Party party!

 We tried to make Matthew's birthday twice as memorable this year, and had twice as much fun as usual. (Is that possible?) I took twice as many pictures to remember it by, at least. Matthew wanted to go to MacDonald's for his birthday. Why? For the Play Place. I convinced him that an indoor playground is what he meant. We went on a Monday and were almost the only ones there.

 Slides and tunnels were great fun.

 Perhaps a little to big for Evelyn though.

 We spent the morning there, and the older three played games like "don't let Daniel see where we are" and some tag type games.

 But cool places to explore inside too.

 There were things for the smaller ones

The kids felt over dressed, running around in a warm room in long sleeves...and no one wanted to go home when I said time was up. 

 Cake was mandated, and Matthew did a good job decorating (soon he'll be better than me, which isn't sayin' much of me ;)

 Matthew saved a box of candy just to decorate his cake with. Very thoughtful!

 He needed practice blowing out candles though!

 He was spoiled by his siblings, Melanie and Nathan both made and painted boats for him. Just in time for the few days/hours of spring run off we get running through our place.

 We are happy to have had another year with Matthew!

Sliding Hill Challenges

 While the "little girls" were skating, the older kids were working on improving their sliding hill. There are plenty of places to go sliding, but this particular hill has an added challenge, and they were fixing it up.

 Melanie ran up to show me how it worked...you have to start up here, and if everything works just right

 you come up against the snowpile which pushes you back on track (though you are going slow by then)

 so you can pass on to the second part of the hill, making it the longest sliding run that has been found!

They put rocks in it to strenthen it. No, I did not encourage this.

 It was analyzed after Melanie's failed attempt, as to what may be the cause of her lack of success. It was decided that the ramp needed to be a bit higher and she needed to lean a little more.

Try again!

We had another big dump of snow just when we'd given up hope of any more snow, so we had more sliding right after Matthew's birthday! The kids made a run on the east side of the driveway (but stopped before sliding over the road thankfully. :p ) It ran along what might be considered the ditch, using the plowed pile of snow to keep you from swinging onto the driveway when turning the corners. After a while it was hard to stay off the driveway in certain "weak places" along the run. But it was a fun slide, since you would bounce side to side and risked popping out...kinda like a marble slide.

MIS of the Year

 And the Most Improved Skater of the Year Award goes to....

 Jennifer! She started out this winter with no skating experience, and by the end, was really actually skating! (Check out the bottom pic!) She does fall more often when she is really gliding and stepping, but maybe that is partly due to bad ice conditions more than her lack of skill...or maybe not. ;)

 Jennifer is usually the one to ask if the rink is frozen enough to skate on.  Then she convinces Daniel or Evelyn to join her, or everyone goes enthusiastically on when she spreads the word that it "we are allowed to skate!"

Evelyn has "bob-skates" which are supposedly skates to help you learn how to skate. But really, they are like training wheels on a bike which don't teach you anything about biking. They were helpful in appeasing the spoiled youngest child...so she could be a part of the crowd. If you are thinking of buying a pair...think of them in those terms...not as helpful for skating skills.