School carnival celebration

April  2016

Every year, the boys school organizes a carnival celebration at the end of the winter season. The preschool classes make a giant Mister Carnival statue out of card board and paper and the kids parade around the village in their costumes holding the giant paper statue on their way to the park where the statue will be set on fire to symbolize the end of winter.

This year Joshua was a jedi and William recycled his adorable Toothless dragon costume.

Star Wars was quite the popular trend.

Joshua had to leave for his ski class at noon and the parade lasted longer than expected so he had to go home and change. He finished watching the burning of Mr Carnival in his snow geer while eating lunch.

The boys sometimes randomly ask to play with the face paint.

William wanted to be a power ranger

School performances and activities

Joshua participated in a couple of school performances in April 2016. He had a part in a circus show and a play. I videotapped parts of both shows but sadly I missed the best parts. Boo on me.

There’s  Joshua waving his hand in the back, before the performance

Here’s a few parts of the circus show where Josh is performing. He did an accrobatics stunt with a couple of friends (he was the base and one of his friends did a headstand) but I couldn’t videotape that part.

Then his class produced a short play (wrote the script themselves etc.) and again I failed to videotape the whole thing properly (my phone was out of storage) but I got a few parts that were cute and funny.

 I’m so very proud of my growing kiddos.

Karate tournament

In March 2016, Josh had his first interclub Karate tournament. Since he’d only just started Karate lessons it was a little intimidating but he did so well. This kid impresses me so much, I would have never dared competing like that at his age (I still wouldn’t). I’m glad he doesn’t take after me.

It was a pretty big tournament (maybe 100 kids?)

Josh’s age group :

It was an elimination tournament, so if you lose one battle you’re out. Josh won his first battle, but he lost his second. Turns out his second opponent ended up winning first place, so it wasn’t too disappointing being eliminated by the gold medal.

The first Kata (he won)

Part of the second Kata (he lost)

Relieving some pressure with video games

The winner of the competition who will forever be known as "the boy with flabby cheeks" (he was very cute though)

Josh also had his first belt test (half belt white-yellow) and passed with congratulations from his trainer.

Meeting of an apostle and submission to the Friend magazine

March 2016

In March 2016, we were very fortunate to have the visit of a member of the twelve apostles in our stake: elder D. Todd Christofferson. Our ward rented a bus to go to the congress center in Lyon together so it was extra special and extra fun.

The boys standing in front of the congress center. This is where I had my graduation ceremony back in 2007.

Seating in the room with their cousin, Auréa early on.

Our stake president and elder Christofferson are on the far left

Elder Christofferson offered to shake hands with all the children. so they all went and stood in a long line. When William finally walked in front of him he passed him without stopping, I’m not sure he knew who he was supposed to shake hands with, but Elder Christofferson called him back to shake his hand.

With William

With Josh

A few weeks later was general conference. Earlier in the year the boys had submitted something to the Friend magazine (a foot print where they’d written what they wanted to do to follow Jesus) but as far as we know their submissions were not published. But apparently the Friend kept their names and my email and they contacted me 2 weeks before conference asking me if the boys would participate in the show and tell about conference. They asked me to send pictures ahead of time and to make sure to return the boys’ submissions immediately after conference so it could be published in the following issue of the Friend magazine.

So I grabbed my camera and tried to take the most Friend-worthy portrait I could of each boy. I’m glad I had this excuse to take their picture because they usually don’t let me shoot at them so willingly.

William

Josh

And here they are in the May 2016 issue of the Friend magazine.

Meanwhile I took my own portrait after going to the hairdresser. I asked for the same haircut as the model on the far left. I didn’t get exactly what I asked but I liked the result nonetheless.

Other March happenings

March 2016

We took advantage of Coraline’s and Marie-Eve’s presence to go to the ice rink again. The boys are good friends with their cousins and are very lucky to have so many cousins to play with.

Timothé and Coco

William

Josh, Auréa, Benjamin

Will, Josh, Auréa, Benjamin

Carnival 2016

February 2016
The primary presidency organized a carnival activity at church in February. Josh and William recycled their halloween costumes. There were fun games, lots of friends and lots of junk food to eat... it was a triumph.

The school also had a carnival day.

Valentine’s goofs

February 2016
This year Grandma sent the boys the best valentines present: funny face cutouts. They were hilarious. Here’s the result of the photoshoot:

Visit with the Djemai family

One week-end in February, my lifelong friends Jennifer, Raphael and their three children came from Lyon to visit us. We went up to Casserousse (Chamrousse) for some sledding and fun in the snow.

 It was cold but it was so much fun being there with friends that we didn’t mind the temperature.

One of many many many attempts at getting a picture with all kids looking at the camera.

Sleepover party!

January 2016

La galette des Rois: King’s cake celebration. This franco-french tradition is still a staple at our house.

William got the fève

Josh didn’t :P

 In your face, bro

I mean, literally rubbing it in your face

Also, January is a good time to go skiing here. We are taking as much advantage of living close to the slopes as we can. Grand-papa coaches Joshua and Mom tries to motivate William.

Playing with the snow is more fun than skiing

William practicing on a small run

Grand-papa coaching Josh before he starts the ski club

Josh has made a lot of progress and follows Grand-papa everywhere. This year he will go skiing with people from Revel every Saturday from January til mid March. The town organizes this every year but it’s only for kids who are already independant because the people who accompany them are not ski instructors (just parents). So Josh will get to ski with some of his friends from school every saturday.

Here’s a video of one of our first outings of the season :

Coco came to Revel for her birthday. She was here with Nicki.

They’re worse than kids...

The traditional birthday cake

Sometimes William must share the spot on Mathias’ shoulders

William’s class went on a snowshoeing adventure