Hockey

Jia attended her first Gopher hockey game with Joe. She loved it! She had lots of questions about the "time-out" the players get in the penalty box. "What did he do to get in there? Can he move around? Can he eat in there?" And of course, the first thing she told me about when she got home was the fighting! Thankfully, the fights just involved some pushing and shoving.



She enjoyed watching the game and did not want to miss any even during snack time. It was nice too that the "Mites" team that played during a break were girls! Joe and I both like hockey and we're glad our Minnesota girl does too!

Winter Carnival

We went to the St. Paul Winter Carnival yesterday. We started the trip with a visit to the Saintly City Cat Show. We always went when I was a kid because it was such good people watching! (And cat watching too! Many cats had silly little outfits and their cages looked like rooms with four-poster cat beds.) Sadly, we did not encounter such fun sights this time, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.


The winning cats get to wear these!

We then saw all the exceptional ice sculptures at the Winter Carnival. It is the 125th year for it, and they built a huge wall of ice. Amazing!

In a change of character, Jia wanted her picture taken in front of every sculpture!


The girls were excited about this Asian-inspired one:



The highlight of the trip was the maple taffy! People dressed in period costume from Voyageurs made the warm, sticky taffy right there on a trough of snow. Delicious!


Fun to attend the Coolest Celebration on Earth!

Science Fair

Jia had her first Science Fair tonight! It was optional but she signed up immediately. She knew exactly what she wanted to do, and did it!

I was very impressed by her efforts. Her project took a long time to complete. She also practiced her presentation before we left.

Here is the project in parts (click to enlarge):



I was also impressed by the other kids at her school. Wow! They were really excited about what they had accomplished.




My parents came:

My sister came:
Here Jia is explaining her project to another student:

Here Willa is making another trip to the most popular science project - the one that explored the science of making hard candy.



Jia is already planning to explore "surface area" for next year's Science Fair project. We are all looking forward to it!

Ice skating

Jia has been begging for us to take her ice skating. It has been too cold. (In fact, our laundry detergent keeps freezing in our unheated basement laundry room so we've been storing it upstairs!) It was finally in the 20's yesterday so we took both girls. It was their first time. They were SO excited.

Jia did terrific and accepted a helping hand.

Willa was fiercely resolute about doing it by herself. She declared, "I'm going to do figure eights!" She kept trying to do fancy stuff and refused to let anyone hold her up.

She had a smile on her face the entire time!

Even when she fell.

And even when she really fell!

A hot cocoa finish for our determined girls! (And sore backs for us!)

Proud of our Jia

Jia had a school performance last night for prospective students. They sang, "I Can Sing A Rainbow." Historically, when she has been on stage she has had stage fright at some point and has run off crying. This time she didn't! She got up there and sang her little heart out. And smiled while she did it!

There she is in the front row on the left. (You can click to enlarge.)

When she finished, she said, "I was very scared, but I did it anyway!" I told her, "That's the definition of bravery!" We're so proud of her.

On a side note, the temperature is currently fifteen below and getting colder. I can't even imagine adding windchill to that! As a result, it was announced that school is optional today. I've never heard of this before! Jia went anyway. Glad she loves it!

Whaddaya know, more snow!

And it is lovely. It also means that the girls have had many dramatic rides home from Jia's bus stop. I pull Willa on a sled up a very long hill to Jia's bus stop. Jia gets off the bus and clambers in the sled with her backpack and lunchbox. Then we race all the way down down the hill to our house at the bottom. Willa always yells, "Faster Mama! Faster!" the entire way home. Friday's trip down the hill was especially fast and a great way to start our long weekend.

On Saturday, we saw the Yogi Bear movie and the girls went on a train ride.

That night our friends treated us to an extraordinarily yummy dinner at a Nepalese restaurant. As Willa proclaimed, "This food is DEEEE-licious!"

On Sunday, we went swimming at my parents' condo along with my sister's family. We all had a great time. Then we went home and made rice krispie snowmen!



I also had the girls chop up all the chocolate candy bars we'd acquired over the various holidays so we could make rice krispie bar surprise! The result: tasty.

Today, Susie and Han came over with Han's new doughnut maker!

They had a terrific time decorating them:

The girls and I also did a lot of outdoor playing today because the temp was finally in the teens!

My snow angels:


We made a large snow nest!

Complete with its own food supply!


I also pulled the girls around the neighborhood on the sled. Some of the sidewalk passages were narrow!

They pulled each other too!


What a great weekend!