Fall break and Halloween

 Lately, I’ve been doing a little bit of family history. And the more I find out, the more I love this place. One particularly beautiful day, I drove by this spot where there’s a panoramic view of the entire village. I stopped the car to imagine my ancestors working in these fields, chopping wood in these forrests, and raising their families here. I’m sure many of them walked near this particular spot on many occasions, and it is interesting imagining what was similar and what was different 100, 200, 300 or 400 hundred years ago (one family line goes that far!).

If I could, I’d build a house right on top of that trashcan, haha!

I don’t want to forget how lucky we are to live with my parents in this beautiful place.

Mid-October was fall break for the boys. Soon their cousins arrived and the fun began.

October 20th : The weather had been so warm, the boys and their cousin still managed to swim in the pool. Not long though...

Two days later it finally snowed on the mountain and it was freezing cold here.

William and his cousins took advantage of the cold weather to spend some extra time on the DS.

 

 But the cold wave really didn’t last long and soon they were outside playing like monkeys again.

My aunt and I teamed up again to give the kids a halloween party. Several of my nephews and nieces and of my cousins’ children were there. We decorated cookies in the morning, and we had a really fun treasure hunt in the afternoon. I found all the instructions for the treasure hunt online and it was perfect.

Each child was given an envelop with a piece of magic candy in it. Each color of candy gave special powers (ability to read cryptic messages, jump really high, make potions, or see in the dark). And then each child’s special ability was needed to discover the clues that led to the treasure.

They all had to cross the giant spiderweb to get their bottle of vampire blood. Some of them deciphered cryptic messages, others made potions and drank them

And then they had to find a magic wand and learn an incantation before the treasure (candy) appeared. I didn’t take many pictures because I was busy leading the treasure hunt but it was a great success. (I found the idea and the printouts here http://organiser-anniversaire.fr/grands-jeux/la-chasse-au-tresor-dhalloween-de-mathea-7930). It lasted about an hour and it was great for kids of different ages.


Then I took lots and lots of pictures of the kids playing in their costumes.

(William’s planned costume was this cute dragon but when he saw his brother and cousins in Ninja costumes he wanted to be a ninja too, so he wore last year’s costume for a little bit, and then he decided he wanted to be a dragon after all.)

He made for a really cute dragon and Josh was totally in character.

On Halloween night we went to church for a big party.

 Josh had invited a friend from school. The boys made mummies. Played a bowling/knock the can game. And shot some zombies with the missionnaries.

Then they ate and danced for a little while... or went crazy more like it.

A new school year

Man, it is almost the end of December. I have uploaded so many pictures on the blog but I haven’t had time to post them yet. I can’t wait another year so here they come:

This was the first day of class. Josh is in 1st grade this year. First year of elementary school in our school system. Here he is with his "potes" Sev’, Aless’ and Ulyss’:

Standing in line before getting into class, with his teacher Sonia:

 

I forgot to take a picture of William’s first day (poor kid!). I was running back and forth between the preschool building and elementary school building to get both boys into their respective classes and talk to each teacher and in the midst of it I forgot about William’s traditional shot. Oh well, I doubt he’ll ever ask to see it anyway...

This is him a couple of days after school started. He is happy as a clam in this class. He is with Josh’s previous teacher Michelle and in the same classroom Josh was. Plus his age group was too small for a class so they were divided in the small class (Maternelle petit) and the big class (maternelle grand) and he ended up in the big class, he is proud as a peacock!

The first week end after school started we went to Lyon with some school friends. I wanted to show the boys the "parc de la tête d’or", a big park with animals. They had fun riding their bike or scooter and playing with their friends.

This cotton candy ball was almost as big as William!

The boys were invited to a friend’s birthday party at a kid’s entertainment place. They had a blast. It’s a sort of Chuck’ E Cheese but the theme is pirates. It was a fun afternoon for all (I got to hang out with some of the parents who stayed).

When we got home that day, we found tata Coco and Nicki paddling in the pool! As if their visit wasn’t enough fun, haha. They were driving back from a trip to Slovenia, Croatia and Venise where Nicki had purchased this canoe to navigate in Venise. No one knows if it’s legal... haha, but no one stopped them either. I’d like to see the pictures of the tourists on their gondolas, passing by Coco and Nicki...
 I think the limit for this canoe is two people, however Nicki’s limit is "when it sinks you swim". No age limit either.

Another week-end after school started the boys went to the botanical garden and parc mistral in Grenoble with their school friends (Aless’ and Mass’).

And William had a playdate with one his school buddies.

So far the boys have enjoyed the school year just as much as the school break. They are doing great in school. Josh is learning to read and write. William is learning to trace letters and coloring like a pro. They enjoy school a lot and have been eating at the school cantine every day which gives me a full 7.5 hour day of work four times a week (3.5 hours on wednesday).

"one must be polite"

The school cantine:

One saturday morning the boys asked for my face painting supply. I gladly obliged. It was priceless watching them paint each others faces!

I think they did really well.

We started a reward calendar in September. I needed William to loose his thumb sucking habit. The promised reward was a new DS game. He was highly motivated. It lasted almost 2 months. By the time we finished the calendar he was capable of going one day without sucking his thumb (in order to get a check mark for the day he needed not be reminded to take off his thumb more than three times during the day, but by the end, he could go a day without being reminded once). I was really happy and I thought we were done with the thumb thucking phase.

He chose a Mario sticker game.

Sadly once the calendar was over and the reward earned he slowly went back to his soothing addiction. I am still fighting him daily and regularly taking away his DS priviledges. I won one fight but the battle is not won yet... I need new ideas.

Just before Halloween our village celebrated its yearly Apple Festival. This year, my parents had the bright idea to abandon me during apple season (Next time one of my nephews or nieces gets married in the US I’ll have to ask them to work around apple season!). I was left with this over abundance of apples to deal with.

Dozens of baskets and boxes stacked up in the garage. I was running out of containers but a Giraud-Carrier does NOT throw away an apple (At least not publicly).

I made lots of apple sauce and on the day of the festival some villagers pulled out an old apple press to make cider. It looked like it could be 100 years old but it was fun to watch them operate it and yummy to taste. We brought some of our apples and went home with a few bottles of cider.

 

Josh and William in front of the extra vintage apple press. Josh had found a stack of pokemon cards at the yearly garage sale that happens during the festival. It was Christmas before the hour.

What else did we do last summer...

End of July, my parents and I took the boys to the museum of archaeology in Grenoble. It is a very impressive site. Emily recommended it after visiting it and it was a great find.

From the outside it looks like any other old church. Growing up surrounded by them, I was never too impressed by them unless it was Notre Dame and there was a Disney movie made about it... Since I’ve lived in places where they’re not so common, I’ve learned to appreciate these old stones a little more and the story they’re telling.

This museum/church tells a particularly captivating story. The inside of the church has been excavated to show every layer of construction under it. Several monuments have been built on the same site over the centuries and it’s really interesting to see all the different layers. The most interesting part for the boys was that is was originaly a mausoleum, and the excavations have uncovered thousands of tombs and bodies. It is a little weird walking around and seeing skeletons under your feet but it is fascinating for little boys trying to understand life and death, and anatomy.

The oldest mausoleum found on the site date from the 4th century.

There’s a very informative audioguide.

Here the boys are standing in the Chancel dating from the eighteenth or nineteeenth century. The stained glass in the background depicts the story of a popular Saint: St Laurent. He was born in the 3rd century and was in charge of the treasure of Rome. The prefect of Rome ordered him to deliver the treasure of the church into his hands. After three days, he came to the prefect of Rome bringing the poor of the church with him and presented them as the treasure of the church. He was martyred for it.

"Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the church’s crown."

A painting from the XXth? century showing the martyrdom of St Laurent.

And more tombs and skeletons...

Grand Papa and Grand Maman standing in front of the church/museum

Back home we spent time with the cousins visiting for the holidays.

Josh discovered rainbow looms. He really likes manual activities, I wonder who he gets that from... :)

Germany, France and the USA... His top 3 countries during the world cup.

We enjoyed the parks around our area.
Two cool dudes at the skate park:

This park is absolutely magnificent.

Another park by the house:

The boys played endless silly games with their cousins (like pretending to sleep in a toy box):

Or using the same boxes as vehicles.

Josh discovered pokemon cards and he’s been obsessed with them since.

My sister in law sent some fruit loops in a package... William’s reaction:

Josh learned to roller skate with his friend from school.

Then in August we accompanied my nephew to the temple. It was nice being there as a family and despite the fact I could not get the boys to stop moving or look in the same direction for one second, we got some really cute pictures. I’ll never get tired of these boys’ hugs.

So much energy... That. they didn’t get from me.

Mathias and his parents

Before the school break ended we took a fun trip to Chamrousse, the ski resort next to the house. Some of our friends had rented an appartment for a week and we went to spend a night with them.

We packed these two days with all the fun we could: hikes, wild fruit picking, picnics, hunting for insects, outdoor games, indoor games, and we even watched Planes2 in the resorts’ movie theater.

Green is cool

 

We hid in the forrest to surprise the other hikers.

The water of the lake (6500 feet high) is pretty chill but that didn’t stop them.

We were not the only ones at the lake that day. Josh and William bumped into a couple of friends from school.

the boys caught tadpoles

And a few days later they went back to school, having fully enjoyed their summer break.