Birthdays, snow and pirates

April has always been a busy birthday month in my family. My older sister was born on the 18th, my youngest sister on the 27th and my grandma on the 24th (which is why I remember Uncle Jim's birthday so well).
My mom used to buy our first strawberries of the year to put on Carole's birthday cake and so again this year I kept the tradition (well, the tradition of having strawberries on the cake, not to wait for the 18th for strawberries...)

For Géraldine, I wasn't too inspired, so I thought I would just focus on what  birthdays mean: getting older. Ahah!

She wasn't with her daughters to celebrate (she is with her husband touring his mission) but her girls didn't think they needed her to party (I wonder which aunt taught them that!).

Growing up, my sisters never had snow on their birthdays. They might now that they live in Switzerland. They sure would if they lived here. Julia had another snow day this week. Kelden begged her to go outside and build a snowman with him but she didn't want to. I wanted to go during Zack's naptime (because he doesn't like to just sit there and watch us play) but he slept during lunch. Anyway, when finally we went outside the snow wasn't good any more, or maybe that's just my excuse because I'm horrible at making snowmen. We made a "castle" instead.

Yeah, I guess being raised in France and by the beach, I'm more of a castle-making person than a snowman one. I did try the following day though, but even our mini-snowman family looks more like menhirs/dolmens (that you can find where I live) rather than snowmen.

Oh well, Kelden had fun, that's what matters.

He's also been having fun dressing as a pirate, or at least changing into one.

Julia prefers to be a mermaid. The ocean, the sand, the heat. I think she's tired of the snow.

Short Week

This week (weeks end on Sundays for me) was a short week for Julia since she had a PDday on Friday and a snow day on Monday. Yep, a snow day.

She had no school so she wanted to play....school. With her brother, her dolls...

She had to share the dolls with her brothers,who are not used to ask her as she's usually not there.

They really play well together...at least it looks that way on the blog :)

Zack's report

For his birthday, Zack got to go to the nurse. I don't know if he remembered last time, but as soon as we entered her room, he started crying. We had a hard time weighing him and measuring him, so you can imagine how he reacted when she came back ready for 3 needles...It took a while before our Zack was back to his natural happy self.

22 pounds, 30 inches. Very average  (if I'm not mistaken he's a little bit below the 50th percentile for weight and a little bit above for height). He's growing well and we're happy!

This past month Zack has really enjoyed going outside. He is jealous when Julia gets out in the morning and he has to stay inside because at 8 o'clock, it's still too cold for him. He waves at the window instead.

It's usually warm enough in the afternoon, and if it's still too cold, I put the "bubble" around the stroller and we go anyway (we've been inside too long!).

When it is nice enough, he likes to play on playgrounds, like his older siblings.

Getting fresh air to help sleep at night didn't work. This month, instead of "Sunday will come," I've been thinking "6 o'clock will come." I get up for Zack I don't know how many times at night (I try to give him some time, but he never falls back asleep on his own, I have to go (most of the time I just give his soother-should never have started that thing with him). Kelden wakes me up too (usually only once now- his major problem is that he still won't fall asleep before 9.30). Anyway, after 5, when Zack wants up, Keld takes him. From 6 to 7, I know I have a whole hour during which I won't have to get up (except on Sundays).  Of course, I can't sleep, because of piano playing and other noisy toys, but, eh, a whole hour knowing that I won't have to get up is wonderful. I should ask the nurse for some of the vaccines she gave because that night he slept without waking up for over 11 hours (I actually thought he might be dead).

No, you didn't read wrong, Zack can play the piano. and the harmonica too.

Well, what can I say, when you have a big brother to teach you, you learn fast.

Papa might help in teaching about tools...

Easter

We started celebrating Easter with, as I have already mentioned, Zack's birthday on Friday evening. Saturday, and also Monday, the kids enjoyed Keld's time off as he took them for bike rides.

It was quite cold (it was all white again on Monday) and they couldn't stay outside too long. So Kelden decided to hire his father for the vacuuming (I never do a job good enough for Kelden..he wants me to vacuum every morning and every afternoon).

Sunday started with the treasure hunt. The Easter bunny had come and left clues, along with chocolate, in coloured eggs. Julia would decipher the clues and Kelden would eat the chocolate.

Zack tried to help too.

 

Zack is obviously more of a morning person than I am.
The treasure was in the dryer, but I had taken a picture before.

I found a book somewhere for Zack, Keld bought a book and a hat CARS for Kelden and 2 stories for V-reader for Julia (to share with Kelden). The eggs contained chocolate mini-eggs (to share with the parents). We used to buy princess chocolates but Julia wouldn't eat it. She is now a Kinder egg fan and we had told her we would buy her one when they were on sale, which we did. Special also got them a nice little bunny and Kelden really enjoyed biting his nose.

Anyway, after the treasure hunt, we got dressed for church.

I couldn't get all three of them together. I couldn't get a family picture either. Well, at least I don't think we got a good picture.

The Primary children were singing during Sacrament meeting. Julia was really stressed-so stressed she was sick- but she did fine, as usual. Kelden, on the other hand, didn't sing a word. It was his first time in front of everybody, so hopefully next time he won't be as intimidated. He did a bit better for Family Home Evening, but, and you'll probably notice, they were pretty excited that day.

I didn't know what my family was doing for Easter, but on Tuesday when I talked to my Mom she told me that they had all celebrated together. My parents had all their children and grand-children with them, except for my family of course. They were together at Christmas too, and I had asked them to take a family picture, which they never did. So my Mom proudly told me on Tuesday that she had thought of me and had a picture for me. (Just to let you know, our last "true" family picture was taken 12 years ago when I came back from my mission. My parents did have their five children together once after that, in 2005. However, since I had come by myself, the family picture wasn't"truly" complete because Keld was missing. The 5 of us haven't been together since and I really wonder when we will ever be. My brother wasn't there last time we went to France and he probably won't be there next time either. That's why I have been asking for a picture of everybody but us, because it's the best we can get.) Anyway, my Dad sent me the picture.

Well, I was expecting a lot more people in the picture! Even in that picture, one brother-in-law is missing. I don't know when she will be able to try again, with everyone this time.
My Dad sent me a couple of other pictures and I thought I might share our traditions. The following picture is "the cake with the hen in the middle." I usually make a cake like that for Easter too. I had actually bought everything to make Cheryl's recipe for Easter Monday, since it's a cake with a hole in the middle (where I can put mini-eggs with a rooster on top. For some reason, I can only find roosters here. Knowing that, my Mom had come prepared last year bringing me chocolate and caramel hens). Anyway, I decided not to make the cake this year because we had enough leftovers from the birthday.

And this is the Easter tree.

I haven't started the tree tradition yet. I'm thinking about it. It's not as appealing as it's not edible :) Maybe I should hang some chocolate...

Happy Birthday Zack !

Zack is one year old today but we cheated and celebrated last Friday since everybody was off. I don't think Zack realized his big day was coming although Bruce's birthday a few days before should have given him a clue !

Julia, on the other hand, was quite excited for him. She really wanted to make goodie bags. I'm not sure why she liked that so much since she only put stuff in her bag that she already had at home. I guess she liked doing it for her brother and cousins.

She also insisted on birthday hats. She wanted them princess pink and we had to remind her that it was not her birthday.

She wasn't impressed however by our choice of menu: pizza. Our kids don't like pizza, even home made. Actually, I don't think Keld and I ever ordered pizza before but we thought it would be the easiest since there were quite a lot of guests.

Zack didn't eat anything but he was still happy to be the center of the party.

Unfortunately, he wasn't so  smiling after he touched the candle.

But he did like the chocolate cake.

We had to keep him somewhat clean because aunt Tina wasn't there :)
After the cake, it was time to open presents and Zack got lots of help.

He liked what he got, but so did Kelden, who was having a very hard time sharing, despite his great love.

Et voila! One year has passed. But I already don't remember life without Zack !