Kite Winter Festival

What do you do, as a parent, when you have been stuck indoors for weeks, due to the fact that it has been disturbingly cold outside, and your 5 year old is in dire need of releasing some pent-up energy?

You search and search and search for outdoor activities that you can enjoy as soon as the temperatures climb to the single digits, even if they are still hovering at around -7 Celsius. To be honest with you, growing up, I never thought that it would be possible to feel happy that it is "only" -7 outside, but, there is a forst time for everything.

So I research constantly, and keep a running list of possible outings and activities to try. This weekend, the good weather coincided with the Kite Festival being held about an hour from here, in Saint-Placide. We bundled up, hopped into the car and took off in the morning. 

The festival is held in front of the town church of Saint-Placide, which was built facing the Deux-Montagnes lake. Once the water freezes over, which with average temperatures of -30 degrees should be no problem, the frozen surface becomes a playground. You can fly home-made kites, you can watch the professionals put on a show, there are even Paraski competitions....think surfing on ice with the help of a kite. There were slides for the kids to try, bouncy castles and of course warm fare to enjoy. To our delight we discovered a little stand where we could get maple taffy.

With sticky fingers we climbed back into the car and drove back home, happy to feel our toes slowly thawing out and lazily dozing in the sunshine we have missed so much.

I am off to research our next outing....quite possibly a Sugar Shack visit!