Here is Alice ready to set off on a birthday party sleepover - not to worry... her friend lives only about 8 houses down the street! (Update: she came back home completely zonked - not sure what time they got to sleep)
So far Estelle is a real star in grade 1 since she is a nearly independent reader and her fine motor skills are excellent. Spelling not perfect yet, but it's nice to see her blossoming confidence and interest in school and learning. Translation: Here is a bird that could have reached the sky.
Alice celebrated her 9th birthday with an intimate (only 3 invites - yahoo!) sleepover party, pinata and projection mapping cake (bet you never hear that before - click on over to Guy's instructables page to see ) The biggest event however was that we went 50-50 with Alice on an ipad mini for her (big, big big) gift. Of course it comes with strings attached, like time limits and a net-nanny, but all in all she felt she was ready for it.
Lucy's been pushing for the girls to take piano lessons for a while now. We finally tracked down a young, fun college student to come to our house once a week and give the girls a 30 min lesson each. Only 2 lessons so far and they're reading music and can play 3 little songs! Yay! Lucy also has been trying to recall her 2 years of lessons from 20 years ago...
September weather has been incredible here so far. We were lucky enough to get a spot at Gatineau Park over Labor Day weekend, where we spent most of our time hanging around the picnic table reading Harry Potter (we're onto the Goblet of Fire...) We also initiated the girls into their responsibility for washing dishes at the campsite (are we a bit late on this parenting front?!) Oops, looks like Daddy still has to carry the dishes to the wash block...
Summer came and went in the blink of an eye and now we're well into the school year with homework, permission slips and group projects. Alice is rather pleased that Estelle has homework in grade 1 and Estelle is, so far extremely keen - her books are out and ready before we've got our shoes off in the house. And grade 4 is no biggie for Alice who slips into the routine without any trouble. Hope you have a good year of brown-bag lunches and ballon chasseur!
The big family trip this year was a week-long beach holiday in Cape Cod. Our good friends from the Saguenay drove down to meet us at a lovely house we rented, and we had good times watching our kids have fun and making each other laugh (in our underwear...?!?!) We made it after the long drive. First dip of our toes in the ocean!! Estelle hits the surf Goggles are a must for underwater exploration. The backyard where many a delicious lobster roll and striped bass were consumed. Typical Cape Cod style house Lab coat Guy giving a marine biology lesson to the kids... Mathieu investigating something slimy or shelly... Olivier deciding if he wants to hold the crab. A real starfish! Guy is wounded seeing his bison relative stuffed on the wall of a New England hardware store. On the hunt for good crab fishing nets... The great parasol battle of 2015. We'll get you next time... What we saw of Alice and Olivier much of ...