Feb Fest

Today we had BIG plans. HUGE plans. COLOSSAL plans. Plans that had been in the works for about 6 weeks. See, on December 18th we had some friends over for dinner. It was there that we learned about Feb-Fest. (Did I mention my city is awesome?) Feb-Fest is like a mid-winter festival downtown with tons of fun things to do to help you enjoy winter and make it through another month or so. It sounded glorious and wonderful to us, and so it was booked into the calendar.

This weekend is Feb-Fest. The kids also (coincidentally or not, I'm not sure) have today off school. Awesome. The plans were coming together SO nicely. I checked the website daily to find out where and when all the events were going to happen. And the plan was as follows:

Friday morning - get up. get ready. go downtown. enjoy a snow-slide, ice-sculpture competition, and snow-maze. Live music, and whatever else they could throw at us. Again, Awesome.

I don't know if anyone has noticed...but there is no snow in Kingston. I'm not sure there is any snow ANYWHERE in Canada. It seems bizarre to me that yesterday Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow and so we're in for 6-more weeks of winter. This is not winter. This is brown-ter. Or whatever you call it when everything is all brown and there's a 'bit' of chill in the air. I'm not complaining people. It's wonderful. But it does put a damper on Feb-Fest.

Apparently.

So we get snow-suits on, get buckled into the car and head downtown. Wait. Where is everything? This doesn't seem right. No, folks, it's not right. You see, someone forgot that SNOW is required for a snow-slide, and ice-sculpture competition, and a snow-maze. Hmm. This snow-maze is looking a bit see-through right now. We check back to the website. Cancelled.

So now what?

Well, it just so happens that 2 weeks ago when Lucy went skating with her class, we never brought her skates in from the trunk of the car. And it also just so happens that when Tyler went skating for his joint activity on Wednesday evening, HE never brought his skates in from the car. And it also just so happens that he had put MY skates in the car in case anyone at the activity needed a pair. And it also just so happens that last night after Taekwondo, we stopped at the Dollarama so Lucy could get a birthday present for a party she's going to tomorrow, and it's right across the street from Canadian Tire, where we just so happened to stop and check out skates for Max and Logan, and bought them, and left them in the trunk of the car overnight.

Would you look at that. A morning that is suddenly free of plans, with everyone wearing snow-suits, and 5-pairs of skates in the trunk and a skating rink RIGHT downtown that is hosting FREE public skating all-day...amazing!

It's almost like we planned it.

We were scant on helmets though, so Tyler ran to the bank to get some cash so we could rent some helmets, and the kids and I got in line for a FREE wagon ride with our friends from "Wolffe Island".

Today, the horses names were Eddie and Freddie.



This was Max and Logan's first attempt at skating and it was somewhat hilarious. Logan was more like a pair of limp noodle legs that needed to be hoisted by his mitten-clad fingers the entire time. Watch out for those noodle-legs though. They swing every which way and often right in front of the skates of the person who's doing the hoisting. But he loved it. He loved going FAST! And every time it was someone else's turn with Dad he would exclaim, "Skating!"


Max spent most of his time on the ice. Face up. But he smiled and giggled and said, "I'm ok!" almost the entire time.


Lucy bode her time, working her way along the boards, until Dad was available to skate with her, which was for the last 10 minutes of our adventure. And Tyler was exhausted by the end, taking turns hoisting 3 kids around the ice. (I did help too, but I'm pretty useless in that area as well).
(have you noticed that unless I take pictures of myself, there are no pictures of me? yeah, I did too.)

When Lucy and Dad were taking their turn together, Max marched on to the ice and exclaimed, "I'm going skating myself!" He made it down the boards a few inches until Dad rescued him from himself.


Tyler took a few turns around the rink on his own just to feel like he was accomplishing something I think.
(handsome!)

Then it was skates off, boots on. A chance to view the ice-sculptures that were on display....



and then, the best part of anyone's day? Beavertails.

I don't care if all the plans go to pot...a day with beavertails in it is a good day in my books!