Oh how I hate when I procrastinate blog posts for months and forget all the fun we had! It happened yet again, so now, looking back on February (and let's be honest, January too), I mostly remember the snow days. How many did we have? It seems like ten at least, with quite a quantity of 2-hour-delays thrown into the mix.
But I have to say, we did have fun on almost all of them. There were days when we went to the YMCA and burned our energy playing Dance Dance Revolution or rock climbing (or more often me in the fitness center and the little kids in the playroom and the big kids playing pool and air hockey and tag in the play-zone). We hit the sledding hill across the street a time or two. Some snowmen were built. There were mugs of cocoa with ice cream and mugs of hot cider with whipped cream and cinnamon. Movies were watched by the dozen (or half-dozen at least--we even finally watched some Star Wars together, which it's obviously taken us enough time to get around to), and episodes of Little Einsteins were memorized. Card games and board games were played and books were read. Playrooms were cleaned and recleaned and recleaned again. And of course, we even managed to throw in a marvellous "Unbirthday Party."
Though by the last couple of snow days (twice the snow was all melted by the end of the day--I mean, really!) we were all mostly over them, I have to admit that overall I am a fan. I don't know why snow days were so much more fun than the random Fridays the kids would have off without me realizing it in Regina. I think it had something to do that there was never quite the "deep freeze" here that we experienced there, besides which a bigger, less unattractive house made us less susceptible to cabin fever. Here we'd have a few weeks of snow. Then it would all melt and spring would appear. And then it would disappear again, but at least we got to see it for those few minutes! It was also nice that the snow days would come on other days of the week, like a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday--so we could have our fun and still have a day or two to clean up from it before the weekend showed up.
Okay, in leiu of more description, how about some photos?
One evening we went skating, much to the delight of this one, who would barely let me take his picture between races around the rink. Do you love the patronising grin?
And this one, who is learning to get around on skates as well . . .
even if she spent approximately half her time in this position. It didn't phase her a bit, though. She just kept popping back up like popcorn, totally nonplussed by her soaking wet bum.
Surprisingly enough, even the most cautious of the bunch took to the ice. Though he gripped that side-rail like his life depended on it for the first hour or so, by the end he was going hands-free . . . for entire micro-seconds!
Only Sera inherited my ice-cube extremities. From practically the minute we got her laced up, she started whining about how cold her fingers and toes were, even inside warm socks and mittens. For her it was all a marathon endurance battle to get to the hot chocolate at the end of the night. Which turned out to be ice cream shakes at Shake and Steak. But that was one kind of cold she didn't complain about!
Everyone had nice time when we went sledding, though. It was more pleasant than any of the times we went sledding in Regina--by about 40 degrees! Oh the difference between -20 and +20!
Then there were games. Lots of games.
Operation was a favorite,
Along with this fab game, "Guess What I Am."
Sera didn't actually require a snow day to play "matching" five times a day. But I sure appreciated it when there was a sibling around to play it with her. On non-snow days, she would follow me around begging until I finally relented a played a few rounds with her. Let's face it, my memory can use the exercise!
A fair amount of baking happened--I love the sequence of these two pictures.
Then there were games. Lots of games. 
