Last day of school

Today was the last day for elementary school (Oliver and Nicklas). Alexander has already been off for a week now (= the teenager can finally sleep in). I have to admit that I am pretty excited for the summer holidays to start... at least I am now. Ask me again in a few weeks... after the fighting starts... and I will tell you about how much I love the school year ;) For now, though, I can feel vacation coming up.... and it feels good :)

Happy last day of school xox

Alexander was sleeping when this photo was taken... lucky kid!

Celebration

Today was my last day of making school lunches for the year. Enough reason to celebrate 😉

Hallelujah 😉

World Cup humour... or not... the Montreal Italian way ;)

During the World Cup qualifiers, the Swedish team tied with Italy- after having won the first game- thus keeping them out of the World Cup (the black day of November 13, 2017). Now, the Italian community in Montreal is retaliating with the campaign "Anyone but Sweden". Little Italy is covered with banners that cheer on any team playing in the same group (F) or against Sweden (= Anyone but Sweden) ;) It doesn't even matter who it is... just not Sweden. Andreas better stay away from Little Italy for a few weeks ;) It looks like they mean business ;)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best man I could think of to be the father of our boys. You give them attention, love, respect and teach them to be the best jokers in the world ;) They will be good men because of you. xox

Happy Father's Day to all those who step up to the plate...

With Alexander

With Nicklas

With Oliver

Things (or thing) that I dislike about summer...

I know that I write a lot of blog posts complaining about winter. I complain about the cold, about the snow, about shovelling snow, about ice.... actually, just about everything winter related ;) Anyway, I thought that it was only fair to write a blog post about things that I dislike about summer. Hmmm.... it was hard... really hard but I actually came up with 3 things: 1) fruit in the fruit bowl and bread in the breadbox go bad fast; 2) mosquitos and 3) dog fur all over the place (if you didn't know it, we have 2 dogs. Yes, I am nuts!). Yup, that is about it and, honestly, I just put the fruit and bread in the fridge and- voila- problem solved. Now we are down to 2 things and, to get rid of the mosquitos, I just permanently carry around bug repellent. Last on the list is dog fur... and, no matter how much I vacuum, there always seems to be enough fur on the ground to make another dog. Seriously, I vacuum twice a day and there is a seemingly endless supply ALL OVER THE STINKING HOUSE.... (*the house is actually not stinking but you know what I mean). The boys are able to effectively step over the fur without either realizing it is there or just not caring enough to sweep it up (I am betting it is the latter of the 2 choices). On the other hand, I obsess. Once seen, I cannot unsee it so I am endlessly pulling out the vacuum. It has become my best friend. I look like a crazy woman, permanently dragging a vacuum around the house... ALL SUMMER LONG! So, what do I dislike about summer? Definitely dog fur shed around the house.... the dogs are good... the shedding sucks ;) I still think that winter wins in the complaining department! ;)

Wishing you all a great rest of the weekend.... hopefully, vacuum cleaner free ;)

xox

Aaaaarrrrrrgh! I jut finished vacuuming and it is already back again! ;)

New meaning

In the past, if I was kneeling in front of the toilet on a Saturday morning, I would have chalked it up to a good time on Friday night. Now, it just means that I am cleaning up after boys. Hmmm... the 2 experiences are both pretty nauseating ;)

Happy Saturday! Hope your morning was more exciting than mine ;) xox

Biking with kids

When we lived in Denmark, we used to bike everywhere. I had a baby seat on the back of my bike for Alexander... and when he wasn't in it, it was a perfect place for grocery bags or the bouquets of flowers that I would pick up from the local florist. I think I even helped move one my friends by carrying stuff on the back of my bike. My bike was a big part of my day to day life.
Where we live now, I have to say, it is not very bike friendly for little kids and, despite still having my baby seat on the back of my bike, it became more challenging to take 3 boys out for a ride. Now that they are getting older, we are starting to re-discover biking: for the boys, it represents freedom and being able to explore the neighbourhood with their friends. For us (the parents), it is a fun way to exercise.
Last summer, Andreas started to take Oliver out to learn how to bike and now he is ready to ride to school... with parental accompaniment... it still is not the best biking neighbourhood but that is another story. Anyway, this morning, I biked in to school with Oliver. He absolutely loves it and is so proud to put his bike helmet on his hook outside his classroom. Nicklas bikes with us... but way ahead... and with his lunch box in my still-present baby seat. Alexander has, for years, used his bike to get to his high school. It always means that he can play football with his friends after school and not have to rush to catch the bus.
So nice to get back to biking with kids....

Happy Friday to you all xox

Then..... Alexander in his seat of honour

And now...... The boys' own bikes

A night in Toronto

I am in Toronto (again) for just one night. I have a very early meeting tomorrow morning for work and then will head back to Montreal in the late afternoon. In the mean time, I have a big bed... all to myself (!) and I get to watch all the cheesy TV that I want ;) I also got to take a long bath without someone wanting to come in to use the toilet ;)

Now I am going to enjoy taking up the whole bed... Good night! xox