100 days of first grade

Today was the 100th school day of first grade. Not sure where that school year is going... But soon it will be spring break. Then it will be Easter, mother's day, and then it's summer time.   Summer seems distant when it's -15 outside, but it will be here in a flash!

Mathias is doing very well in school and his reading and maths skills are marching along fabulously.

We, um, celebrated by Mathias pulling out a tooth (number four if you're keeping score). 

Watching the Olympics

Most evening nowadays we find Ericka and the boys parked on the couch taking in the winter Olympic recap. It is turning out to be educational and entertaining at the same time.

• We use it to teach some geography lessons to Mathias pointing out where the competing countries are located. 
• Mathias was excited to see that a fellow first-namer, Matthias Mayer of Austria won the Alpine Skiing event after a harrowing looking run down the mountain at Rhosa Khutor.  It made us a little bit nervous that he seemed intrigued by the possibility doing the event as himself.  
• Johan made us laugh when the figure skating came on and he asked: "where are their coats and helmets?" Where are the helmets indeed! 

We're looking forward to another week of skiing, ski jumping, hockey, figure skating, speed skating, and curling.  

Let's make some popcorn! 

Ski bums

In between the spells of arctic air reaching our neck of the woods we have been making weekend trips to the local ski hill.  Some visits have been as short as 3 runs before the cold drove us home. But most days everyone has a great time. Johan's skiing is coming along. He's still working on minor detail such as steering and braking. But boy does he enjoy going in a straight line down the hill (as long as someone keeps him from biffing it!).