Outside.

Father's Day Weekend on the Farm.

This past weekend we spent Father's Day on a friend's family's farm. Our friend's Mat and Tina from BC came all the way from Ontario to see family and invited us up for the weekend.  Between Father's Day, a 3rd birthday for friend, Eli, daddies making bubbles, airplanes, four-wheeling, the sheep, little friends (new and old) it was a pretty lovely weekend!

 

It was really darling being at Tina's family's farm a few hours away.  Her parents have a big old place that is 180 years old sitting on a huge property with barns and sheep and fields.  Seriously, what a place to grow up and then bring the children back to play at their grandparents.  There was much wandering the property, riding through the fields, bleating at the sheep, sniffing the vast flower gardens.  (I just love places like this.  I am most likely a city girl, but there is a big part of me that really just loves the country too.  Maybe the part of me that grew up in the country building frog habitats, digging in streams and putting on old fashioned dresses with aprons and pretending I was a pioneer woman stirring a pot of boiling wool and then hanging it out on the old wooden fence in the back yard).

It's always good to spend time with "old friends." I remember a year ago standing on Mat and Tina's driveway in BC saying goodbye and Tina and I bawling our eyes out thinking we'd never see each other again.  Well, I'm glad to say we were wrong!  We just love this family.  These days with social media, texting and skype, it doesn't feel like it's been nearly a year.  

 The resident sheep protector.

We left Jordan in charge of all the littles at one point.  Like a good father that he is, he excelled of course.

Tina is always so creative! She made this watermelon cake with whipped cream frosting.  It was light and delicious.

Later in the afternoon, the daddies took out the bubbles.  I took great delight in seeing Jordan waving a pink wand around in the air, a big smile on his face and the kids chasing after the bubbles.  They were seriously the biggest bubbles I have ever seen.  They were bigger than our heads and floated up over the house and disappeared over the other side before finally popping.  After the hours of bubble blowing and popping that ate up the afternoon, Jordan laughed and said, "Well, that was way more fun that it was meant to be."  Isn't it just that way with kids sometimes, though?  We take so much pleasure in seeing their delight as they eat up life!

And then they were so completely zonked, the all but fell asleep in front of the tv watching Peter Pan.

It is weird that I love big car trips as a family?  We filled up the car with blankets, toys, books and snacks.  We bought things we usually don't eat like chips and licorice to make it special.  Both littles slept most of the way there and alllll the way back.  Which meant that Jordan and I got to talk and spend time just the two of us for a lot of the trip.  And once we got home, we just lifted the children into bed and off to sleep.  We were pretty proud when, at 10pm, we met at the bottom of the stairs, both children in bed after a long day.  Thank you Mat and Tina for the weekend.  Your family is just so beautiful!  We miss you.  Come back again some day!

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• Goodbye Ocean. Goodbye Friends.
• Good-bye (Almost) Squamish BBQ!
• The Newest Baby on the Block
• The other day at the park.
• Berry picking!

Dads

I've learned a lot of important lessons from my dad.  As a teacher, my dad has the knack of getting a lesson through to you in a memorable way.  I remember one morning sitting at the breakfast table as a kid and dad turned the Aunt Jemima syrup upside down with the cap still on.  The thick goldeny syrup poured to the narrow neck of the bottle, leaving only a little space at the bottom of the upside down container.  "Now, is there more syrup in this container?"  A math lesson of volume and capacity at the breakfast table. 

My dad taught me a lot about many different things--how to save money, how to start a campfire properly, how to pitch a tent, read a compass, about the importance of saying "I'm sorry" in a relationship, about spirituality, theology, religion and relationship.  Lessons you think we never listened to as kids, but ones that have hung on since childhood.

Dad, I know we gave you a lot of sleepless nights even into our twenties.  Nights when each of us came home well after midnight and there you were sitting at the computer screen pretending there was nothing else better to do than be on the computer at 1:00 am.  But the moment our doors clicked closed for the night, off the computer screen went and you could finally sleep, knowing we were all at home.  I think I might know a little bit of what that will be like.  Thank you for worrying over us, praying for us and loving us.

And to this man in our lives, whose patience, intuition and innate parenting skills continue to impress me.  When things get completely crazy around here, he always find some way to calm the chaos and keep us on an even keel. It is clear how much the littles adore this father of theirs, how much they dislike him going to work and watch for him at the window to come home.  Despite full days of work and trying to complete a masters, he still has a seemingly endless supply of energy to go for bike rides, play hockey, go camping in the back yard, read a million books and sit with Gabriel forever until he goes to sleep.  I can only hope that as they grow up, they continue to admire and want to be like their dad as much as young adults as they do now.  They have every right to be pretty darn proud of this man, just as I am. Parenthood is just such an amazing, tumultuous and life-changing journey as you watch these little creatures unfurl before your very eyes and you just pray you aren't screwing them up too badly and that really you are giving them the best nurturing foundations to be successful in life.  I'm just so thankful that I get to be on this journey with this man.

Happy Father's Day to our fathers, my husband and all the other important men of influence in our lives. Your presence in our lives as models of compassion, strength, hard work ethic and loyalty are invaluable.

You might also like:

• Hockey Night In Our Basement.
• Baby it's Cold Outside.
• Family Skate Date.
• Happy Anniversary to Us.
• My Birthday Man.

The Real 'Babymoon'

We have just had a beautiful week together as a family of four with husband home, many delicious cuddles and romps through the snow.  We are so thankful for this precious time off together and visiting parents who makes it possible for us to immerse ourselves in our children this week and over the coming weeks by taking care of us. 

For now, we are at that blissful two week newborn stage where Magdalene sleeps and sleeps.  Her eyes pop open for an hour at most, wide and unfocused staring at lights and trying to see faces.  She is still curled into a little ball, feet pressed together at the palms and her only sounds are that heart-wrenching newborn cry, baby grunts and little sighs of contentment. She's got the most delicate touch, relaxed arms and fingers posed like a dancer near her face.  I guess we sort of feel like maybe this is our 'babymoon' as we each spend time getting to know our Magdalene--her smiles, her frowns, her little personality coming through. 

You might also like:

• Eyes Wide Open.
• Coming home.
• Meet Baby Girl :)

Father's Day Picnic and Bike ride.

Guess who made it home this weekend, and just in time for Father's Day?!?  I am so relieved and excited that Jordan is finally home after two weeks that when I picked him up I literally skipped my way over for a hug and kiss.  The past month and a half without him around has been pretty tough, I'd say the toughest yet, so we are pretty excited to be together as a family, even if it is only a week and half.  Sigh.  But more togetherness is in our future!  Stay tuned!

We met Jordan in the city and picked up lunch at our favorite bakery--Max's bakery.  It was kind of neat being back in the hood where we used to live and where we spent our first year as a married couple.  Maxx's was always our go-to place for lunches out and, since they have the MOST AMAZING desserts, where we'd always go to pick up birthday/holiday goodies.  So, we couldn't resist and had to pick up one of their mini cheesecakes to share later.  If you've never been and you live close by, it's sooo worth it!  And they have such a wide selection of lunch items that it's impossible not to have something you'd like.

We took our big bag of goodies down to Stanley Park by the water where we could sit on a blanket and overlook the water and passersby.  Delicious!!  And Gabriel fed his dad blueberries to which he took great delight.

Finally we took off to Spokes, a little bike rental place on Denman where you can rent bikes and took 'em for a spin for an hour or two so we could bike the loop around the sea wall of Stanley Park, something we used to do sometimes when we lived in the city.  It is soooo gorgeous there!  I could see us doing this pretty often in the summer, that's for sure!

Such a great way to spend the day with our little family celebrating the special man in my life and the best father to our little guy!

Happy Father's Day Husband!  And Happy Father's Day to our dads and men of influence in our lives.  Thank you for your sacrifices, your worries over us, your strength.  We love you.

You might also like:

• A little shoutout to my man tonight.
• Off-road: A Mother's Day Adventure.
• My Mother, as Captured in a Photograph.