This week we have become big fans of ice-skating. Beatrice went with her school on Monday and she liked it so much that we all went on Tuesday again and then again on Thursday. There is this lovely ice-rink in the old town just next to the Niguliste church with views towards the old town center with snowy rooftops and old church towers. Surprizingly Raoul and Karl absolutely love ice-skating as well and are amazingly good at it considering Tue was their first try. They didn't even want to use the frames to help with the balance, just off at full speed. This ice-rink attracts interesting crowds as well, lots of tourists just passing by and deciding to go spontaneously, young romantic couples, kids having fun, some grown-up first time on the ice - that's a fun site! The kids just keep asking every day if we can go ice-skating again. They are supposed to have a live camera on the web but last time we tryed it didn't work. www.uisuplats.ee

It has been a sort of holiday week anyway. 24th of Feb is the Estonian national holiday with military parade, president's reception for the 900 VIPs on TV etc. we went to see the parade for the first time. It was a lovely day -9 degrees, sunshine, light snowfall, just perfect. Waded through knee-deep snow to get high up on the hill-side of Harjumagi to have a good view. Was quite cool to see all this, Raoul especially liked it, kept asking "When are they going to shoot at the enemies?" Hope not in our lifetime (although they are in Afghanistan). After the parade kids could go and climb into the military vehicles, touch the canons etc. To my big surprize there were a lot of Russian-speakers around, waving Estonian flags. Found this a big difference compared to 12 years ago.
Mum and dad and sis and b-in-law came over for dinner and to watch the reception - the main past-time for the "commoners" that day, commenting the dresses etc...
Yesterday Beatrice had no school as well and we did a small winter olympics in the park with a Canadian girl from her class and her family. It has become milder and the snow is melting now. Everyone was quite wet after 1.5 hours and we really enjoyed the hot chocolate at their house. Also a good opportunity for the kids not to forget their English.
Today we are off to ballett - Snow-White and the seven dwarfs. Boys will go to the movies with my sis.