last snowy photo of the season

I am very much in spring mode now and so it feels a bit strange to share these photos now because the very last thing that I want to look at again is snow. I was doing some bleary-eyed late night iphoto tidying and realized that I didn't share the greatest thing of winter 2008 - Miryam's kick sled.


I should say here that I do love winter. I love it in the cozy way one loves winter. I make really yummy soup, I like quilts and down comforters, and reading in front of a fire is absolutely wonderful. Before I had Miryam I often would say to myself "I want to be the kind of mama who..." and one of the goals was being able to make hot cocoa from scratch without a recipe. Well I have perfected it. I do winter really well - indoors. I like watching snow fall and have in the past pulled a big chair out on the porch with tea and many blankets to here the silence, but that's as close as I usually get. There's the occasional snowman and sledding mixed in but I am not the most enthusiastic "let's play in the snow" friend.


So this year in an effort to find more things to love about winter that happen out of doors I stumbled upon the idea of kicksleds. They sort of look like mini dog sleds, and apparently you can attach one dog for training (this is very much in Miryam's plans for next year). There are ice blades for use on hard snow or icy roads and ponds and also snap-on snow blades for the more powdery stuff. Miryam loved it, although it was very delayed in getting to us so there were only a few more weeks of the good snow before it found a place in the garden shed till next year. She was fearless going down our little hill off the garden and went back and forth dozens of times kicking and gliding. I was so worried when she had friends over because they would take turns riding on the seat but thankfully no one was run over! I wish we had it when we were living near downtown - it would have been great to use on those snowy days to get to town and back. I can't find a good link to show but in sweden, where these are from, they have plough attachments to clear off skating rinks, cradle-looking attachements for infants, and buckles for older babies. Andy and I are thinking of each getting one so for next year so we can put the kids on the seats and check out some of the cross country skiing trails.

With lots of hot cocoa in a thermos of course.