Joyeux Anniversaire Jacques!!

Spain

Time to put all that Diego watching to good use

We are off to Spain, very early tomorrow morning.  I will be without Internet for 10 days, I think I'll go crazy!  LOL  We're taking Emilienne as far as Orange to meet up with her mom who is at her grandparents' in the South of France.  So about 8 hours with 5 kids another two with 4, there better be alcohol at the other end!  ;)

We had a very nice afternoon with Stéphanie and her kids.  Emilienne and Louise were here as well.  you would never know that there were 9 kids here!!  They were a bit loud, but Juliet was still able to sleep. We escaped to the kitchen for the most part, but they were all well behaved and I think they had fun :D

Ok, I'll check back on the 21st!!

Zed Oh Oh

MIL has two of my nieces (4 and 5) this week so she asked to take Jacques and Anthony with them to the zoo.  She couldn't really take Philippe because, he's just too little and would need a nap.  So after arranging with Stéphanie to come over tomorrow instead of today MIL and I arranged for FIL to take them back home with him after work yesterday so that they could sleep over and go straight to the zoo first thing this morning.  I was nervous that Philippe would be upset if he saw them go so I put in Diego for him.  They left around 6pm, 2 regular jumping beans, they were both sooooo excited.  I didn't even tell them about the zoo, they only thought that they were sleeping over with Emilienne and Louise.  Anyway, Philippe finished watching Diego and we decided to go out for supper.  It wasn't until 8:30 that he finally asked where the boys were.  I didn't really tell him and he didn't ask any further.  This morning on our walk, he asked if we were going to get them and when I said no, he didn't question it.  We still spell zoo in front of him but he's been having a great time today, just Philippe and Mommy.  Oh and Juliet, but she's been sleeping a lot because she's teething.  Man, it's so calm here with just 2 kids!!  I can hear Susan saying that's it's calm with just 4 ;)

It's summer!!!!!!

Phew !!  Ok, this is long one, so you might want to get a snack.  There are pictures, I promise :D

 

What a relief that it’s finally summer vacation !  As of 4:30 Thursday afternoon the boys are finally finished school.  The last few weeks have been CRAZY busy, I mean insanely crazy busy :P  Parties and projects and other end of the year stuff.  Since the baptism (June 15) it’s been one thing after another, but I guess that’s better than everything all at once ;)

 

June

18  Jacques goes to a birthday party

20  I had 3 LOs due for the Flair CHA booth

21  Jacques’ school party

22  we went to Tom’s birthday party

26  an afternoon with some friends

28  Anthony’s school party and a party at a friend’s house for the bigs

29  gymnastics show

30  scr’aprés-midi and regular Flair pages due.

July

2  gmnastics picnic and Jacques’ birthday party

3   last day of school (brought the teachers gifts that the boys made)

 

not to mention about 4-5 appointments and the regular running around…

 

Here are a few photos of my scr’aprés-midi. (I didn't put up any of the other books because I haven't asked the girls if I could.  I'm hopping they won't mind that their pictures on are on here, but pix of their kids is a bit more delicate) 

 

Here's my book, it was a project by Gretchen Schmidt from my 28 days class at BPS.

 

 

I totally snagged that fun word 'scr'aprés-midi' from Stéphanie, she’s super creative and is just getting into scrapbooking, I’ve got her hooked ;)  She does other crafts and sews, as well and made Juliet and I matching Russian dolls, which you can see here.  Mine is a pin, it’s only about one inch high, so you can get a feel for how detailed mine is!! 

 Party Pooper

Here are some photos from J’s party.  I was so disappointed with the cake.  It was about 40°C here and the icing was just too runny, I had no control.  In the end there was chocolate EVERY where, all over the counter, cupboards, Me!!  Luckily, some of it made it inside my mouth or the chocolate wouldn’t have been the only thing melting down.  However, the boys all knew what it was and Jacques was impressed so who cares about perfection ;)  I’m trying to let go… ;)

 

 

That day was so full!  It was Wednesday so I had the kids home, we prepared all morning and then after lunch we headed to the gymnastics end of the year picnic.  We also picked up our raffle prizes, we won 5 times!!  Then we went home and the kids started arriving around 4.  The party went well despite the heat and the kids had fun, we did crafts and threw water balloons.  Let me tell you, though, 11 boys make a LOT of noise!!  Martian mayhem, I tell ya!

 Afterwards, it was baths and the boys had to finish their teachers’ gifts.  We made address books; they papered the covers and everything.  The package arrived very late from the online craft store, but I don’t think they turned out “last-minute” looking at all!  The boys did the bulk of the work, I just cut the paper and aligned the holes, they did all the gluing, painting, hole punching, writing etc.  Let me tell you I crashed in bed at 9pm!!

 

 

We’ve had so many parties in the last 3 weeks, that I’m seriously partied out!  I mean each one was really fun, but isn’t there a limit to how much fun one person can have?  Of course not!  But, it is also fun to just relax and not have to rush off to the next thing.

 

Baby motion

I was planning to link catimini and some pix of Juliet sporting her new clothes in my last post, but typepad went poopy and then so did catimini.fr so I’m thinking it’s my computer that went poopy. :P  I am getting a new one, maybe macbook in Canada because they are quite a lot cheaper there.  Anyway, take a look at this little poser!  I don’t know how she know what the camera is for, but she poses!!  Don’t you just love those colours? 

 

 

She’s quick!  That’s the best way to describe her, that and flexible ;)  You can’t put anything within her reach, she grabs it before you’ve realised what’s happened.  She’s also said her first word a few weeks ago, ‘hi’ it sounds like ‘ha-aaaah’ but since she’s usually waving when she says it and it’s usually when you walk in the room, there’s no mistake in what it means.  She’s also beginning to get mobile. I guess I’m ready to vacuum everyday :P  When we put her on her stomach on the floor (if she’ll let us, she usually puts her knees up so that she’s in crawling position) she’ll push herself around backwards sliding around every which way but the direction she wants to go.  She’ll go for awhile then get frustrated ;)

 

Summer schedule

First thing Friday morning I started the kids on their summer schedules and clipboards. 

 

 

We followed Stacy’s plan last year (adapted for smaller kids) and it worked really well.  So we are going along with her system that she’s using this summer.  Philippe even has a clipboard this year.  It only has 3 things on it but I feel he’s old enough.  And he didn’t prove me wrong, look at this bed, he did it ALL by himself I didn’t help at all.   Pretty good for a 2 and a half year old...

 

 

I like Stacy’s approach this year, as they get rewarded for good deeds and finishing their lists etc.  But, they can’t get them taken away, it’s all about positive reinforcement.  Time outs take care of the rest ;)

 

Lots on our plate for the summer, we have a few playdates (I hate that word but is there something better?) this week and then bright and early Friday morning we leave for Spain for 10 days or so, back home for 3 days and then off again on the 24^th to Canada until the end of the summer.  I started packing today.  The hardest is Juliet, I need to pack stuff that she’ll still fit into at the end of August because I decided to not even unpack the Spain suitcase when we get back.  I’ll wash the stuff before we leave to come back and then take it to Canada along with the 4 other bags ;)  The others will be full of maternity clothes for Nicole (YAY!!!), wedding clothes (Amber, I'm taking the brown polka dotted dress for Juliet) and Christmas gifts.  Yes, you read that correctly ;)  I started Christmas shopping the other day.  Last year, I had a sweet baby to take care of in December so I got all my shopping done for my Canadian friends and family while I was home last summer and left them there for mom to play elf and she delivered them to everyone.  It worked so well and is way cheaper than mailing it all I decided to do it again :D

 

Have a great Sunday everyone!