When life gives you ice...

Southern Ontario saw some pretty awful weather this past weekend.  Right when the snow had all melted and everyone was ready for spring, winter hit in full force.  Everything was closed all weekend and we were all trapped in our houses as we were pelted with record amounts of precipitation, mostly in the form of ice pellets and freezing rain.  This morning we emerged from the shelter of our house, sick of hibernating to find a picture perfect January day...  As an added present, the plow had left an impenetrable wall of chunks of ice at the end of our driveway.   While Gus and I grumbled away and attempted to excavate the driveway with ice pics the kids saw possibility.  The morning's lesson, when life gives you ice...make an ice fort.

Ice chunks left by the plow

Max and Darwyn hard at work hauling ice

Take THAT winter!

Last week Gus and Ted deserted me, leaving me with our disgustingly late spring while they went to Florida for a conference.  The day they left, Jose and I took the kids down to the infamous tunnel to Tarabithia.  I had noticed really cool icicles under the bridge.  The kids had an awesome time with them, while Jose and I felt sorry for ourselves.

Love Darwyn's expression.  This is pretty much what I am feeling about ice at this point.

You can run to Florida, but you can't hide.  We are coming to get you!

Yum!

View of the tunnel

Loves like magic

Gus has a guilty pleasure.  It is playing Magic the Gathering.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have many people to play it with.  Luckily for Gus, he recently found someone to play with: his co-worker Ted, who also happens to be Jose's boyfriend.  Jose likes to tease Gus that he will share Ted (for Gus to play magic with) only if Gus does what Jose wants.  This led to no end of jokes regarding the sharing of Ted with Gus....jokes which were, apparently, not completely lost on my then 5-year-olds ears.

Given the (at the time) recent Pride week, I was explaining to my kids about homosexuality and bisexuality.  I explained that some people like to date people of the opposite sex and some people like people of the same sex and that some people like both.

Darwyn: Like Daddy!  Daddy likes both!

Greta: (quite confused)  He does?

Darwyn: Because he is married to you and Ted is his magic boyfriend!

I can't begin to explain the delight and mirth that the phrase "Daddy's magic boyfriend" has caused.

Purple Ada

Ada was supposed to be napping.  She wasn't.  When I came in she was sitting in the middle of a pile of markers.  She looked up at me proudly showing of her purple hands.  "Look what I did mommy!"  And then she pulled up her shirt....  Good thing they were washable markers!