Christmas preparations

December 2015

Decorating gingerbread houses is not a french thing at all. I didn’t grow up doing it. But we did it with our friends in Boulder, the Gourgouris’, before we moved to France and the boys loved it. I wanted to continue the tradition here and fortunately I came across these gingerbread house kits at IKEA. This activity was a huge hit although none of us is fond of gingerbread so it took us two years to finish eating them (actually we didn’t: I stored them in a ziploc bag on top of the fridge and they stayed there for months until I finally threw them away recently). 

I said we’re not fond of gingerbread. I said nothing about candy...

Mathias came over to play with the boys. He is very tall (over 1m90cm) and William’s favorite thing to do is sit on his shoulders all day.

My sister-in-law sent us some twizzlers. Thanks Isabelle!

Josh participated in a karate tournament with his class and got first place.

Here he is with his gold medal !

 
December is also the perfect month for going ice skating. We don’t have an outdoor ice rink in Grenoble but the indoor one is great.

The school’s Parents’ association organizes a Christmas party every year. This year they booked a magician. He was incredible. The pictures didn’t turn out but we had such a great time.

This year my sister Emmanuelle asked my dad if he would let her cut a tree on the plot of land he owns in the forest up of Revel for her Christmas tree. I tagged along and we had a fun time walking around the plot looking for the perfect tree with my mom and dad.

Woodcutting is in our blood

The boys also had a christmas party during their weekly swim lesson. When they came out of the pool, they had drawings of reindeer, stars and such all over their bodies.

Also we visited the Christmas market in Grenoble. The boys rode a few rides and met Santa.

Josh got caught red-handed (quite literally)

One waffle fan, one crepe fan

A few runs down the inflatable slide

We went back to the ice-rink with my sister Rachel and her boys.

And we went to the movie theater with Grand-papa, Grand-maman and Coco to watch Star Wars The force awakens.

On Christmas eve, the entire family went caroling around the neighborhood. The boys loved being outside in the dark goofing off with their cousins.

Joshua’s seventh birthday

December  2015

Joshua, my strong, brave, bright, social, happy child had another birthday : one year wiser, one year brighter and getting more and more handsome by the day. He loves Star Wars, playing with his friends and being silly, combine all that and you get the ideal frame for a great birthday party.

The game Pie face had just hit the stores. We had a good time trying it out.

Most kids prefered to play with a wet sponge rather than whip cream

But those who chose whip cream went all in

We played the game "Heads up", where we tape the picture of a character on your forehead and you have to guess who you are by asking questions like, am I a boy? Am I a good guy?..

 We ate cake.

We did a treasure hunt in the garden, with a Darth Vader pinata holding one of the clues.

And we dug up the treasure (from a garbage bag inside the recycling container!)

This group of kids are good friends and get along well together. It is sweet to see them grow together.
Joshua was spoiled with presents and we all had a fun day. He opened his presents from the family on his actual birthday a few days later.

Vizille, Museum of the Revolution

Vizille is an old town about 30 minutes from where we live. It is mostly famous for its castle, a meaningful place in french history because it hosted an important meeting that triggered the french revolution.

By Pierre Bona - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8481814

The castle has been turned into a museum and is now open to the public. It contains a very large collection of art pieces focused on the french revolution. Outside the castle is a large park and a free range reserve of deer and other species of animals.

It is pretty amazing that they let people visit this castle for free. It is huge and they let us go pretty much in every room, and even on the balconies. The boys loved the stairs and balconies the best.

with Grand-Papa

a deer intrigued by the visitors

Fall season means there are plenty of leaves to collect and play with. William made a bouquet for me.

 in front of our house

This kid is such a lady killer

Another Sunday Walk in nature

November 2015

I never want to take all this for granted:

Happy kids, nature

Family

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!