Easter!

I know Easter is late this year so I should have been ready.  To be fair it's also landing on American Tax Day this year!

We ended up finding our bunny treats, dying eggs and then heading to church all by 10am!

The Winning continues! Curling....

P won the A flight for Club Championships, I and my ladies won the B flight (I play 2nd), the little kids won the Little Rocker's Bonspeil. I also got out of 3 ladies draws, 1 first place and 2 second place prizes and my Thursday night ladies team won the B flight championship for that night.

H's acceptance speech.

H has a great week

Friday night we went to H's ice skating awards banquet.  Each kid got a participation trophy.

 He's just finished his Level 3 badge meaning we are looking at moving to specifically figure skating next year.  They also gave a couple of specialty awards.  We have not been at this banquet before so I can neither confirm nor deny they made this award up just for him, but.....

They gave out an award for dedication to the sport, "oh, that's going to be me, mom"  another child's name is called.  H says, "oh, well, maybe I will win next year."  then another award-perseverance I believe "oh, that will be me"  (he has won that award 2 x at school in the last 3 years, so....)  another child's name called.  "oh, maybe next year."  Then, "Fastest Skater"  "mom, that's going to be me!!!" Sure enough, he ran up to the stage as they quipped, "now you can see why he's the fastest, he moves really fast!"

Then today, Wednesday he got an award for showing the character trait of the month-courage

Winter... ah... Canadian Winter...

That time of year is finally over. I just like to hibernate in the Canadian winter.  Let's catch you up with what we've been up to, shall we?

When we last left off the kids had completed their Christmas programs-they only did the afternoon performance because that night we were on a plane to visit WA state....

V renewed her friendship with Jarvis the dog after everyone else discovered she was cheating at Mille Bornes and wouldn't play with her anymore...

We took a trip to the deserted Jetty Island as there's no ferries running this time of year...

 

We visited with my dad's side of the family and stole presents from each other...

 

We opened our stockings, including P who had two 1/2 pound Reeses cups in his-one was breakfast...

 

 

 

... and my mom's side of the family where the kids collected money from generous family members... 

 

... the kids thanked Santa/Uncle E for their stockings...

 

The kids went for their first ballet with my dad and us parents.  H was enthralled and asked questions throughout.  My favorite... (during the sugar plum dance)  "You know what this dance needs? Marshmallows.  But I bet that would be a very heavy costume-you'd have to give that part to one of the better dancers"

 

We visited my brother so the kids could spar with their super-tall cousin

 

 

We checked out the Warm Beach lights

 

 

 

The kids flew home with me while P flew to Minnesota to play down for US Nationals curling to be held in Everett, WA in Feb 2017.

 

 

 

Sadly, they did not end up in nationals and have now parted ways, but P made it to provincials for intermediates (35+ men) and will be heading there for Mixed with one of his US teammates later this month, so he's still curling, just closer to home.

We got home and got to work-we finally got a proper cellar door on the cold storage in the back of my closet.  It's still cold, so I think we still have to insulate under the stairs, but this closes so much nicer than what was there before...

H replaced two light switches that had broken and we learned about aluminum wiring in 1970s homes...  I replaced a light fixture to match one in the same hallway.

 

We also decided we'd had enough of mice stealing my yardwork gloves and squirrels hiding their walnuts in the shed as well as finding nests with poop and pee in them and took a day to staple chicken wire in the eaves of our shed

 

  (the downside of having forest and open land behind your property)

 

C got an award for Optimism at school (it was pajama day as well)

P and I got to try outdoor curling at an event in front of city hall run by the curling club as part of the 2017 150th celebration of Canada... 

 

the kids made valentines for their classmates

 

 

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (Women's national championship) was in St. Catherines Ontario this year which is really close to our house, so we took the kids for Family Day to celebrate P's birthday

I also went another day with my Women's club championship team

 

E and her team won a local 2-day Ladies bonspeil.  Sadly we don't keep the trophy but our names will be engraved on a plaque on it.  We also won our entry fee back.  The food was amazing seafood as well as very fun Newfoundland themed entertainment.

 

 

V continues to sleep very well every night...

Our March has been very exciting. First a windstorm took down the giant tree in front of our house and pulled up shingles.  The tree also pulled down the internet and electricity/hydro as well as the stack attaching them to our house.  We decided between all this we'd file our first homeowner's insurance claim which is super fun.

 

On the plus side, we've always wanted more light in our dining room (front left window).

 

5 days later it snowed for 48 hours straight...

 

 

I'm not working for a Canadian firm doing taxes this year but keep myself busy curling 4 times a week, teaching the kids curling on the weekend and doing US taxes in the basement during the day. 

On this first day of spring, they've finished taking the fallen tree (there's still a mess, but that will get to the next post), I'm busy with US taxes and the kids are moving around their schedule a little. H is trying out figure skating now that he's got his 3 lower skating badges and V is still steadily working to pass Swimmer 4 so she can try diving and swim team this summer.  It's curling playoff season and then C will start up Intermediate Fencing.