Rosalina Ballerina

Every week Brook goes to her dance class and learns her little "Winnie the Pooh" routine. And every week Rosie looks on from the door, waiting for her moment. Recently, Rosie decided it was her turn to bust a move. She borrowed Brook's skirt (on her own) and in true Rosie style, adorned her feet with red socks. She was ready to go. Then she proceeded to wow her audience with her rendition of "Winnie the Pooh" which includes a lot of jumping. See the video clip below for the whole performance:

She is quite something. And not one formal lesson! ~Mandy

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Although it is true that small prairie towns often lack the sophistication and culture found in "the big city", there is one thing we have in abundance - wind. And that is a pretty big selling feature when you have a family of four, a free Saturday and a Nemo kite. So this past weekend, we took our kite out for a sail in the prairie skies over Caronport. It was a perfect day to go kite-flying.

Brook was a big help to Sean whenever the kite made a nose-dive. She always ran to get it straightened out and flying again

Roz also helped. You may wonder why our youngest child is missing her pants. Well, there was a small incident with a large puddle mere seconds after arriving on the field.
Here Brook is showing off her excellent "holding the string" skills
And of course the best part of kite-flying is just looking up to see it soar

So our Saturday morning with Sean (after waffles) was spent running, laughing and flying our kite. I was so inspired, I thought of maybe organising a Caronport Kite Festival. Now, that may not actually "take off", so to speak but hey, if you have big skies and lots of wind, what better way to take advantage of them? I'll keep you posted. ~Mandy

Baking Beauties

Every now and then, The girls and I will decide that it is high time we baked some cookies. So we each put on our aprons (mine doesn't have my name on it, unfortunately) and begin the chaotic and often messier than you can believe task of measuring and mixing our cookie ingredients. Lately, the girls have really been into peanut butter cookies, which is great as there are only three ingredients to measure. We can usually get these finished before I enter the "why did I think this would be a good idea?" phase of the baking process.

Here are the girls posing before the actual baking has begun

Now things are starting to get more fun - the official tasters are on the job

And here, Rosie - the queen of tasters - is pausing between fistfuls of dough to give me an angelic yet impish look

So we bake cookies because, well, they are delicious. But more than that, it is time to laugh and chat together about life. Brook can take a lick of the beater and then procede to tell me why she loves spring so much, that she would like to take a train to Ontario and sometimes it makes her sad that she can't actually be a dog. Rosie cracks us up with her crazy dance moves and adds her protests about the dog thing by barking. I like to imagine that when the girls are older and possibly less forthcoming about the things that make them sad or fill them with joy, we will still bake cookies together and maybe in the silence, while we stir, measure and pour, they will share a bit of their lives with me. And maybe we can just laugh together and eat dough. For now, I am enjoying every moment with my baking beauties. ~Mandy

Christina Rossetti Once Wrote . . .

"For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands."

Here's to sisters holding us up - especially when we have on really big boots! ~Mandy

This Strange In-Between Time

Right now on the prairies we are experiencing quite a thaw. The days have been spring-like and blissful, but even up to yesterday, there was snow on the ground. It has all but disappeared now (of course, us true prairie people know that this is merely a tease - winter still lurks). But it has been so much fun to go out with the girls to play. Our options for activity are endless. For example, we can build fantastic snow people with our melty snow . . .

and then decide to maybe hit the sand box for some sand castle/mud pie creating (and in Rosie's case - tasting?!)

I suppose this is our more humble version of skiing in the morning, surfing in the afternoon. So we wait for winter to blast us again with something cold and miserable. But for now, it is so good to feel that sun on my face. ~Mandy

Brookilina Ballerina

Brookie's been taking ballet lessons and I think she's really starting to enjoy it. We never thought we'd be the kind of parents to get emotionally involved in our children's activities, but it's been hard not to as we've watched our little three year old trundle off by herself to ballet class and make friends with the older kids as they practice their routine. Mandy's found it the hardest, but I have to admit it's been stretching for me too. Here's Brook arriving to ballet class . . .

. . . and preparing to practice her routine:

"when the world is puddle-wonderful . . ."

For the past two days, we have had what we on the prairies consider balmy weather and things are all of a sudden less burdensome. Spring is in the air! So today, our second "melty" day, the girls spent some time enjoying what e. e. cummings refers to as a "puddle-wonderful" world. The girls were loving it:

Here's another pic from the day. Brookie's showing her little sis how it is done:

I think Rosie is impressed! This small lake is actually right beside our house. Rosie is leaning on our car. So I guess this is as close as we will ever get to lakefront property. But hey, we are rich in other ways - just look at these splashing beauties! ~Mandy

A Lesson from my Daughter

One of our favourite activities to do together (especially when it is -30 outside) is colouring. Inevitably, Brookie will do a number of pictures for her "far away family" so I will have her sign the pictures (I can't believe she can print her own name!) so we can send them in the mail.

The other day, Brookie drew this beautiful rainbow "hole". I told her how great it was and then asked her to put her name on it. She looked at me and replied, "I don't need to put my name on it, Mommy, because this one is just for me."

I was immediately struck by how much of our lives are spent trying to make others happy, even creating beautiful things for others, and frankly, after a time, it just isn't fun anymore. So my daughter reminded me of how important it is to do/make things for our own enjoyment every now and then. It isn't selfish or wrong. It is pure, unadulterated pleasure. I hope she can always save the occasional masterpiece for herself. ~Mandy

The girls and I had planned on heading over to the post office this morning (one of our big excursions here in Caronport) so we bundled up . . . or in Rosie's case, bundled then unbundled, bundled then unbundled . . . and finally got out the door. We had to try our slide, landing at the bottom in a big pile of snow. It was so much fun we did it again. After a while, I decided the post office could wait. Brookie's favourite snow day activity is definitely the slide
Rosie's is the swing
and mine was just laughing with my daughters.

The snow and giggles mixed together, filling us all with joy. I love this mom thing. And I don't say it often, but it is really pretty around here right now!

Love Bein' a Dad

Here we are reading a bedtime story together--one of the Munsch classics I think. So much fun. Life is busy these days and there are many challenges but being surrounded by my girls (yes, you too my darling wife!) leaves me feeling so deeply satisfied. It's ballast in my ship...