Visit to the cousins in Paris, and a big surprise.

The first week-end in February, we packed up the car and drove to Paris with my parents for a visit to my sister Marie-Eve. She had organized a party for her youngest daughter's baby blessing.

We travelled with Lily the Giraffe; William's class mascot. Lily likes to go on adventures so William's teacher asked us to take her on our trip.

Lily in the car

Lily meeting baby Constance

Lily having breakfast with the cousins...

Tata Coco was here from Frankfurt to celebrate the baby blessing so we got to surprise her and celebrate her belated birthday. 

Presents one day and cake the next day.

On Saturday we went to visit the nearby Chateau de Vincennes, home of the Kings of France from the 12th century to the 18th. A must see for my 5 year-old obsessed with medieval architecture: Moat, dungeon, drawbridge, battlement, he found it all…  

the cathedral

And we spent a few minutes in a botanical garden near the castle before it closed (for safety most gardens around Paris close before dusk--not too reassuring I admit). 

At home, they engaged in countless pillow fights, human piles and man hunts of course.  

Watched a movie...

And on Sunday we had a huge family dinner with Luc's brothers after the church service.

On Monday the boys woke up to a surprise announcement: I had arranged to take them to Disneyland with a friend of mine and her 2 kids. As much as I would like to report squeals of excitement and gratefulness, the news did not generate the expected enthusiasm. Josh was interested but a little skeptical, and William was frankly more interested in playing with his cousins' toys while they were at school… Nevermind the first reaction, we headed for Disneyland with Grand-Papa.

 

It was a beautiful but chilly day. Our first stop to the dragon lair was not too reassuring for William but Josh was hypnotized.

William's favorite ride: shooting at Zorg in the Toy Story ride.

Star wars ride: NOT A FAVORITE

Slinky was another favorite

 

and cars of course...

lunch at Mcdonalds

The parachute drop

For a first visit to Disneyland, I think it went well… haha. It was a little bit overwhelming for the boys, one minute excited, the next scared, too many extreme emotions for one day… everything Disneyland claims to be; magical, thrilling and exhausting.

That was the end of our adventures in Paris. The next day, we packed up the car again and drove home. On the way home we stopped at a rest area on the freeway. It was my favorite rest area when I was a kid. The boys loved it too:

And home at last!
We created a lot of good memories that week-end.

 

Sweet dreams Lily and William

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.