December 28, 2013

Winter Wonderland: Ice, Frozen, Snow and Storm

The first week of this winter holidays for us is all about Ice, Frozen, Snow and Storm. We had an awesome start to our holidays watching the opening night show of Disney on Ice Princess and Heroes at the Rogers Centre. Disney on Ice is a wonderful live show to watch with the family. We enjoyed watching the Disney characters coming to life and beautifully skating on ice. 

The colourful costumes, songs, choreography, parts of the Disney stories and special effects kept us entertained. Our favourite was watching the opening story of Jasmine and Aladdin in the market, and Cinderella and her prince in the carriage. The story of sleeping beauty when Prince Philip defeats the Maleficent, and Prince Eric and Sebastian trying to save Ariel was lively and exciting to watch.
Ice Storm in Toronto
We lost electricity last Sunday around two in the morning and didn’t have heat or electricity for 5 days. This was a difficult and heartbreaking experience we dealt with. It is quite hard to keep little ones and older relatives warm and comfortable without heat especially during long winter nights. 
We were thankful we stayed together with family and spent time with them. The nights they too lost power were long, cold and dark. These testing times reminded us of the simple blessings of life that sometimes we forget like warm food, heat, warm showers, clean clothes, warm bed and lots more.
Frozen
One of our outings during the ice storm to stay warm was to watch Frozen in 3D. We found Disney's Frozen to be an amazing family movie. The animations and the story line are well worth watching and it reminded us the “act of true” love, kindness and care. 
When we were watching Frozen we were expecting true love to be between Kristoff, the daring mountain man to kiss Anna and make everything right. However, it was the sisters’ true love and care for each other that helped. We found the movie to have lots of funny moments like when the snowman Olaf dreams of what a snowman can do in the summer, and the funny moments with reindeer Sven. We loved the beautiful Frozen castle that Snow Queen Elsa made. It also showed how beautiful winter could be, but at the same time very dangerous like the ones we were experiencing in reality.
The Story of Snow
We also learned about the beauty of snow crystals by reading and looking through The Story of Snow by Mark Casino and Jon Nelson. The beautiful photography, diagrams and explanations taught us the amazing things about how snow crystals come to be and how each of them are unique, but are common just like us. 
Did you know snow begins with a speck of tiny particles of dirt, ash from volcano, salt from the ocean going into the cloud and growing as the water vapour sticks into the speck and more and more vapour stick to form a water droplet. The water droplet freezes and sprouts to form a snow crystal until it leaves the cloud. The shape of the snow crystal depends on the wetness of the cloud and how cold it is. 
Winter Wonderland Stencils
My children enjoyed using the 20 reusable Winter Wonderland Stencils to draw and paint pictures of spectacular winter scenes. We can use these stencils to paint or draw on paper or windows. The stencils can be easily cleaned with paper towel and warm water and stored in the pouch on the back of the book until we use the stencils again.

This week of our holidays has been eventful and memorable, which has given us the time to reflect and be thankful.

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26 comments:

  1. I would have loved to go to Disney on Ice Princess & Heroes. As for the weather, it made me sad for the ones who were without power!

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  2. Bring me back to when my kids were little and we were stuck in a similar situation for days. We could not go to relatives because they had no power either.

    I would love to go to such a show. Nice that you live near the Roger Centre.
    Florence c

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  3. would have loved to go see this, but the weather was not great for travelling!

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  4. I haven't seen Disney On Ice since I was a kid. I'd totally go as an adult. lol

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  5. those stencils look great!
    jan

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  6. The Disney on Ice show sounds like a lot of fun!

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  7. I remember seeing the Disney on Ice commercials as a child and I always wanted to go, but we never have anything like this in my town. One of these days, I will go!

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  8. I've never been to a Disney on Ice show but I love Disney and all it's wonders!
    May you have a warm, safe and cozy rest of winter!

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  9. My kids have been to Disney skating shows with their nana and they loved it !

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  10. I've never been to a Disney show of any type, I would soo love to see the on ice!

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  11. We lucked out here this time with not as much ice as in some other areas of Ontario - didn't even lose a tree limb!
    Julie G.

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  12. I would love to take my grandkids to this Disney on ice show and it sounds like a great time was had by all. The ice storm was unbelievable to watch it unfold on tv and have found in such times people really pull together.

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  13. I've always wanted to see Disney on Ice. One of these time we will have to take a trip to the city to see it.

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  14. I am planning on taking my children to a Disney on ice show hopefully soon! It looks like you had a blast. I am so sorry you were without power, my brother and his wife live in Toronto too and were without power for 4 days. Hopefully spring will be here soon!

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  15. Living in BC, I can't even imagine weather like that....good job keeping your family entertained during the storm!

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  16. It was a pretty insane week. Sounds like you kept your family completely entertained! I lost power for part of 1 day and was more than happy when my brother and niece showed up unannounced. We played board games and kept playing well after the power went on.

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  17. I have been hearing a lot of great things about the movie Frozen. I wish my kids were old enough to go see it!

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  18. I love the snow and think the book The Story of Snow would be a great read for kids.

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  19. I've never seen Disney on Ice. Something I've always been interested, but I only have sons and its nothing that they are interested in.

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  20. Disney on ice has always been a child favorite :) Very much an event to attend if you can!

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  21. what an incredible show! (Lori Jackson)

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  22. It's been a couple of years since I saw one of their shows. I really enjoy them
    (Debbie W)

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  23. Frozen looks like a fun movie, thanks for the review! Definitely on our list to see!

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  24. I would love to go to disney on ice with the kids it looks like fun!

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Thank you for commenting :)