Ontario had a new holiday today: Family Day. Andrew had the day off but for the rest of us the only change to our normal routine was an extra hour of sleeping in. It is a bit sad that we spent our Family Day this way but we have had a few interruptions to our schedule lately so I deemed it necessary that school continue.

Last week was far from normal as the girls were at the NAC for a day and a half performing with Stellae Boreales in concerts for schools. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being back stage, eating with the orchestra members in the Green Room and performing in five concerts to large audiences. B7 and I went to one of the performances where we sat in one of the boxes, giving us an excellent view of the stage.

Yesterday we celebrated Andrew’s birthday with pancakes for breakfast, a morning at church and an afternoon watching the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra in concert. Laura is a second violin in this orchestra and it was great to see them perform their varied and challenging program. While we were enjoying the concert freezing rain was falling outside, turning the carpark into a skating rink. We arrived home without incident but heard this morning that a 737 slid right off the runway into a snowbank.