A Weekend of Winterlude

Every February there is a big winter festival called Winterlude. The festival includes ice sculptures, ice skating on the canal, snow tubing/sledding, and some delicious winter treats. It's been difficult to figure out the balance of trying new things in the cold and being cautious about keeping the little ones out of low temperatures. We finally mustered up the courage to check it out the last weekend it was running. We figured people in cold climates still have babies and they have to go outside at some point, plus the temperatures weren't too bad.

The first day we went to Snowflake Kingdom, which is specifically designed for little ones. There was a playground in the snow, tug of war, tubing, zip-lining, snow sculptures, and more. We brought Will's sled to pull him along (thanks Grammy!). After a little play on the playground we shared a beaver tail. It's a bit like a pancake, but more airy. You can have it with chocolate spread, cinnamon and sugar or choose a savory cheese option. We usually get the cinnamon and sugar.

Will especially liked the Beaver Tail

Then it was off to some snow tubing. It was difficult to get good shots because I had Will in the sled, but both Jack and Ben said they went super fast. Although Jack and John had a bit of a difficult time getting started and had to scoot along until gravity helped them along.

After a ride on the snow tubes we got some family photos in the snow silhouettes- Mio and Daddy seemed to enjoy these more than the boys. 

While walking around Jack spotted a game of tug-of-war and had to join in. Even after everyone on his team admitted defeat and gave up, Jack kept pulling on that rope. While watching him Ben was extremely worried about the snow sculptures and kept saying they were bad guys. He's not normally scared of things so we had a tough time convincing him they were just snow. 

Jack in the orange coat.

 Before long it was getting close to lunch time so we grabbed a couple of maple taffies- these are amazing. It's basically hot maple syrup that is poured onto snow, you put a Popsicle stick in it, let it harden for a minute and you have amazing deliciousness.

Ben was pretty grumpy the entire time until he had some maple taffy.

And it took some convincing to get Jack to try it. He was so tired and hungry by now. Once he finally tasted it he was hooked.

For it being the last weekend it was surprisingly not that crowded, which was nice. A few days later we decided to head back to the city to see the ice sculptures. It had been unseasonably warm the day before so by the time we arrived most of the sculptures were melting, missing pieces and a little unrecognizable. But we still got to walk around in the sunshine and enjoy another maple taffy. We've really missed all the walking we did in England so any chance to use the double stroller and walk around is quite welcome.

Jack has unfortunately gotten used to not walking as much so he insisted on riding on John's shoulders. Which meant that he had maple taffy dripped on him.

An icy woolly mammoth

I have no idea what this was, but I'm sure before it melted it was lovely.

Everyone enjoying their maple taffy and getting sticky in the process.

A butterfly. Then Ben and a Butterfly.

They also had an area where kids could get small ice cubes and attach them to a sculpture. 

We were so glad that we braved the cold and tried Winterlude. It was a lot of fun and will hopefully be a new Canadian tradition we enjoy while living here.