International Polar Bear Day is here!

Did you know it’s International Polar Bear Day today? If you’re like me, you often find out about these special days when it’s too late to prepare! Last year I wrote a blog post about it, which you can find here, with lots of ideas for crafts you can make last minute, plus a Thermostat…

Six tips to teach your kids to ski

Have you taught your kids to ski? It can be daunting, especially if you’re just learning yourself. If you can get them started young, however, skiing becomes a part of their way of seeing the world and helps foster a love of the outdoors. At three, an age many ski schools recommend starting kids on…

4 Reasons Why We Live In Snow Pants In The Winter

I have so many pictures of the boys in snow pants at this time of year, it’s silly. Today we went for a quick walk, which turned into a play in the garden, followed by a crawl up the street pretending to be animals, followed by a walk.  Everyone has a bit (or a lot!)…

The Less-Stress Staycation

For Red’s first real spring break, I started making plans to take them on a vacation. The main reason I chose to work part-time for myself, from home, was so I could have flexibility and be with the boys if they are ill or off school. I was wary of going away, however, because they…

How to Help Kids Enjoy Skiing In Bad Weather

It was a great day for skiing. It had snowed off and on for a couple of weeks. This is the worst season since the 70s, the year after the best season on record, and suddenly there was lots of much-needed snow at our home mountain. Finally, almost every run was open. But it was…

Snap It Outdoors: Black Diamond

Red has done a few black diamonds over this season and last, but they have usually been pretty hairy, and involved tears by at least one of us. Last weekend we headed up to our home mountain, Bogus Basin, and the snow was great. It’s been a bad season, and we were delighted to finally…

How to Dress Your Kids for the Snow

For our family, going outside on a snowy day is automatically on the to do list, and a quick look at the thermometer and outside the window is enough for me to mentally assess what we all need to wear. If you aren’t used to taking your kids out into the snow, however, this can…

Snap It Outdoors: Shoveling

An unexpected 5 inches of snow fell yesterday. We woke up to a winter wonderland, despite the fact the weather had fooled us into thinking it was spring in February just the week before. We took Red to school, and watched the cars fishtail back up our street after, Small shrieking with delight while I…