The First Snow

I woke up Tuesday morning, opened my curtains, and saw white. I rubbed my eyes, took a second look, and realized that it was snow! So excited were the girls that they got ready for school in record time.

Outside #1's school 

#2 making a snow angel

After school with a classmate

Off School

It seems that recently, my 5-year old has had more days off school than on between pedagogical days and strike days.  Not that I am complaining. Our morning routine has gotten easier as there is no mad rush to get my kindergartener to school on time. On a recent day off, we decided to head to the Biodome along with my cousin and her three kids. Try as I might, it was difficult to get them all to look at the camera. Here are a couple of attempts:

My Star of the Week

All the children in my five-year-old's kindergarten class get to be "star of the week" for an entire week. On the first day, they tell everyone their name, age, favourite food, favourite colour, and favourite activities. On day two, the teacher shows 20 photos that the parents prepare on a USB drive of their child's important moments. On day three, they bring in a sampling of their arts and crafts project of previous years. On day four, they take in their favourite book and song to share with their classmates. And finally, on day five, they bring in their favourite toy to share with their friends. Additionally, the star helps the teacher throughout the week. Our daughter felt very special during this last week, her star week. We, on the other hand, were exhausted, and happy the week was over as it involved quite a bit of preparation.

At the end of the week, her wonderful teacher had compiled drawings that all the children had done, explaining why our daughter was special to them. Although she cannot read the comments yet, she thoroughly enjoys looking at the pictures her classmates had sketched for her.

#1 in her school photo

So Long Fireplace/Art Display

Our kids love to colour, cut, glue, and paste. And up until last week, we had an excellent place to display their artwork: the fireplace mantel. We never actually used it as a fireplace. We had baby-proofed it as soon as we moved in, and despite the cold winter, we avoided using it last year:

Finally, a few weeks ago, we decided to convert the wood-burning fireplace to a biofuel equivalent. We decided to incorporate a television and sound bar. Here are the photos of the transition:

But the question remained, where to display the artwork? Finally, a little bit of painter's tape in the mud room seemed to do the trick: