On Saturday morning I bundled up the children and we braved the minus 19 windchill and headed to Moreston Heritage Village at Grey Roots Museum & Archives. For this special Snow Day there were both indoor and outdoor activities.
One of the first activities was throwing snowballs.
Next the kids tried tossing snow snakes, a traditional Native American winter sport. We were told that under the right conditions one of these wooden snakes can slide a full kilometer!
Then we warmed up inside the schoolhouse. The kids enjoyed colouring with oil pastels for quite a while, then taped their pictures to the blackboard for others to enjoy.
Outside the schoolhouse “gems” (coloured ice cubes) were hidden in the snow for kids to dig out with little shovels… another hit with my kids (though I had to stop the younger two from eating them).
The next activity was constructing a quinzhee — a shelter made by hollowing out a huge pile of snow — with At Last Adventures. Unfortunately conditions weren’t quite right for this; the snow wouldn’t pack solid enough to hollow out.
We took another indoor break and the kids tried constructing igloos with marshmallows and toothpicks. (Again the younger ones had to be steered away from consuming the activity materials.)
Back outside for snowshoeing with the Sydenham Bruce Trail Club!
Next we visited the sled dogs, which had been delayed earlier. There was even a puppy, which ran about and eluded my camera.
Before heading for home we walked over to the 1853 log cabin where a man was cooking bannock over an outdoor fire. The balls of dough were cooked in cast iron pans with a bit of oil and served with little cups of real maple syrup. (Because of the cold and wind they were taking about 20 minutes to cook and only one was fully cooked when we stopped by earlier.)
It was a long, full morning. I was grateful for something to get me out of the house on a cold and windy winter day! We have a family membership to the museum and historical village and will certainly be back.
Wow, what a day! So many snow activities! To me, you’re a hero for doing all this with the children.