Here, have another piece of cake...

In case you didn't know, January is the month of the king cake in France. It's a pagan holiday now but it originally celebrates the visit of the wise men (the 3 kings) to Jesus. Don't worry about remembering it, if you ever visit France around this time of year, we (the French) won't let you forget about it…

I zealously introduced it to the boys for Family Home Evening the first Monday of January, worried that if I didn't no-one would. They fell in love with the concept: inside every cake/pie (made from a double crust of puff pastry stuffed with an almond flavored filling) is hidden a little trinket (called feve). Whoever gets the trinket is crowned king. The boys were anxious to discover who was the king. 

 this is how you cheat

Bow to King Joshua!

Our host let the boys play with his collection of sword
to complete the King outfit.
They were in Heaven.

 A week later we were invited for dinner and gladly ate another pie (well I gladly ate, the boys gladly dissected it to find the feve).

Then they celebrated it at school:

 (copied from their school journal… makes it look like they're 1950s pictures :))

Josh with his homemade crown

Then we had Family Home Evening with our friends the Bartas and the Hardings and celebrated it again:

Josh learned to arm-wrestle and lost to Kate.

Annnnnnd then we had another round of it at a church activity. Since then, I pretty much gag at the thought of eating another slice but I'm sure it'll be forgotten by next year.

One of the milestones from January, was William learning to write his name by himself. I did not teach him. Having a big brother and a competitive personality can be a great motivator.

We had dinner at a restaurant with Grand-Papa and Grand-Maman. 

French food is delicious, but once in a while it's nice to get a little taste of American food. Grand-Papa and Grand-Maman brought us goodies from their last trip to the US.

 

Nachos and fruit snacks

Sounds like January was all about eating… Well yes, but not only. We went on a bike ride with Grand-Papa.

And most exciting of all, we picked up our besties, the Conkeys, at the airport. They're finally here in Lausanne (2hrs away), hurray!

A couple of days after they arrived, we spent a day together. The boys were ecstatic to be with their friend Sam again. It was a treat watching these boys play again together.

Lunch at Ikea

Silly monkeys on the swing in Ikea

Playing in Sam's new bedroom.