No, Apparently Not

Happy April.  It snowed yesterday and this morning at bus stop time it was -4, brrrr, won't be putting my winter hat and gloves away yet.

On Saturday we went to Cambridge where Tom grew up and caught up with Aunt Pat and Tom's cousins.  while we were there we wandered around down town Galt and looked at the 'ancient' mill ruins dating back to 1890 (I think, the sign was rather ambiguous), that is 11 years older than the house we lived in in Arnside!  Apparently it was a knitting mill, neat, I have visions of lines of hundreds of grannies sitting in water powered rocking chairs knitting fiendishly fast.  Here are Jacob and Rose arguing over a sign.

On Sunday we finally got to the Paint Ontario and Tundra Swans exhibits at the local museum.  The art was very good and the swans were feeble, the exhibition consisted of a video, a stuffed swan and some craft activities for the kids.  Still, the activities took a good half hour and the only trauma was stopping Rose stroking the taxidermy.

Is Winter Over?

Today was beautiful, a good thing too as I had ample opportunity to appreciate it from 5.20am onwards thanks to Rose.  We went for a walk in the Pinery and because it was above 10 degrees Jacob and Rose refused to wear coats.  The sky was blue and the colours were gorgeous so here are a couple of photos just in case you haven't seen enough recently.

Maths Champ

Since September Jacob's school have been participating in an online maths website called Mathletics, on it they have individual math competitions with other participating kids in schools all over the world.  Before Christmas he played against Ben Langhorne from his class in Arnside School in the UK, I thought this was really cool but Jacob was very blasé about it.  How communications have changed in a generation.

Today he brought these stats sheets home.  I put in a photo but you may not be able to read it, he is ranked number 5 in Canada and number 96 in the World.  This is pretty good considering that over 10,000 schools are enrolled in the programme.  Well done Jacob!

Also this evening I found the Easter Bunny being cheeky in the kitchen.

Easter Gifts

Today some more of Easter arrived at Pinetree Drive.  Rose is very keen on this outfit, specially the leggings.

And Jacob has another sweater that Tom would like in an adult size.  Thanks Mum.

I went shopping with a friend in London, I was far more productive than when I go with Tom and managed to buy 2 vest tops and a hoodie.  Rose will be disgusted when she sees the hoodie as it is grey.  I'm sure that there is a direct relationship between mine and Rose's wardrobes, the more outrageous hers gets the more shades of navy blue, grey and brown seem to creep into mine.

Still Winter on the Lake

This afternoon Jacob, Rose and I went for a walk to look at the beach.  Tom stayed at home to do Rock Star stuff on his own.  The Old Ausauble River is now thawing, no coyotes running up the middle of it today.

The beach still looks very wintry but the snow has melted off the lines of sand dunes in the middle of the pack ice.

Jacob and Rose enjoyed mucking about at the edge of it for a good while.

Jacob did a lot of testing the snow and ice with sticks because I said that it was not safe to walk out and he didn't believe me.

In the end I gave up arguing and we walked out to the second line of dunes, with much testing and leaving a trail of foot prints to mark the safe route home.  Actually, teetering at the top of the last dune was pretty cool, they are all sort of eroded away underneath into fantastical cave like structures.  Jacob got so cross that I wouldn't let him jump down the lake side that he dropped his testing stick over the edge.

Which was unfortunate because he forgot to follow the safe trail back to the beach and put both feet through a slushy bit of ice filling his snow boots with very, very cold water.  I had to call Tom to give us a lift home before he got frost bite.  Jacob was very annoyed about it and said that I made him go out to the dunes when he didn't even want to.  What fibs, he's not good with loss of dignity right now, especially in front of Rose.

Also today I finished the main part of my quilt top.  Now I just have to decide whether or not to put a border on it then spend the rest of my life hand quilting it.  Here it is.

Spring is Sprung?

Today is officially the first day of spring and this is what it looked like in Grand Bend.

I am still not completely fed up of the snow.  This sort is really powdery, its easy to shovel if you can be bothered and drive over if you can't.  Little puddles of melted snow in the house from the children's boots beat the little piles of mud and sand that appear all over the place when it thaws.

Today we had cards and gifts from the UK for Easter (thanks Tam).  Here are Jacob and Rose demonstrating them.  Jacob liked the teeny post-its and Rose was very excited about having sparkly make up on her new T shirt.

Dress for the Weather

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and Rose is getting her wardrobe ready.  I really hope she doesn't want to go to school like this tomorrow as it is still below freezing outside and I fear Ms Tremain will ring Child Protection (especially with the current array of bruises).