Welcome to the newly redesigned Icatar.com! Our lives have certainly changed dramatically over the last year and this new site represents a fresh start. Here you will continue to find news updates for our family and other potential news of interest. We've made the most interesting items more readily available. Over to the right, we will post recent photos from our family. You will also notice a dedicated video player which will display all of our family videos that we have posted to Youtube. Also, be sure to click the Subscribe link below and you will receive an e-mail anytime we post anything new. Finally, feel free to comment on any post or you can e-mail me directly with any comments at roneil@icatar.com.

Another First - Skiing

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 2/20/2010 09:51:00 PM 2 comments

Our Winter Sports season continues with another first:  skiing.  Julianne has skied since she was a kid, but I’ve only gone a couple times.  Annalise has never gone skiing and was excited to give it a try.  We went to Bolton Valley with Julianne’s dad for a day of skiing.  (Isabella and Nathaniel stayed home with Grandma.)  We planned on getting Annalise into a kids group lesson to get her started and I would get a refresher lesson in a group.  This allowed the more experienced Julianne and her dad to get some runs on the more advanced trails.  Honestly, we didn’t know what to expect from Annalise.  She would either absolutely love it or she would get so frustrated that she would never want to ski again.  When we went to get her after her lessons, we were happy to hear that she did very well in her lessons and she was very excited to keep skiing.  At first, she wanted to show off her skills on the beginning hill and was hesitant to go on the ski lift to go on a higher hill, but after a while, she agreed to go up.  Again, she enjoyed herself so much going down the hill that she completely forgot about the beginner hill.  Then, we urged her to go on a higher hill, and although she was hesitant again, she agreed, and had an even better time!  At one point, she was so excited, that she asked when we would get to do the moguls (since she had just seen the women’s moguls event at the Olympics the night before!)  Luckily, Bolton also provides some night skiing as Annalise was not ready to go home.  All in all, we ended up skiing for several hours into the night, and by the time we got home, we were exhausted.  Annalise already can’t wait for the next time we go skiing.

Our next sport?  Curling!

Annalise tries on her ski boots for the first time

Annalise waits with the rest of the kids for her lesson

Annalise, Roneil, and Julianne at the top of the mountainWe enjoyed some night skiing!


Our First Time Skating

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 2/17/2010 10:32:00 PM 0 comments

The kids are on their winter vacation and today we took them ice skating for the first time.  I guess watching all the skating on the Olympics got them excited to get out on the ice (although for some reason, neither of them would let me throw them into the air!)  Annalise has previously done some rollerblading, so she took to the ice right away and was zooming around.  Isabella was just as excited to get out on the ice but was a little more cautious as she hasn’t rollerbladed before.  She started out using a walker to help her balance and to get used to the skating motion.  Soon after, she shed the walker and just held one of our hands to keep her balance.  Finally, near the end of the session, she didn’t even need to hold our hands as she was able to skate on her own!  Unfortunately, Nathaniel loved wearing the skates, but refused to touch the ice with them, so one of us had to carry him the whole time.  All in all, it was a great time and the kids are looking forward to hitting the ice again soon!  Check out these pictures and video of our day!

Julianne and Isabella get started on the ice. P1010520P1010523  Isabella takes a breather on her back!

Everyone loves watching the zamboni


Don’t Mess with Nathaniel

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 2/06/2010 12:04:00 AM 1 comments

Nathaniel has always been interested in the Wii that we got last year.  He wouldn’t actually play the games, but he would pretend by swinging the controllers around.  Just recently though, he started actually playing some of the simpler Wii Sports games and he’s been doing pretty well actually.  He’s even to the point where he can power on the Wii, turn on the TV, and change it to the proper input, and navigate to the game he wants to play!  He’s been gradually getting better and better and he’s actually achieved Pro status in one of his favorite games, the Sword Duel in Wii Sports Resort.  Here are a couple screen shots right after he made the achievement (click to see a larger version), along with a video of him taking care of one of his opponents.  Keep in mind that Nathaniel is just 2 years old!

 

P1010485P1010486