Last bit of Winter fun, now bring out the bikes!

We surfed on a Tuesday and Wednesday in Hawaii, then came back home to ski on Saturday!  I may have mentioned that, back in September, we bought a Family Season's Pass for Mt.Seymour, and we also registered Callum and Max in ski school for 5 Saturdays in January and February.  It's a good thing they had their classes to attend since I'm not sure we would have bothered going up and getting any money's worth out of our passes since the snow has been rather disappointing.  There was, however, the weekend of February 22nd that was actually pretty fantastic, so we were able to take advantage of good conditions.  Even Jeff and I went up to Mt.Baker and got in some amazing runs together on the Sunday.

Trying to cram in some last winter fun, we spent a Pro-D day at the arena.  I confess that I really quite loathe putting on skates, so I guess it's a good thing none of my boys have been adamant about going into hockey.

Suddenly, I guess when March arrived, things have started feeling much more like Spring!  Max and Simon get to hang out together at home a lot, while Callum is at school, and I try to remind Max that he can play with his younger brother when his big brother isn't home!  So he and Simon pulled out the bikes and scooters and skateboards for a few hours on a warm day.

Callum has finally entered the funny-looking kid phase of his life - he lost his two bottom front teeth several months ago, but when he lost his front tooth, it makes quite a difference to his appearance!

Another warm Sunday, Jeff and I brought the kids to Crescent Beach for a little bike ride and some practice skipping stones.  Jeff will be annoyed with me for including this picture, but don't we all get too distracted by our media devices sometimes?

In fact, I have come to a point with my 2 older kids where I have begun strategies to limit electronic media use.  Max isn't so hooked yet, but because Callum wakes up so early in the morning, I have recently had to make a rule that he can't go downstairs to watch videos until after 6:00am (before I put a clock in his room, he would sometimes be sitting at the computer at 5:30 am!).  Yes, I know I could get up at 6:00am with him to practice his Dictee or do homework with him, but, c'mon, it's 6:00am!  So yes, I let him watch TV or sit at the computer or use the iPad until 7:30am, but it means he has used up to 1.5hrs out of his maximum 2hrs of daily electronic time already.  Callum and Max play less and less in their playroom with their toys, mostly only when they have friends over, so if they're not using their electronic media time, they often need my intervention to play board games, cards, or set up some painting or something.  They can't even play in the backyard on their own very well, (even with the playhouse we built for them!!), unless I come out to instigate fair-play soccer or baseball...  I definitely feel like I need to get more positive control over my boys' playtime and make sure their brains aren't just shriveling away, losing all abilities for imaginative play and creative thought!