Milestone coming and old memories

The kids are currently sharing a bedroom, the other being used as a playroom. They are talking about setting up their own room and Sabrina's already prepared some signs for hers...

After a walk to IGA we do spend sometime in the pool

Afterwards, Suzanne has a great idea. We drive to Westmount to eat in a little Grec restaurant that we used to frequent quite often when we lived on Nun's Island, but haven't gone too since we've moved out of the island (I still find the move hard). It was a hit! Everyone ate fully and happily, a great surprise for the kids had never had real greek food before. We all a great time.

Trip downtown; pool; dinner;

Today Suzanne had an appointment downtown Montreal and we decided to tag along. While Suzanne was doing her stuff we went to visit, I had a Starbucks coffee (hmmm) and we had a generally good time. Once she was done we all went to Indigo to get a few books. A nice Saturday morning.

The best place to spend the afternoon is in the pool and we do so happily. We then have one of those great dinners where Suzanne and I cook with a glass of wine in hand. For supper: Fajitas, a family favourite. A truly nice evening.

Thelma leaving

Carol and Peter visit and take Thelma to her annual doctor's appointment in St-Lambert. They will then bring her to Richmond for a few days and from there do the trip to Gaspé. Both kids give us a short and beautiful concert during the visit. Their duos are simply beautiful, and both remember all words really well.

Brome

This morning we all went to Brome to visit with my mom. We went to have breakfast at Star Café, a charming little restaurant that's really good, for the price. We all had a great time. It's fun to have the kids see both their grand mothers at the same time. Thanks mom for having us.

In the afternoon it was time for the kid's semi annual dentist visit. Apart from the continuing knowledge that both kids are going to have to wear braces later on in life, and that there's a lot of activity right now in Mathieu's mouth (old teeth going, new teeth coming), it was all nice.

CupKate, Pool and the sweet smell of Irish Spring

It's a hot beautiful day today and we drive to see Kate and Ben's cupcake sale. I have to tell you we all adored them. These kids are amazing cooks. The endeavour is called "CupKate".

The rest of the day was spent in the pool. We got to play, relax, saw a show and even friends came to join us:

Play

Relax

Show 

Friend

But something wicked this way comes. Just before I was to cook the meat a thunderstorm erupted, delaying our meal. I had predicted it, for the leaves on the trees were reversed (sign of a storm coming).

Now tonight everything smells of Irish Spring. The soap. Thelma told us that one way to get rid of groundhogs is to put Irish Spring soap bars near the places they visit, as they hate the smell. Well, after this very good thunderstorm, everything outside smells like Irish Spring. No kidding!

Bonne St-Jean...

And man those Nerf guns hurt...

Thelma arrives; Graziella with friends

Today the kids and Suzanne went to the St-Lambert train station to pick up Thelma. She's spending a few days with us and we're all excited. It's good to have her back.

At night we have dinner at Graziella with Kim and Pascal to celebrate Kim's birthday. As usual it's a really cool evening with great friends enjoying stimulating conversations over an amazing meal and interesting wines (I'm starting to sound like Steve Jobs). It was almost magical :) Thanks to Thelma for taking care of the kids. Here are some pictures of the evening.

Very Emotional Last Day of School

I just went to get the kids at school. The last day is so emotional. If you have a chance it's worth to see. Before the bell rings all the kids get out and form a tunnel through which grade 6 comes out at the sound of cheers through their last victory march. All the school buses hit the horn as they leave, like a wedding. There are tears, good byes... It's quite touching.

Donna was very kind and invited us to spend some time at her pool. The Raza story was just precious.

Mathieu's Graduation

Today Mathieu graduates kindergarten. Graduation is a big deal at our school and everyone, the school and the families, get involved. There's a strong sense of community at St-Mary's and it's always pleasant to participate to these events. In fact, our school is a great motivator for us not to move back on the island...

For now.

Here are a few pictures from Mathieu's graduation. There's no need to tell you how proud we are.

Waiting for the show to begin

Mathieu gets his diploma

My girls

Sabrina, Mathieu and Mme Sophie (the best kindergarten teacher ever)

This picture says it all. We're going to miss you a lot, Sophie

Hopefully, with this blog, we'll be able to remember how great kindergarten was for Mathieu.

The unwanted visitor

A groundhog has been eating our lettuce, our onions and our strawberries. While I like to help the wildlife, these produce were destined to enhance our plates. Today while I was doing stuff with Mathieu, Sabrina yelled: "There's an animal in our backyard." I went out to try to scare it off. I wouldn't mind having it in our backyard if it wasn't so much of a glutton. And to say he only eats half of each strawberry...

Happy Birthday Kim & I can't clean the aquarium...

It's our good friend Kim's birthday today... It's been like 13 years. Happy birthday Kim.

About 10-12 days ago, just as I was getting the kids ready to bed, Suzanne discover to our amazement that our fish had had babies... They are so cute, so minuscule, so fragile in fact that I'm afraid to clean the tank with the vacuum I usually use to clean it. Let's just say it's slowly getting grungy.

Needless to say we care for these babies as much as we do for our 3 surviving platys.

We could see 3 small babies. However, they've grown significantly in the span of 10 days and tonight I was able to count 5, maybe 6 new fish in the aquarium. I'm still not cleaning it, but I think I will soon be able to.

Happy Birthday Alexandre; Father's Day

Today would have been my big brother Alexandre's 56th birthday. He was killed by a bus in Montreal when he was 8 years old. He was walking to a store with my grand-mother because he wanted to buy me a Christmas gift. I have always been affected by his death, and I think of him often. To this day I still miss him somehow. He was my big brother. I just can't imagine what my parents went through. Imagine what it would be to kiss your kid good bye and to never see him again. Because of Alex not only do I think of it often, but it may have made me somewhat over protective with my own children.

As I wrote those words I knew that mom would already have a picture on her blog.

I slept in this morning, getting up around 7:45am. Downstairs, a beautiful menu was presented to me, showing me the choices of Father's Day breakfast I could have. I took the special, it was wonderful. I have an amazing family.

La Ronde; Let them walk, let them talk (Neil deGrasse Tyson)

“We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson is someone I admire a lot. In his talk on how science could be taught better in the U.S. NDT rightly states that we should never stifle our kid's curiosity whatever the case (unless it's dangerous) for kids are curious and are willing to learn. If we don't kill their curiosity they will go on wanting to learning about life and science. One of the tricks he says to do is to leave a pair of binoculars on the table and by nature they will want to play with it. It's true Mathieu did. Don't stop them. Tonight I took those binoculars and looked at the crescent moon. It was just wow! I could see craters and mountains. We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful universe.

We got season's passes to La Ronde. We'll come into our money by just going there twice this summer. Since the parking is included we'll even be able to go see fireworks so it's a great deal. At the park the girls went on their way, and Mathieu and I had our own fun. Here are a few pics.

Suzanne at work; Spirit Day

Here's a picture of Suzanne at work...

Art done specifically for Suzanne from one of Moment Factory's artist

Pretty cool !!! The art on the wall was done for her by one of the artists in-house. And people can bring their dogs, and their skateboards. My perfect place for work.

Today the entire family went to Spirit Day at St-Mary's. The school organizes this special time to reunite parents, kids and school staff and allow us to mingle. St-Mary's is such an amazing community. Here are a few pictures:

Sabrina's next year teacher Marie-Josée and Mathieu's last year teacher Miss Helen (both great)

Ms Carolyn (Sabrina's Math teacher, real cool) paints Daphné's face

There were posters showing pictures of events. Here, Sabrina running her 2 Ks

Evelyne and Sabrina eating huge hot-dogs 

Best friends... A great picture