Happy 16th Birthday, Nathalieland!

 

Today marks 16 years of blogging on Welcome to Nathalieland! I've now published 1,890 posts about our little family. This space is a true digital scrapbook of our lives: a personalized collection of all our photos and memories since Emily was a baby. I sure hope Blogger never ceases to exist, so that these posts remain accessible during my lifetime and the kids'. 

The traditional birthday gift to my blog is a new background. This year it's a misty forest to coordinate with my header.

January 2026

Backgrounds through the years

January has been a record month for Snow Days, with school buses being cancelled 8 out of 16 school days so far! Final exams keep being rescheduled and plans derailed due to the weather. On Sunday night we had the biggest snowfall yet -- so much so that schools were closed on Monday.

Today the girls are finally back at school, writing exams they were supposed to have last Friday. We could sure use a break from all this work and cold!

Happy 16th Birthday, Nathalieland ♥

Snowy April

It seems that every few years we get hit with some winter weather in April. The past few days have been full of freezing rain, sleet, snow, and dangerous driving conditions. The rain continues today, with a forecast of snow/rain mix over the next couple of days.

Although the school buses were cancelled today, we pulled our snow pants out of storage and drove the girls to school for a nice, quiet day (they love "snow days" at school).

Icy walk

We'll be happy when spring returns!

Snow Day!

There have already been two Snow Days so far this season. "Snow Day" means buses are cancelled, though typically the schools are still open. Since we walk/drive to school, we give the girls the option to go to school or stay home. On both snow days (the first one was in November, the second one was today) the girls decided to stay home, and they have been wonderful days! Lots of family time spent playing in the snow, sledding, baking, puzzling, and just plain relaxing. Here are a few snapshots from today.

Master snowman builder 

Getting the perfectly-shaped carrot nose (that we found in May) out of the freezer... A little shrivelled now ;) 

There is a perfect hill for sledding at our new neighbourhood park. The girls are loving it! Jessica hadn't been a fan of sledding in previous years, but this year she's discovered the joys of it. It's amazing the number of times you can go down that hill before getting tired of it!

Fun for mommies and daddies too! 

I think Emily and Jessica will grow up with very fond memories of snow days...

November Warmth

The weather was unseasonably warm this past week! It was great for putting up Christmas lights, playing in the yard, and going to the park. The girls even wanted to walk to school every morning, which was lovely.

Putting up lights

That's high!

Ahh, I fell!

(Just kidding, mom!!)

Playing in the yard, coats optional

The above pictures of the girls playing in the sand pit (and weeding!) were taken just yesterday. Then today we woke up to much cooler temperatures and lots of snow. I'm glad we enjoyed the warmth while it lasted!

Oh, Canada! From t-shirts to snow pants in one day.

First Snow in October

I didn't post this last month, but we've already had our first day of snow here! It snowed all afternoon on Thursday, October 27th. There was a pretty good coating of snow, so I drove to the girls' school to bring them their snowpants for recess. It's nice that the school is just two minutes away!

The snow melted that night and we haven't had any more since then, but it was a good preview of what's to come.