Winter fun; Will's birthday!

It has been a miserable winter.  If you're here with us I don't have to tell you that; if you're away, let me tell you: it's been raining, snowing, slushing, raining, freezing, icing, raining, snowing... Very little on the "snowing" side, and entirely too much ice.  So we've made the best of it by taking advantage of good days when we can, and trying hard not to let snow days pass us by!

We play inside a lot.  Here are the boys, on one of the freezing cold days, making a train by the wood stove.  Will is driving; Tom is making sure the wheels are in place.

Suddenly, the train jerks forward.

Massive derailment!  This game went on for about an hour.  It was quite funny.  A little disturbing that my kids are recreating train derailments, but as I mentioned, we couldn't go outside all the time.

We have friends north of us who live on a lake.  We were invited to go walk on the ice to Ghost Island (a place the kids swam to in the summer) - we had to do it that day, or the ice wouldn't be trustworthy.  Crazy winter!  So we bundled up and headed out.  Before visiting Ghost Island we spent a good amount of time tobogganing.  It's hard to see in this picture, but on both Tom's and Will's face is a look of pure joy.  This is, I think, my favourite picture of my kids.

Again with the look every child should get on a regular basis - the look that as long as gravity does not fail, there's no better moment in life than the one spent on the GT snowracer.

Will, headed back up the hill to race down it again.  Everyone slept well that night!

Here we are on Ghost Island with one of our friends who sometimes babysits the boys.  It was a perfect day, perhaps the only perfect winter day we had this winter!

One more ride down the hill before we head inside.  This one was great: Dad got on the GT with Tom and Will, but they fell off the trail and into the woods.  I was simply taking a picture of mischievous Will, who quickly jumped on the GT before Dad and Tom got out and scooted down the hill.  It wasn't until I looked at the pictures afterwards that I noticed Dad throwing Tom out of the woods!  The hill was steep - sometimes the easiest way to get out is to get a toss.

Here is a picture of how our winter has been - ice weighing down our trees, ice freezing our garage shut, ice everywhere.  The kids are perpetually waterlogged since they have to play outside - we send them out in snow pants to keep them warm enough but we know full well they will not come in dry!

Will, after driving trucks in the puddles.

It was also Will's birthday!  I asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he insisted on purple sprinkles.  I ran with the theme.  He loved the cake.

Here we are, just after singing Happy Birthday to Will.  Cake time!