Poles!

Mustang’s ski instructor told her last Saturday that she’s ready to start skiing with poles!!! They start the kids off with no poles, to ensure proper balance and control, and add poles once they’ve demonstrated good technique. Mustang was quite excited about this; she’s been wanting to use poles since her first day skiing.

Our friend DC came skiing with us last Saturday; she took the kids down the big hill once before their class and again after lunch for about two and a half hours. She said “they’re little speed demons!” – yes, they both like going fast, especially Button. I climbed partway up one of the slopes to watch them come down; close to where I stood was a little section of bumps. The kids aimed for the bumps to get some lift under their skis; Button fell both times I saw him try to go over (but that didn’t deter him the slightest!), whereas Mustang fell once but the second time she made it over upright.

Kids are looking forward to a long weekend – PD Day on Friday and provincial holiday on Monday. Nothing much scheduled, just fun time at home and of course skiing on Saturday. Button was coughing a lot this morning; hope he doesn’t come down with bronchitis like Mustang had week before last.

I think I’ve found a series of exercises to work on spelling that will work better than the routine stuff her teacher was sending home as spelling practice. One evening we spell the words using clay letters; one evening practice typing them; one evening use a special mat with alphabet letter cards to spell them; and one evening do some pencil & paper practice. More varied, more hands-on, and gets the typing involved too. She’s got almost the whole alphabet down with the typing; just a few letters on the bottom row left to learn. We’ve only been using this routine for a few weeks so I’m not 100% sure how well it will work, but it seems a better “fit” to me at least.

Now I’m turning my attention to trying to figure out how to work with her on math. Again, looking for some more hands-on activities as well as potentially software or games that can both teach and reinforce the math concepts and provide more practice. Any ideas?

Winter holiday

We spent the past week at a local ski resort.


I took the kids out of school for the last week before Christmas and we drove up on Monday morning. It was a warm, rainy day – not great if you’re hoping to have good skiing. We arrived just before noon and settled into our accommodations, which were spacious and pleasant, though we did notice a small white mouse on the premises.

We had a good view of the ski hill from the dining/living room. (My parents, being used to the Rocky Mountains, said this reminded them of Rabbit Hill, a ski hill near Edmonton where my friends used to go as teens to get in some skiing that wasn’t a four-hour drive away. Nobody out there considered it anything special. For real skiing you had to go to the mountains.)

That afternoon, what with the rain, we mostly explored the grounds a bit and spent an hour or so in the swimming pool and hot tub. Tuesday morning was colder, but still we didn’t attempt skiing as I figured the conditions wouldn’t be great. The kids did some tobogganing on the lower slopes where the ski runs weren’t yet open, and we played some games and again made good use of the pool and hot tub.





Tuesday night it snowed, and the resort had been hard at work making snow, so Wednesday morning we got out to the hill fairly early and rented skis for the kids.


On the way there we saw a family of otters enjoying a dip and a feed at the little pond between the parking lot and the ski hill.








That day they stuck to the bunny hill and both of them practiced their balance and turns. Mustang, as usual, did just great. Button began the day just barrelling down the hill, but by the end of the day he, too, was doing better at turns and controlling his stopping so as to come to a halt right at the bottom of the lift.




Thursday was another day of skiing. The morning we stuck to the bunny hill again, but for the afternoon I figured both kids would appreciate (and be able to handle) a run down the real slopes. Seeing as neither Laolao, Laoye nor I ski, I just went up to the lift and asked a man skiing with his young daughter whether he would be willing to accompany the kids down the hill. He took them down twice, then as they wanted to do amore challenging run and I didn’t think Button would be quite up to it (he was game, but I figured he needed to have a bit better control first!), I asked two young Asian women I’d seen coming down the easy run. They took the kids down three times and by then it was almost time to return the rental skis.

Friday morning, after packing up, Laoye took the kids for one last swim before we headed home. All in all it was a good, relaxing pre-Christmas holiday that was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

March break pix

Okay, I know March break was like 6 weeks ago, and I've the pix for a while, but only now am getting around to posting them.

Monday we had a home-day. We did some cooking/baking to prepare a meal for a friend who had purchased it as part of our church youth group fundraising for their Service Trip. Every March break the youth go somewhere to do a week of service. This year it was New York to work with homeless people. It takes money to make these trips happen, so they do fundraising throughout the year, such as hosting chili lunches at church. For a few years they've had an auction of "goods and services" where people in the church donate things they can make or do and others buy them, with the proceeds going towards the youth service trip. My family donated a "take-out meal" for sale, and it was purchased by JH. So on Monday of March break we made some buns, cupcakes, and a pot of tomato curry - then delivered it later in the week, on Thursday. So here are the kids making buns with Laolao - and trying out some out-of-the-ordinary face decorations in the process.

Tuesday we went skiing. A teenage friend (who wasn't on the service trip) joined us and accompanied Mustang on the slope. I paid for an hour of private lessons for Button, but we couldn't get a teacher until about 11:30 so for the first few hours I ran up and down the bunny hill with him as he got used to his skis. When the instructor joined us, he'd gotten the feel of sliding already, though needed work on technique. He had some trouble turning his feet in to make a snowplough shape, so at first she attached a rubber thingie to the front of his skiis so the tips had to stay together, and after a run or two that way he got the idea a bit better. They stayed mostly on the bunny hill, but she did take him down the big hill for one run, and he did okay.

After skiing, we drove up to a friend's house in the Gatineau hills and had supper, then stayed for the night (as I was too tired and stiff to battle the trail down to the road where the cars were parked - his steep driveway was blocked owing to the previous week's snowstorms that dumped 50 cm of snow in the area). Here Mustang and Button are doing some artwork on his living room coffee table.

Wednesday morning we drove back to town, heading right to the museum and spending the day there. When we finally got back home, I took a few pictures of the snow piles around our house.

Thursday we went to the local huge indoor playground with a school friend of Mustang's. Then on Friday, we visited the Farm in the morning, painted some ceramics in the afternoon, and at supper went to Mustang's favouritet Chinese restaurant to celebrate her third Family Day. Wow! Three years already! Here is a picture of Mustang with a bunny at the Farm.

Has it really been more than a month?

... since my last post? Doesn't seem possible. I've been meaning to, but other things have taken priority, I guess.

What's happened since March 9th:

• March break - I planned a special activity every day. To the farm, to the Nature museum, an outing skiing with both kids (and a teenage friend to accompany Giggles on the slopes), a trip to the ceramics painting place, and one quiet day at home cooking and doing crafts (that was Monday). March break activity photos to come soon!


• Giggles' third Family Day. Her adoption anniversary usually falls during March break; this year it was the Friday, so after our day's special activities, we all went out for supper at her favourite Chinese restaurant. Her favourite dish there? Congee!!!!! I always order one (big!) bowl for eating there and one for taking home.


• Easter - we dyed eggs three times. The Saturday at the beginning of March break, the Sunday after (Palm Sunday) and once with friends at their house, on Easter Saturday. Giggles is a master egg dyer - I think she needs a dozen eggs to do all on her own! Poppet did good work too. With our friends we used the Ukrainian egg dying technique (though not quite so fancy!) but Poppet didn't use the kiska much, he's still a bit young and not good enough fine motor control. Giggles is getting better at it. Our favourite technique though is to put rubber bands on the eggs (the big ones that come on broccoli are the best) and then dying the eggs. It gives nice, solid patterns. Did you know that this year was almost the earliest Easter will ever come? It's the earliest any of us will ever experience Easter - the next time it will fall on 23 March is some hundreds of years in the future. It can also fall on 22 March but that also won't happen for longer than any of us will live.


• Shaved Poppet's head! His hair had been growing since we got him and was getting a bit long and shaggy. Well, not really shaggy, but longish. With very tight curls. So Laoye got out his shaving kit and went to work. I tried it too, so I can do it myself later. It ended up very unevern and weird-looking. But the next day Laolao got out her scissors and fixed it up so it didn't look too bad. I think I need practice!
  
• Laolao and Laoye head home. They flew back out west on Easter Sunday evening, leaving me on my own with my expanded family. Okay, now comes the real test! So far it's been okay. My friend L is now taking Poppet once aabout every other week for a few hours so I have some more time to accomplish stuff around the home (and to start planning for summer holiday) and also to give me a bit of one-on-one time with Giggles, which she dearly loves and needs. Since Laolao and Laoye left I've had a bit more of the "I hate Poppet! Can't we get rid of him? I wish it were just us again!" When they were here Laolao did take Poppet and do stuff with him from time to time, even just in another room, so I could have some snuggles and story-time with just Giggles, for example. So I think she's missing that a lot. Everyone says it takes a good year for families and siblings to adjust to a new addition, so I expcet it will settle down in time.


• We celebrated Poppet's three month-iversary as part of the family on 31 March. Went to one of the local Ethiopian restaurants with some friends, another soon(?)-to-be Chinese-Ethiopian adoptive family. Justice's daughter is very close to Giggles' age. Her (one or two?) Ethiopian kids are still just a twinkle in the eye, but they will come in due course!


• Met P and F, another single mom and her Ethiopian daughter (who arrived home last November). They live a good distance outside Ottawa, but had to come in for an appointment at the International Adoption clinic, so had supper with us since we live just a skip and a hop from the hospital.

• Got rid of (most of) the snow!!!!!!! There was a huge storm here in early March - actually two in one week - that dumped tons of snow on us. The rest of March was below average temps, and it seemed the snow would never leave. But it's now almost gone - still a few big hills, but they're hills instead of mountains, and in isolated clumps rather than whole ranges. Last Wednesday it actually hit 17 degrees - I was out in my shirtsleeves! Hauled out the bikes and Poppet spent the day riding up and down the alley (with training wheels). Have been throwing a bunch of the snow from the piles onto the street to promot thawing, and by now our front garden is almost bare, and at least half the grass is showing in the back. HURRAY!!!! This weekend is cool again, but they're promising nice weather again on Wednesday. Hope it doesn't change.

Giggles the great... skier, that is!

On the provincial Family Day (Feb 18) I took Giggles for a "Mommy Day" while Poppet stayed home with Laolao and Laoye. The activity of choice was ... skiing! I am NOT a skier, but I paid for an hour of private lessons. Then she was to practice on the bunny hill - but that wasn't exciting enough for speed demon Giggles, especially as she had to walk up to the top of the hill, so I paid for a second hour of lessons so she could go up the big hill with adult accompaniment (and get a few more skiing tips to boot).

Both of the instructors who worked with her said she was "a natural" and "very talented." In fact, the second instructor said in her many years of teaching, this was only the second time she'd had such a good student for a first-time skier.

They start the kids off snow-ploughing to keep from going too fast while they learn to keep their balance, but by the end of the second hour, Giggles was already doing a few turns with parallel skis, which means faster speed and harder to balance while turning. She said she fell down only a few times.

(Anybody out there interested in accompanying a 7-year-old on the hill for a day or two sometime?!?)

I think regular skiing lessons will be on the books for next winter.

Even more pictures...

Here are a few pix from Poppet's first time on skates.

Oh yeah, Giggles and I, and friend Chuckles, are also included in some pictures, along with a few other friends. (Poppet's in blue, Giggles in purple.)