Welcome, Winter

Yowzer, our mercury reads -8 tonight...brrrr!  But while Ben was off enjoying a much-deserved weekend with friends (smartly staying indoors and watching football) the super cold temps didn't keep the rest of the Stockwells from getting out and enjoying the sudden onset of winter.  The boys tried out their new snowshoes this morning, taking a trek through our back woods with Noni and Papi (and me).  Adam lasted about 20 minutes before he proclaimed himself "really super freezing", but Ethan showed his determined streak (which tends to make an appearance during many winter activities - this boy is most definitely a January baby!) and kept at it for a bit longer.  

After some cocoa warm-ups, lunch, and nap attempts failures, Noni and Papi headed home and I took the boys to check out the Scarborough WinterFest.  Although the WinterFest would have been a bit more fun in say, thirty degree weather, it did manage to entertain us for awhile.  We took a wagon ride,

Note that there weren't many others volunteering to ride around in the cold wind for twenty minutes.

explored a (warm!) firetruck, oooo-ed and aaah-ed at the ice sculptures, hugged a slightly scary Frosty,

and warmed up by the bonfire, before deciding we'd had enough of the chilly weather and rushing home for our second cup of hot cocoa.  After all that fresh(!) air, the boys were out early tonight.

Yesterday brought similarly thrilling winter fun.  Ethan and Adam had their very first skating lesson, a much anticipated event by all involved.  It turned out to be quite a comical situation all around, but ultimately one I'm willing to call a success.  Of course, the outing was a 90 minute affair, for 25 minutes of skating (or 10, in Adam's case), with the commute time, then all the gear, the coaxing to join the group, yada yada.  The entire drive there, Ethan was a wreck, telling me he didn't want to do skating, he never said he wanted to do skating, that he is too shy, etc. etc. etc.  Adam, meanwhile, kept saying "This is going to be fun!".  After getting both boys dressed and in their skates and helmets, and convinced that they needed to at least try the lesson, we are in the locker room, learning how to stand up in our skates.  Suddenly, a dictatorial woman comes in and barks "4-year olds, come with me.  And parents, exit now!".  And I realize I'm in over my head.  Ethan is being pulled one way, Adam suddenly decides this is not at all  fun, and I am being ushered out, thinking to myself that this whole ordeal was perhaps a bit too ambitious of an undertaking.  Fast forward a few minutes and everything is fine - I'm allowed to stay with Adam until he calms down, Ethan decides he isn't shy at all and loves skating lessons (which we knew all along), and the lessons are over in 25 minutes and we're on our way home with celebratory donuts in hand and excitement to go back next week.  Of course, I had no chance to get any pictures of my little Brian Boitanos (or Wayne Gretzkys) amidst the chaos, so you'll have to settle for some other skating pictures from the past few weekends at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We're so lucky to have such a lovely, serene, accessible pond where we can try out our new (and dust off our old) skills!

Hooray for winter fun!  A few folks in our house are pretty happy winter's finally made its appearance.