Joshua turned 5 early in December. His only request was to invite his friends to play. I didn't have much time (or physical means) to organize the kind of parties we had his previous years but we found a pretty good compromise and we invited 5 friends from school to play at home and eat a cake. We recycled our Halloween theme for simplicities' sake and because what 5 year-old boy doesn't want to have a ninja party?
We started of by decorating ninja cookies.
Then we went outside to play...
I made balloon swords again:
And a Serpentine piñata (one of the villains in Ninjago):
Then we sang happy birthday (the girls insisted on singing in English :) and we ate the Ninja cake (inspired by crazylittleproject.com):
Joshua opened his presents with his friends and they played with them a few minutes before the parents came:
Later that night Joshua opened the present his Dad had sent: a skateboard. He was ecstatic and wanted to ride it immediately.
He even attempted some tricks (he only staged them ; glad he's a cautious kid):
I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the boys' school at first (something to do with the fact I had to drop off 2 sobbing kids twice a day for a couple of weeks and was constantly urged to wrap up the good byes). But after a few weeks of tough adjustment and some positive feedback from both the boys and their teachers, I started relaxing and seeing all the great new things the boys were doing. Since then I've had several chances to volunteer and observe the methods and I'm pretty happy with what I've seen.
William's teacher writes a picture journal describing the class activities every week. He includes a copy of all the songs and rhymes they learn so the parents can recognize them when the kids repeat it (at this stage it was necessary!). It seems they bake something every week. I think William has made cake 4 or 5 times, bread, cheese (with a local professional cheese maker) and chocolate (again with a local professional chocolate maker). They also do a lot of painting, story telling and free play.
In November they went on a field trip to the local bakery. I signed up to accompany them. The baker (Philippe) and his wife (Genevieve) are distant cousins (and their nephew is in William's class… so William has a cousin in his class! Small village life!) They made "brioche" and watched him prepare bread for the customers of the day.
William's teacher carried each child to the kneading machine
Of course we left with our stomachs full and took home a self made snack (a cat with a praline belly button)
Meanwhile Josh was learning to sound words. He's getting better and better at it, despite the french/english confusion. This is his attempt at spelling (or sounding out) my name next to his:
and a fiery dragon drawing:
"because the hunter wanted to kill the dragon"
The boys' progress in french is impressive, but they still speak with a cute little accent (especially William). They also make funny mistakes. For example Josh keeps on calling dark colors (les couleurs foncees), french colors (les couleurs francais). Here is the first rhyme he memorized. He keeps on mistaking the word Tapis (rug) for Papi (Granpa). So cute!
And William's first memorized rhyme with a lot of cute mistakes he stubbornly refuses to correct:
This one makes me melt, the first part is a rhyme about animals and their tail, the 2nd part is the story of a little Indian named Hiskiwiwi who shoots an arrow at an hippopotamus named Haskawawa, William's sound effects are the cutest.
Early in December Josh's class took a field trip to the Museum of Art in Grenoble. They took the bus and had lunch there, it was a pretty exciting day for these little kids. I was one of the parents accompanying and I enjoyed watching him interact with his classmates and his teacher.
The cute group I was in charge of. They were very well behaved.
The museum was showcasing an exhibition of contemporary artist Sigmar Polke and particularly his Magic Lantern piece. In the morning the children participated in a hands-on activity with 2 museum hosts. They were given instructions to create a story using 1 mandatory picture and one chosen by themselves and imitate Polke's style. Each child in the group created one part (or slide) of the story and they later were given time to imagine how their individual piece could be part of a global story.
Josh's piece was a crazy drum man (mandatory picture) taming a fire breathing dragon/lizard (choice picture)… or something like it.
The final product
and the children imagining the story once put in the lantern.
Then they had lunch:
And in the afternoon a museum guide gave the children a tour of the museum showcasing a few art pieces along the way. She gave them each a little texture book and since they were not allowed to touch the paintings, she let them touch the texture book and guess which texture corresponded to the painting and what kind of tool was used to make it. Josh guessed (after several hints) that this black painting was made with a broom. He was right.
After the visit, we took the children to a nearby park. Since Joshua's birthday was 2 days later I had brought a cake to share with his class and they happily chased each other around until it was time to take the bus back.
Taking a group of kids to an art museum is not a relaxing task, but I think they appreciated it. It made me think of my first outing to an art museum when I was in my 2nd year of preschool. I don't remember the museum but I know I was shown VanGogh's Sunflowers, and I spent a fair amount of time afterwards imitating VanGoghs paintbrush strikes in my drawings and paintings, and drawing flower bouquets. I wonder how this visit will impact Joshua, if it does… So far I haven't noticed any inspiration but he draws a lot more than he used to.
The week before Christmas the 3 classes of preschool (Kindergarten is part of preschool here) combined for some craft activities and live shows. Again the boys brought home some homemade cookies, crafts and chocolates. Then there was the Christmas market where I volunteered to make candied almonds (notice I did NOT volunteer to make caramel popcorn this time, I must be getting wiser). And the Christmas parade with a visit from Santa and a funny show about some lice trying to create a magic potion to cure environmental issues.
A few (or not so few) pictures of some of our activities in November. The boys and I continue to enjoy the countryside and the joys each season brings. I really do love mountains… I know that's no news… it's just one of those things I marvel at and never get tired of. It's a paradise for boys, I'm grateful to have a chance to enjoy it with them for now. Not knowing what tomorrow holds is for sure nerve wracking but I've really been working at enjoying the present and it makes me happy to see all the beauty God puts on my path.
One of our favorite walks is a pretty trail in the woods nearby with chestnut and walnut trees. William is always very interested in picking up chestnuts, we roasted some of them but his favorite thing is just to stuff his pockets with them.
Another favorite is the Isere river bench, we have to drive down the mountain to get to it but it's only about 10min and it's the only place where the kids can actually ride their bikes (too much gravel, dirt or hills around the house). Josh upgraded to a big-kid-bike with multiple gears and little brother inherited the small bike.
Carrying on the Giraud-Carrier legacy, William gobbles up apple sauce made from the apple trees planted by his great grandpa. These trees have fed 4 generations.
Here's some pretty scary ninja weaponry (made by Josh):
The first snowman of the season (Josh made it with a couple older girls from school):
And the morning walk to school after a snowfall:
The igloo we, who am I kidding…, I, made in the garden:
And a sledding trip to Freydieres with Grand-papa:
a 2nd snowman
Freydieres again with a couple of American families from church:
And to top off the month of November, we met up with our old friends, Nicole, Thomas, Lars and Yanik in Bern. After 2 years, the younger boys had changed a lot but Josh and Lars just looked a few inches taller. They were pretty excited to see each other even though they only remembered each other through the pictures we'd shown them. After I got lost in German-speaking Bern for at least an hour trying to find them, we had lunch and walked downtown to the bear caves.
It took me 11 tries to attempt to get a picture of all of them watching me. I failed.
My Boulder friends will always have a special place in my heart. I was so glad to be able to visit them.
