The Engineer

Mathieu has almost never broken a toy. He's just not like that. Today however, he's decided to take apart a car to see how it was build. Here's a pic of him working on it before going to school.

Ikea, Evelyne's Birthday Party

We were quite busy today. We spent some time at Ikea (Suzanne's looking for stuff for her new office) and then went to Renaud-Bray to get a gift for Evelyne birthday party, one of Sabrina's three best friends.

The party was fun, it was at a dance studio somewhere not far where dad had his short lived residence. All the girls there even gave us a dance routine that was quite good. For her first time, Sabrina was pretty good.

Bake Sale

Today I participated in the school's bake sale. Parents prepare bake goods they send with their kids and a few volunteer parents (your's truly included) sell the good to the kids at a cost of $0.25 to $0.75. Kids love it. Everything look so good too. Mathieu and Sabrina are both very excited during the bake sale.

Around the end. This table was full.

I made my famous carrot cake (see recipe below). It took a while to start going but when it was discovered, did it ever go. Sabrina's next year teacher took a piece and wanted to know who was the parent who made the cake, telling me it was so good. It's hard to be humble ;)

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry ziti pasta
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
• 6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Step-by-step View

Directions

1.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.

2.

In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.

3.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

4.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

Back to normal

Another Thursday, another karate day. Now that I pick them up right after karate, I get to see them practice. Here's Mathieu practicing with a Bo.

Snow Day

No school today. So what do we do? Though I do work a lot, the kids play a lot together.

We even go outside for a good snowball fight (and some good ole shovelin').

Ski Day

It's one of the last ski days of the season. We met up with Kate, Ben and Pascal on the mountain, and we then skied with Nico, Julie and their kids Amelie and Sophie-Claude. We had an amazing time on the mountain. Too bad we had to come back.

Mathieu playing with Ben

Sabrina Humor

Why did the tomato turn red?
Because he saw the salad dressing.

What did the stamp say to the envelop?
Stick with me and we'll go places

Why did the jelly bean go to school?
Because he wanted to be a smarty

We were invited by our friends, Emily's parents, to have supper at a sugar shack. It was unfortunately not peanut-free and Sabrina had a smell reaction in the place (I had to fly 15kms to find some Benadryl). It was still an interesting experience. It kindda solidifies our understanding that only good restos are safe for our daughter.

Entertainment at "Les Quatres Feuilles"

Stinky water, and of learning Italian

The water was smelly yesterday, and positively stinks this morning. Time to investigate.

Sabrina got an app to learn Italian for her iPod at the beginning of the week and as been chugging at it for a while. I don't know if it's going to make her fluent, but she's understanding.

On the work side I've been working on an application that by design actually programs itself. The goals is to have it build many web apps including OneHappyKid. Today the application started building its own fundamentals which is cool. More on that later.

That was not supposed to stick

After swimming lessons we ended the day having dinner at "La Mexicana". Though the food wasn't as good as last time (we're going to St-Lambert next time), we had a great time. We finally found a Mexican dish both Mathieu and Sabrina enjoy, and we just had the greatest of time. There's even a part with a spilled Shirley Temple (Mathieu's favorite drink) that got us out of there laughing with tears. Basically, Mathieu spilled it but it went on Sabrina's side. She didn't want to be accused of spilling it herself, but we didn't help. We had a great time.

Fajitas... fajitas! That was the dish that finally got them, after so many complaints with Mex food.

No Downton Abbey for me tonight. I fell asleep with Sabrina while doing her 5 minutes lie down.

Mathieu is very proud

He read his first book tonight. It was a bit a wax-on, wax-off moment for him for he didn't know he could read it until he did. And the entire family was there to see him do it. He was very proud of himself.

For the past week he's been practicing a list of words for homework. I've taken these words from the book "Biscuit and the baby". So every night since Monday he's been huffing and puffing while learning how to read the words, not understanding why I was doing this. Then tonight, after a bout of complaining I took the book out and he was able to read a few pages by himself. Sabrina was able to put two and two together, of course so she told him what had happened. He was happy and left it there.

When Suzanne got home, I gave him the book and he was able to completely read 95% of it by himself, even words he hadn't seen. Needless to say we were really proud of him. I could see he was really proud of himself and it feels good.

Bravo Mathieu :)

Both are very different with how they learn and I have found it hard to get him to actually read. Sabrina is easy; show her something interesting and by herself she'll go and learn a lot about it, slowly, methodically. Mathieu needs to be pushed, will complain all the way until something happens and then he's off with a bang learning and loving it.

Really cool.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH

I hate the Daily Saving's Time Change. Because of it, the kids have been going to bed super late. Everyone has to adapt to it and they're all grumpy. There must be a cost in productivity.

Suzanne's 15 minutes... Again!!!

Suzanne had a little article in her Canadian trade magazine this month.

Sabrina reading the news.

Go play outside

You know when kids stay inside too long, it gets a little rowdy. There's nothing like the great outdoors to give you energy. Now if only our backyard was way, way much bigger :)

Amazing Day

I know it's Spring Break but we haven't had a chance to go skiing yet. Today's the day but however it's time for the kids to get a haircut first. Here are before/after pictures.

Sabrina Before

Sabrina After

Mathieu Before

Mathieu After

It was a bit drastic I concur, but the results were well worth the effort. Here's Mathieu on the chair, making sure it's done well.

Right after the haircut we went to Bromont for a fun day of skiing.

We even skied at dusk. It's really fun to ski in the dark, I find we see the snow so much better because of the projectors. We really had a great time.

Lazy Day and a Fondue

Today was one of those lazy days when we don't do much and stay home. The kids played some board games with Suzanne...

We decided to have a fondue dinner. I made the best tasting sauces ever.

There was also a bit of cuddling between son and mother.

A lazy day, but a nice day.

Another fun day at ski Bromont

Today we all went skiing. I got to ski with Suzanne while the kids were at their lessons and let me say it was really nice. We're starting to know this mountain a lot.

A wine not to forget: