Ryder's first Valentine's Day

Ryder was very pleased with all of the candy he received from his friends at Wee College on Valentine's Day.  He took a cereal box and decorated it and he came home with it completely full of candy, cards, stickers and favours.  Unlike Cooper, who saves all of his candy and and gives it away to his friends, Ryder ate all of his the same day.

Cooper with his Valentine's artwork

Cooper, Ryder and Georgie eating their candy.

Cooper and Ryder opening their Valentine's Day candy

Ryder's first day at Wee College

Wee College did not open in September 2012 as planned due to a staff shortage.  This was disappointing for lots of parents in Lab City who were looking forward to their three year olds starting 'school'.  Following lots of discussion and a fee increase Wee College opened again in January 2013.

Ryder was very excited to be going to school like a big boy. He goes twice per week, either the mornings or afternoons and is really enjoying it.  Whenever I ask him what he does there, he says 'Clean up, clean up'.

Playing Play Doh

Ryder playing blocks

Circle time, singing the good bye song

Ryder ready for school

Alvin Parrill Hockey Tournament

This weekend Cooper played in the Alvin Parrill Memorial hockey tournament.  This was the ninth year of this tournament which is now the biggest minor hockey tournament in Labrador and Newfoundland.  Cooper played in several games for the Novice A/B Red Team.

Team Red

Go Cooper #14

All the teams participated in the Opening Ceremony on Saturday. One of the boys said "that was so boring", I am sure they didn't listen to a word that was said but they did stand pretty still out on the ice while the ceremony took place.

All teams on the ice for the Opening Ceremony

Fire!

We woke up very early on Sunday morning because daylight savings had ended, it was still dark and we could smell a burning smell.  Steve went downstairs to check it out and we could see an orange glow behind the trees at the back of our house.  Not long after we got a call from our neighbour to say that a new apartment block was burning down.

The apartment block had only just been completed and there were no residents as yet. There were 178 pre-fabricated apartments so the smell from the smoke was terrible.  Our whole house smelled awful and by Sunday afternoon there were huge embers (5-8cm) all over our yard and car.  The council advised all residents to remain inside because of the smoke while the Lab City fire brigade tried to control the fire with the assistance of IOC and Wabush Mines fire brigades.

The fire continued to burn for days and the hospital next door was evacuated due to the risk of the hospital catching fire and the smoke.  Eventually the fire burned out or was extinguished on Tuesday night.

Before and after the fire

Labrador City Winter Games

I saw this in the local paper recently. The Labrador City winter games are planned for March 2013 and I thought that the events were pretty novel:

• Triathalon (skating, snowshoeing, skiing)
• Biathalon (skiing and target shooting)
• Snowmobile racing
• Dog sledding
• Darts

Halloween 2012

This year Steve and I were invited to a Halloween party.  We searched the web for costumes and finally settled on Alice in Wonderland characters, I was Alice and Steve was the Mad Hatter.

Mad Hatter and Alice

We had a great night and were amazed at the costumes, Mr Potato Head, Twister, clowns, pirates, Danny and Sandy, Angry Birds, Elmo, Cookie Monster, B1 and B2.

The kids had a great time on Halloween also.  Cooper and Ryder both wanted to be pirates and Cooper wanted a beard! We took some quick photos before we went trick or treating around our block. 

Arrggghhh pirates!!

We went out between 5-6pm and the boys filled a whole shopping bag with candy.  Some houses were all decorated with blowups, talking bowls of candy, statues and some people were dressed up when we answered the door.  The kids had a great time and walked a long way, by the end I had to carry the bags because they were too heavy.  Once we got home we gave out about 80 loot bags by 7:30pm, we turned off the lights and went down to the basement to watch scary movies.  Happy Halloween 2012.

Trick or treat?

Ryder

Cooper starts ice hockey

We got back from vacation and minor ice hockey had started.  Cooper has done two years of figure skating lessons so we thought it was about time to move across to hockey.  First we had to go and buy all the gear, this is a challenge for a first timer, just as difficult as getting it all on Cooper to play.  This is what you need:

• Ice skates
• Hockey stick, cut to size and taped up
• Helmet with cage
• Elbow pads
• Knee pads
• Shorts fitted with a groin guard
• Socks that velcro to the above shorts
• Hockey shorts
• Hockey chest guard
• Jersey
• Neck guard
• Mouth guard
• Water bottle that fits through the cage
• Hockey bag

Cooper trying on his hockey gear for the first time.

Steve got him ready for his first practice, he hadn't been on skates since last year but he was fine after a coupl of minutes.  Being able to lean on the stick gave him lots of extra balance.  At the end of his first practice they played a short game, Cooper loved it!

Ready to go play hockey!