The slide into Spring - March/April 2016

 Matt found a pile of handy pallets (are there any other sort?) to lug home and make into things.  We all helped with the taking apart and the putting together :)

We made a roof rack for the kayaks (stylin!), a stack of planters for the back deck and an out door coffee table!  Is there nothing pallets cannot do!  I think the neighbours were impressed that we actually managed to get some reasonable looking things out of a stack off pallets!

True to form, as we were thinking the winter was done, and looking forward to some warm weather, we had another big snow event.  It was just gorgeous - Very pretty snow!

 Soon enough the snow was gone and it was time to start get back into all that stuff that we do when we can see the ground.  Amelia discovered a little pine in the backyard that had climbing potential, and climbed up and down and up and down, getting sap everywhere.  She was as pleased as punch!







After a bit of casting about we set off for our first Atlantic Canada beach experience.  Crystal Crescent Beach is about half an hour away from Halifax and is just gorgeous.  A bit chilly in April though!!  The kids of course seemed impervious to the cold (at least from the knees down) and we had a wonderful time exploring and hunting out sea glass for Owens collection.

 We dragged the bikes out and started getting our balance back again.  Owen came off training wheels and Alex (and Matt!) got into skids in the gravel in the carpark behind the house :)

 Our second (cold) beach excursion was another seaglass beach - McCormacks Beach - over near the Eastern Passage.  It was a bit cold and miserable so we hurried around, tried to enjoy the sun where we could find shelter from the wind, and found very little glass!

 Our resident squirrel seemed to come back to life around now.  We had seen very little of him over winter but he was now a regular sight out off the back deck.  the kids are still thrilled to see them and they are kinda cute!.

 A Mexican navy tall ship sailed into Halifax in May so we went down to have a look.  Again we were not really prepared for the cold winds, but had a good time checking out all the cool boat stuff and fabulous ropes!  The sheer scale of the masts was hugely impressive.

The team were in Halifax for their working group meetings so one night we went out axe throwing.  Was a awesome experience - not one that I'd do again in a hurry though!  They organised it as a competition between NZ and the Canadians, and while I cant remember who won in the end, a great night was had!