abiti eleganti di marca It’s a special birthday for the kids’ grandmother, and she decided to spend it celebrating with us.

abiti femminili da cerimonia Juliette, in princess costume, helps Maminette

vestito di pizzo per matrimonio A happy birthday lunch

vestito bianco aderente The local supermarket was out of ‘zero’ candles, so we improvised

allungare pene naturale A happy birthday present. ‘Reine de neige’ decorations courtesy of Juliette

My favvorite! A picture of the grandchildren

It’s a beautiful, warm spring day with summer just around the corner. After lunch on the terrace at a local restaurant, where the kids devoured a pizza as well as most of the fries of Papa’s plate, we headed home for some ice cream and some play time on our terrace. Juliette’s learned how to put Alexandre to work, pushing the tricycle while she steers. Big sisters, eh?

Juliette’s learned how to make Alex do the hard work

Got enough toys, kids?

“Faster! Faster!”

Alex seems like he’s having fun

Kids love to imitate adults. Through a combination of misfortune and his own incompetence, Papa managed to mangle the tractor last weekend. While it’s in the shop being repaired, Papa had to tackle the lawn on the side of the house the old-fashioned way, with a hand mower. Well, no sooner did the kids see Papa doing this than wanting to join in themselves. Juliette was too quick for Papa to grab the camera, but he was in time to catch Alex trimming the lawn.

Alex is cutting the grass

The weather’s getting warm, and it’s time to pull out the pool. The kids had fun cooling off in the hot sunshine!

Juliette’s trying out her ‘innocent’ smile

Just brushing our koala…

Summertime… and the living is easy!

Alexandre is working on his beach body

It’s a sunny day. Gotta wear our shades, right?

Everyone’s got their shades on

We got Juliette all dressed up for her school photos on Friday, but they were cancelled due to bad weather. So Friday was just a dress rehearsal for Monday, where we were greeted with a glorious spring morning. Papa couldn’t resist the chance to grab his camera and take a few shots before Juliette headed off to school.

I can’t believe how much she’s grown since this time last year.

Smiling for the camera

A little more reflective

There are a number of clues that your kids are up to no good. Too much silence is usual a bad sign, ones that set any parents’ radar onto alert. The other is the sound of small children giggling uncontrollably. Children’s humor isn’t sophisticated, so the laughter isn’t the result of witty repartee. It means someone’s doing something silly.

In our case, the giggling from upstairs was Alex discovering make-up.

Maybe he’s born with it? Maybe it’s Maybelline!

Getting ready to head out the door for Juliette’s dance recital, Papa took the time to heed an age-old rule for parents: when the kids are dressed up and before they get a chance to get dirty, get out the camera! So here are a few pictures we snapped of Juliette before she headed out the door for the big show.

Our cutie

Ready to go

Juliette’s big moment comes at the 4:55 mark, squeezed in between the clowns and the footballers. If we’d had jokers instead of footballers, I’d have a great Stealers Wheels joke on my hands.