Pumpkin carving and a Sunday walk

November 2015

With all these parties, we didn’t have a chance to carve a pumpkin for Halloween... so we did that one Sunday afternoon in November, with Jade.

It’s a love dementor

I love our Sunday walks, especially in the fall. It’s a real blessing living here.

There are plently of wild animals around here ;)

They will run you over and eat all your food but you’ll still want to keep them...

 

My happy place: surrounded with moutains and my loves

Halloween Church Party

October 2015

We’re probably a little too crazy about halloween in our family... but I’m sure this phase won’t last forever, so I want to take advantage of it while the boys are into it.

There are a lot of kids in our primary, a lot of boys, a lot of energy...

 We recycled the "bat" idea that we did with all the cousins (not a great idea, the wings kept breaking off) :

And the kids decorated their own candy bag:

Then they played games:

 Some were unintended (and not tolerated very long):

And of course there was candy... lots of it.

Halloween Cousinfest

October 2015

 Since we moved to Revel, my aunt and I have made it a tradition to organize a Halloween party for the children in the family who come here on vacation. The kids look forward to it every year now and we can’t disappoint them. This year we had 14 kids, all cousins or second cousins.

Instead of decorating cookies this year, they made bloody fingers (out of sausages, ketchup and tortillas), ghosts (meringue and black icing) and bats (oreos and candy eyes).

Then there was a treasure hunt around the house, with clues to find, crypted messages to decode and various tasks to perform.

The crew (missing Elise and Constance)

And of course there was candy...

Another success and new memories created!

Running, climbing, jumping, running, cli...

October 2015

Let me tell you about a renewable source of energy that seems to outperform every other sources on earth: yes, you guessed it: boys (I could probably extrapolate to kids in general).

As a mother of two, I have gained huge respect for parents of more than two children. My friend Leslie has four boys. She’s a superhero to me.

 

Seeing this overload of energy-filled precious children makes me hopeful for the future. I really don’t think there is anything more rewarding and important I could do, than raising these children.

Getting into the Halloween spirit

September 2015

 Sometimes being a parent feels like a thankless job. You think you’re never doing enough. That’s how I feel today. But then I look at these pictures and I realize it doesn’t take much to make kids happy: some paint, a couple online tutorials and a choice. The choice to focus on the moment.

That day, they came home from school and asked me to paint their faces. I had fun doing it, they loved it, and I’m glad I made the choice to focus on that moment rather than worry about the work I wasn’t getting done and all the mess I’d have to clean up. I have to remember to make that simple choice more often...

Here are the boys meeting our new neighbors : Romy the cat and Socrate and Izac (the dogs).

 

I bet you didn’t know Dracula was a karateka

Also, Grandma sent some fun stickers to play with for Halloween. William looked amazing with a mexican mustache:

A new school year and a new apartment

September 2015

 After our trip to Boulder, the boys only had a couple of days to recover from jetlag before it was time to head back to school: 2nd grade for Joshua, Kindergarten for William.

Since there’s only one class per grade level in this school, there’s no surprise which friends will be in the same class

William (far left with striped Tee) in his classroom

 The day before the beginning of school, we got the keys to our new apartment: a two bedroom ground floor apartment with a small garden in the front and the back. It is perfectly located: pretty much next door to the school and the park (including a soccer field and an old tennis court) and five minutes walking to my parents’ house. The boys need to share a room but considering it took us two years to get this, I won’t let them complain.

William found the perfect spot to play Nintendo while I stripped the walls and painted

The front door

The boys bedroom

The kitchen my Dad spent an entire week building (there was only a sink before)

The living room and the garden in the back

 I’m so grateful to have this place so close to my parents, in a quaint, peaceful, little village. Life continues to be difficult and frustrating sometimes (did I mention I spilled 2 or 3 gallons of white paint in my car the week we moved in?) but there’s so much to be grateful for. This entire year has been a happy and blessed year.