Swim Eval, Great Wines

This Friday was evaluation day at the swimming course. The kids hopefully did well. Here you can see Sabrina converse with Ben, and Mathieu having a conversation with Kate.

Here are two wines I absolutely like for their taste. A bit pricey, the Cab is $40 and the Pinot $60, but their taste is just out of this world...

Three 3-cheers ceremonies, three 3-cheers; Art

Sabrina just got her third 3-cheers in as many ceremonies. At the end of the month, the entire school is reunited in the gym and one or two students of each class is presented with a reward called 3-cheers in front of everyone for special accomplishments. Sabrina just got her third three cheers. Very proud.

First it was French, then English, now it's math. Way to go love. We're so proud of you.

The kids have become very artistic these days. Here is Sabrina's work...

Mathieu is into zombies...

And here's a two-mast radio control great ship...

Nice Sunday Dinner

Max came to have dinner with us tonight. It was really nice to have the family complete again. When we got into the house, Mathieu yelled his name and went to give him the biggest hug. Really nice.

Sabrina started reading "The Hobbit" tonight. She's really liking the book. She started giggling at one point, when the dwarves come to visit Bilbo, uninvited. It is a really cool book.

Quelle belle journée; Joe Dassin

Nous avons meme eu la chance de prendre une bonne marche. Voici quelques photos.

Fait intéressant: Nous écoutons présentement Joe Dassin au souper. Saviez vous que Joe Dassin était Juif américain, né a New York?

Kids... 90% Love, 10% War

Look what Mathieu did to his sister...

Paper Planes; Play date

Mathieu is into making his own paper airplanes, complete with drawings. When Suzanne asked, he told her he had initiated it himself and had not learned it in kindergarten or in daycare (they go to daycare for an hour on Thursdays and Fridays, at their request). Real cool.

Long time friends came to play over today to give the grand parents a small break. These kids have known each other ever since they were born and the chemistry between them is just beautiful. It's really great to have them over.

Fun Saturday with a tint of grey...

My 27" iMac I've had since December 2009 had a recall because of a hard drive failure possibility and I brought it to the Apple store for repair. Say what you may about Apple, the fact that they send me an email to tell me they need to change the drive on my three year old Mac (for free). I will miss my machine for the next few days though.

Today was a slow day, a perfect one for us to play board games. Suzanne and Sabrina played Mystery Mansion while I played Battleship with Mathieu while I cooked supper. We had a great time.

Sabrina and Suzanne are rediscovering some very old board games.

Clean House

It's so pleasant when the house is clean... I like to work with my portable on the counter and when we're all here it's hard to be zen. But during the day when the kids are out school and Sue's out work...

Halloween; 3 Cheers; School Pictures

At the kid's school, at the end of each month all the kids are reunited to celebrate the students who achieved really well during the month. Usually, one or two students are chosen for each class. This month Sabrina was chosen for her English course.

Also we finally got Mathieu's school pictures samples... Kindergarten! wow!

The highlight of the day was of Hallowe'en, of course. Sabrina went out as a which, and Mathieu as Spiderman. The amount of candy that was collected was huge. Consider also that since I was out walking with the kids, no one was at the door giving our candies so we only gave about 50% of our own stuff.

OSM

I had the opportunity to go to the OSM to see "Beethoven habite a l'étage" with Sabrina's class. It was simply amazing. We used to go out so often before we had kids and I think we forgot to appreciate it at the time. The feeling of awe I got when we entered the concert hall was really cool. Here are a few pictures.

The bus ride was good, with teachers I like as well as the usual parents. A real good field trip.

It's so rare that I'm on pictures I put them in when I can.

Suzanne hard at work at voirgrand.tv

What a day we've had! A relaxing one that is. Mathieu is still sick but getting better. Suzanne and Sabrina went to Costco and almost got killed, but were saved by Mercedes' technology. Sabrina has already chosen her Christmas dress.

All in all, a great day...

My great boy

Mathieu was sick last night. He went to bed around 4:00pm and only woke up at 5:30am this morning, still feverish. We took his sister to school and came back here. Around 9:00am, Mathieu told me he was feeling better and said:

"Can you take me to school?"

Now doesn't that make you feel proud of your son? With reservations, I brought him to school making sure that he's going to call me if he feels sick.

Ferme Guyon Visit; Sho Dan

Today we went to visit La Ferme Guyon, a few kilometers away from Chambly. It's a really interesting place with a huge barn that's like a mega general store. And when I say general, they have everything.

I had no idea what to expect 

Yes even the Christmas stuff was out

They also have a haunted barn. Mathieu and I went for a stroll in it. He didn't want to let me go, but it wasn't that scary.

He had no idea...

Perhaps the most fun place was the butterfly house. It was just a big wow. There are over 30 species of amazing butterflies flying over you, sometimes landing on you without your knowledge (I had one on my head). Most butterflies come from Mexico or Costa Rica, from where they are shipped in their cocoon.

He kinda didn't like it that much

"I'm not a bug person"

Saby is not crazy about it

This beautiful blue one was on Sabrina's shoulder for a good 10 seconds and she didn't know

Sometimes you just didn't know there was one there

One landed on my head. Another peed on my finger, to the kid's horrified delight.

A quick lunch at Chambly's Subway. Check Suzanne's Instagram pictures.

Tonight it's dinner time with Sophie and friends. We went to Sho Dan, one of the best sushi restaurants in Montreal. I'm pretty sure everybody enjoyed their meal.

Sophie and Suzanne

Daycare, Pool and Food

On Fridays the kids have their swimming lessons. It's gruesome work for them as they tend to go back and forth in the pool for a little less then an hour. I usually spend that time chatting (yelling) with either Kim or Pascal. We arrive home very late and do not eat before 7:00pm which is way off our schedule. So today I decided to do a crock pot dinner.

Pork and veggies, ready in 8 hours

Here are a few pictures of my two fishies

Sabrina

Mathieu

Brome Visit

I went to visit mom today while the kids were in school. We did some cleansing this weekend and I found a lot of stuff that belong to her so it gave me a good reason to go back home.

We worked on a collage of all the dogs she had over the years... There were a lot. I remember some fondly.

Meanwhile we got our pool closed up for the winter. We had such a great run this year. If you look at it now, the level is pretty low. It's not going to last for tomorrow we're expecting lots of rain. Maybe I should have waited a few weeks more?

Suzanne came home early and we went to get the kids at school. On the way back Suzanne just couldn't believe how much Sabrina can talk. And so she does, talking all the way from school to home. Our little quiet girl is so amazing.