Horray for the Zacker!



Zac's birthday is only happy if I get presents too.



Then end of February. The doldrums of winter. The kids are starting to resent having to put on their snow gear every time we leave the house and I am getting tired of cajoling them into doing it. I have actually been bribing them with candy. To make myself feel like less of a cheater, I bought a bunch of "Organic Vitamin "C" pops" because that makes me feel superior somehow. "Get your stuff on and I'll give you a lolly pop!"  Alas, I have overused this method to the point where lolly pops don't really matter.  (Damn! shot myself in the foot again!) Oh for the days where I throw open the door and they bound outside barefoot and barely dressed. But should we not love every day for what it is and always remember rule #1: NO WHINING!  Suck it up and enjoy the soggy rain/snow/wind of a late New England winter! After all there is much to be thankful for. We don't suffer much from food insecurity, or political oppression, or dictators or theocrats...we can spout our poorly informed political ideologies without much recourse...but I promised not to talk politics in this forum as there are too many family members with contradictory views and anyway, I like to save those discussions for holidays and family get-togethers.

  

So we have been making use of all this snow by building a super duper snow fort. In it's glory days a few weeks ago it was 12 ft or so high and hollowed out with a central room and two chambers and a porthole through which we could thrust an arm and totally freak out the kids. We (read: Daddy) also built a half pipe at the top of our hill out back to generate the proper amount of speed to hurtle oneself down. Lately it has rained and froze at night making the hill as slick as oil and really, really fun. I was going to invite every kid I knew to try it out but decided that would be a poor choice for potential injury related reasons. (See? I am sensible!)

looking through the door of the cave

Daddy and Zac on top of the snow cave

Dig donkey! hi-Yaaa!

This was cool, Zac found the old cave as we dug out the new cave.

I love this picture, Zac looks so stoic



Emma waiting for the arm to pop out of the hole



A pantless apres snow cuddle with Aber. Cage also serves as Zac's bear den

The kids have been getting pretty inventive with winter activities. We still go out for our daily walk, but the excitement of looking for tracks has worn a bit thin because all we ever see are rabbits, deer, and critters.  We did find marks from crows wings in the snow, where they beat against it to take off, but no bears, or big bad wolves or yetis so Emma and Zac have come up with a game they call "Faceplant"

Amidst all this winter fun, Zac has turned three! My leap year kid was pretty excited about that and Grandma Lynn & Grandpa Bob sent a package just in time. Zac was absolutely over the moon to get a package just for him in the mail. A Canada sweatshirt and a Calgary Flames hat!

I am Three!!!

It has come to my attention that Zac and Emma don't know enough about Canada and the Monarchy that figureheads it. Grandpa Bob has been counting quarters with the other grand kids so they all know about "Lizzie with her hat on" (Queen Elizabeth & crown)  To my horror, I realized my kids are totally unaware of the Queen.  I feel like a bad Canadian. I don't even know if I have any Canadian coins here. I will have to look for some. They will also need education about socialized health care and GST, and the Canadian definition of "liberal" and crying politicians...so much to learn...
But Zac is three and he had a great time. Buggy and Grampy came down and cousin Isaiah, auntie Danny and uncle Jason too. We had a fun party at the gymnastics place where even the adults joined in ( grown-ups flipping off the trampoline into the foam pit! So fun I did it twice.) and triple chocolate, butter cream frosting monster cupcakes.

worth noting: Zac insisted that he not be helped with the zip line!





Daddy having a turn with Zac's present

Buggy came in and totally went on the attack. Dennis was a tad taken aback. The rest of us wondered how long she had been awaiting her opportunity.

So now I have a three year old. A stick your tongue out, pants off, "why should I?", torture the sister, listen to no one, sneak the marshmallows, "Cha" the dragon, don't eat supper, fall off the chair, go to work under the sink, 'I just love your boobies"  THREE YEAR OLD!  Hurray for the Zacker!