Our new room!

Our balcony in the back used to have a table on it. A fine table but definitely not very kid friendly because it had sharp corners... sharp corners that became rusty over the past winter....  Anyway, Andreas and I decided that, rather than an outside dining room, we wanted a new living room! Instead of replacing the dining table, we bought an outdoor sofa set :) Our house is pretty small so the extra space is appreciated... and I can absolutely picture us outside, coffee/wine in hand :)
It was a bit cool today but we used it anyway... I cannot wait for warmer weather...

Happy Sunday xox

A bit of paradise....

My spot

Coffee table on its way... :)

Art and other activities....

My poor ignored blog ;) This past week has been jam packed with correcting (for me), end of semester stuff (for me), class tests (for the boys)  and their school art gala. Every year, as a sort of fundraiser, my boys' elementary school holds an art gala where the children can show off their talents (the parents even get wine and cheese- I love our school)! Each class has a theme or an artist's style that they incorporate into their work. It is always a success and their art is impressive! Oliver's daycare does not hold an event like that (yet- I am trying to give them the idea ;) ) but, nonetheless, he picked up the art theme as well :)

After this past week, I am looking forward to a quiet Saturday night... wishing you all the same xox

Oliver's Lego creation

Not sure what this is called but it involves a man, ants and big spiders ;)

Nicka showing off his creation :Je vous offre la vie (the earth in the palm of his hand)

Alexander's bamboo themed work

Oliver, colouring at the art gala.

Oliver and his balloon

Oliver loves balloons. He especially loves to draw on balloons. This poses 2 problems: 1) the balloons often pop when he colours on them (= bad for him) and 2) he uses washable markers, which means that his balloons leave markers trails all over the house when he plays with them (= bad for me). Anyway, given his love for his unique kind of art, we deal with both of those problems and just keep lots of back up balloons (and cleaning products!) on hand.

Here are some pictures of his recent masterpiece.... it popped about 15 minutes later but, at least, I captured it!

Happy Monday to you all XOX

Many faces!

Faster marker in the west ;)

Serious work!

A red Ninja

A baby

See?

Friday walk in the city

On Friday, I had a date... a very special date... one that I had been looking forward to for months.... My date was with my mechanic and the reason to celebrate was that it was now time to put summer tires back on my car ;) I know- how exciting! YES, it was! Thank you ;)
Since my car was left at the shop, I took the train into work. I have to say that, with such nice weather, it was a pleasant trip and a beautiful morning walk through downtown Montreal on my way into work. Conveniently, my walk led my by Starbuck's, where I had my first iced latte of the season. The day kept getting better ;)

Even if you didn't ask for it, here is another lesson about Canada: Some of my friends in Europe have made comments about our seemingly sudden summer weather. Although not all days are very warm, we have definitely lost our spring time. I would say that over the past 10 years, our winter suddenly turns into 20C temperatures. This year, our meter plus snow banks melted in about 3 days. Funny thing is that, when I was a child, we did have springtime and it usually lasted 3-4 weeks. Now we go from winter boots to sandals in the same week. Global warming in action?

Hope you are all having a great weekend so far! xox

Early morning Rue Ste. Catherine

I didn't do it ;)

Ahhhh.... iced latte ;)

The student

Hey there, Mr. James McGill.... nice hat ;)

The morning rush

Boys hanging out... and eating popsicles

Today, as a treat, we had popsicles on our front stairs. I don't know why but that seems to be the best place in the universe for the boys. Maybe it is because they get to spy on all our neighbours? Or check out all the going-ons on our quiet cul de sac? Or try to figure out if the boy who lives 2 doors down from us actually has a (gasp!) girlfriend? Or hope that the neighbourhood posse stops by for some serious scooter action? Bummer... the posse must have had homework ;)

Hope you had a nice day.... it is almost Friday :)

Popsicles.... yum!

Lately

Lately, the weather has been fabulous so, in between correcting final papers, helping with homework, spring cleaning, bringing my mother home from the hospital, washing laundry, folding laundry, re-washing laundry, re-folding laundry (repeat), shopping (food- nothing interesting), cooking, more correcting, more correcting and more cleaning, I have been outside.... and enjoying it!

Hope you all have the chance to sit outside and soak up some sun! WE DESERVE IT ;)

xox

Perfect boy day out

Yesterday (Saturday), we went to visit the FIFA Women's World Cup Tour at a mall near our house. I didn't know what to expect but it ended up being a BIG hit with the boys! They got to cheer for their favourite teams (Alexander and Nicka cheered equally for Canada and Sweden... Oliver picked Brazil... ?). There was also a game where you could try to score a goal on a "FIFA goalie". Funny enough, Oliver was the only one who managed to score.... maybe because his kicks were very slow and kind of messed up the sensors ;) Who cares? He was happy! After we played some soccer games and the boys had their picture taken with the cup, we spent another hour at the Lego store- conveniently located within the mall :) It ended up being a great day out!

Today is 17C. I am in heaven.... :)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Posing with the trophy!

Oliver, hard at work!

So many choices ;)

Alexander's creations

Oliver's creation... don't ask about the cat on his head ;)

Boys having fun!

Nicka's creations

So glad it is Friday :)

I picked up the boys from school, let them play with their cousins, started dinner and now I am on strike :) It has been a busy week so I am very glad that it is Friday! Hope your evening is cosy and relaxing.... I plan on am having a glass of wine and a hot bath- party on :)

Happy Friday evening to you all xox

Here is a little bit of the boy action this week.....

Coming to work with mamma- makes for a very productive day (NOT!)

Bratty boys who are enjoying the first real warm day

Quick pose for the camera!

Hospital

Last Thursday, my mother finally had her heart surgery. It had been cancelled a few times because of holidays and emergency priorities so the wait had been stressful. She had been diagnosed as needing 6 bypasses (yes, 6. I didn't realize that they did so many at a time and recently found out that they usually don't) so we are all glad that it is over and that she is recovering well. A good sign of her return to health is that I am well aware that she would kill me for posting a picture of her here... so you get a picture of Alexander instead. I brought him to visit her and he was happy to pose in his "doctor" gear ;)

Happy week to all! xox

Dr. Alexander, reporting for duty ;)

On the way up to see my mother

Egg hunt and goodies :)

Here are a few pictures from this weekend's egg hunt. We didn't have the chance to colour/decorate eggs this year because things have been busy (my mother is in the hospital- I'll save it for tomorrow's post) so I cheated and used plastic eggs that we personalized. When you found all 12 of your "hidden" eggs, you got your treat from Easter Bunny. The concept of Easter Bunny still works with Oliver... for Alexander and Nicklas, it is a bit dubious but, happily, they didn't say anything ;) Oliver's eggs were pretty obvious but Alexander got frustrated because the "Easter Bunny" did some awesome hiding this year..... yups, I am pretty proud of it ;) We did manage to put together an Easter bush (Swedish tradition) but the cold weather really affected the bud situation. Even a week in the house didn't coax the leaves out yet!

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend! Wishing you all the best for the week ahead xox

One of Oliver's eggs

Excited to find his eggs

Bat Man found his eggs ;)

Here's a part of Oliver's Easter Bunny present...

The boys also got their own bunnies, which Oliver called "Easter Bunny"- very original ;)

More treats, which took Alexander about 2 minutes to finish off ;)

Our Easter bush

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter :)

The neighbourhood posse

We are very lucky that our neighbours, who are also close friends of ours, have boys the same ages as Alexander and Nicklas. Bonus is that they also really like Oliver and take care of him in a sort of big-brother way (they first met him when he was one day old!). Today, the boys all got together to go "biking", which in our case was more "scootering" because we haven't had the chance to fill up tires and oil chains on the bikes yet.... OK- we win the worst-parents-in-the-world-award ;) Anyway, between all the biking and scootering (which later turned into street soccer), the boys had a lot of fun. Oliver even got into the act- tricycle and imaginary sword in hand! They absolutely terrorized the neighbourhood and, luckily, no police were called in so all was good ;)

Did I mention that it was 13degrees C today? Did I mention that I LOVED it? ;)

Tough biker guy!

The posse

Watch out- I am armed!

Dangerous with his rainbow bubble sword ;)

Street soccer action