"Can I cut its head off?"

Olga and Lara are enjoying some mother-daughter bonding time this teatime... Preparing some bream to cook. Lara's checked the stomach contents, descaled them, and asked if she can cut its head off. Apparently she has to wait until it's cooked before she gets to do that..

Postscript: After the fish had been cooked and delivered to Lara, and she duly removed its head, Dan - sitting next to her at the table - chimed in with "I want to cut a fish's head off too!"... that's my boy:-)

Skating progression

This week has seen a slight yet important step forward for Lara and her skating; her coach has given the OK for Lara to skate without wearing a helmet. It shows the coach has confidence in Lara's ability, but also makes Lara feel a bit more like one of the older girls. The question arose after Lara saw the costume she'll be wearing for this year's skating gala - a mermaid - and she wondered how the helmet would fit into the ensemble. So, now she's helmet-free.. Dan starts his skating lessons next month, in a parent and tot group with Olga. He'll definitely be in a helmet. And face guard. And bubble wrap if we could arrange it!

Spring is here

Spring arrived here at 4.45pm on Friday 20th March, apparently. I'm not sure how they know the exact time that Spring arrives, but that's what I heard on the radio.
The weather can't decide what it wants to do, although it is still relatively warm, but snow has also fallen this week. Here at the trailer this weekend, Saturday started warm and sunny, so we set out to go for some short walks in places we've not visited before, but soon enough the cloud rolled in, and we've had light rain and snow this afternoon. This hasn't stopped us from putting a chicken in a pot on the campfire, we've just watched the fire from inside the trailer and popped out from time to time to stoke it.
The mild weather these past few weeks and months has meant that bears are starting to wake up. I asked the local ranger this morning about that, seeing as we were heading out for walks in the area, and he said that yesterday evidence had been reported locally of a bear having left its den. We took the bear spray with us, but also the dogs, and between those two and Dan - who isn't known for being quiet - we were sure we wouldn't accidentally disturb a hungry bear.

The walks we went on were next to the Kananaskis lakes, which were still frozen enough in places for people to ice fish:

Last night Lara and Dan gave us an impromptu rendition of numerous songs from Frozen. Lara knows the words, Dan just did his best. It was sweet to watch though.

Tonight we're watching "RV", the must-see movie if you're used to staying in a trailer. Some of Robin Williams' finest work, too..

A damp day for once

Saturday was very unusual - it rained most of the day. Not a heavy rain, just persistent light rain, but it's so unusual as to be noteworthy. It also reminded me that I don't miss rain. The girls snowboarded for a while on the bunny hill, and Dan had a few runs down on his skis. We decided to return back to the trailer for lunch, and watched Night at the Museum 1 and 2 while cooking roast chicken in the oven. That's living!
Dan had only gone to sleep at midnight, was up at 8am, and didn't have a nap all day. No wonder he fell asleep at the table at 6.30pm!
Lara has a ski racing day on Sunday, a little snow is predicted, and the resort needs it.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Dan

So, we're past the "terrible twos" now!
Dan went to nursery as normal today, after opening his presents and having a chat with Grandma on skype. In the afternoon some friends came over for a little party at home, and after that we've headed out to the trailer for skiing.
Thinking about the last three years, he's packed quite a lot in. He moved house from Wycombe to Bury, then to Canada, he's been on a cruise around the Mediterranean, been on a skiing holiday in France, visited Canada for 2 weeks before we moved here, and has been to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Montana in the last 12 months.
And his latest adventures include getting over his broken collarbone, which is on the mend but needs another few weeks to be completely fixed. He's started to ski and in a few weeks time he'll have his first parent-and-tot skating session with Olga. One of his presents today was a pair of proper skates.
Hopefully tonight isn't a preview of what's to come - it's nearly 11pm and he's still side awake, watching an Ice Age movie in the kid's bedroom in the trailer.. oh well, maybe a lie-in tomorrow??