A1 first school trip for a week

A1 went on a volcano study trip with his classmates. They spent five days in Auvergne and came back this evening. We were happy to see him. It was the first time he was away alone.

Though he missed us, he enjoyed himself. The group stayed in a big house and A1 slept with 4 other friends in a big bedroom. They hiked each day and visited Vulcania on Wednesday. They usually did picnic during lunch time and in the evening, had their dinners at a nearby restaurant. He told me breakfast was buffet style and one morning, he had 3 yogurts. He enjoyed mealtimes and ate everything.

He mentioned the hikes were tiring and it was cold in the morning. Indeed, it was the start of spring but the temperature was low for the season. They visitied Puy de Dôme, Puy de la vache and Lac Pavin among others.

A1 had 20€ as pocket money and he spent half on the Saint Nectaire cheese. He must have stopped by this village. He also bought 2 notebooks with pens for himself and his brother. With not much left, he gave 2€ to a friend who was short of cash. I was touched by his gesture.

The cheese was a good idea. Each time we go on holiday, I would buy food as gifts for family and friends. A1 takes after me. Tika loves Saint Nectaire but her daughter bought her a bracelet and a pen for herself. I told her I shall pass her a chunk of the cheese. :)

A1 and A2 were happy to see each other. They hugged once A1 alighted from the coach. 5 days not seeing my boy, I felt he had grown taller. His recital of his trip came with confident and self-assurance. He definitely has grown in these 5 days without us.

A1's OB

This is A1's faithful friend since he was 3 months old. A1 is 8 now and every night he still sleeps with OB, his best pal. He has other friends in bed but OB is the one he brings for stay over at the grandparents or when we go on vacation. 

In the morning, sometimes he brings OB down for breakfast and at night, he starts looking for OB when lights are out. He would rush downstairs to look for OB.

OB is small but such a faithful friend. A1 loves him a lot. It is not possible to replace him. At least for the moment.

 No present for guessing why he is called OB. His name is tattooed on his paw. ;)

Minion birthday party

My big boy is 8. He invited 8 friends including his brother for his birthday party last sunday. There was only one girl this time. Jeanne has tennis and football lessons with the boys and as I am a close friend with her mum, these three kids hang out togather very often. 

I made a chocolate marble cake and decorated it simply. I also made banana cupcakes topped with Minion sweets. 

As tradition calls for it, I made a pinata. It was the same design as the home made invitation cards. As one can see, I did not make a big effort on the pinata. One needs a big imagination to see that it is minion and not pac-man. Still, it did not bother the kids. They were eager to break it and get the sweets and goodies.

We did a few games and one of them was to tie a balloon on one's leg. Then, trying to burst the balloons of the others. It was very funny watching the kids running around trying to protect their balloons.

 We also did a stick the eye on the minion game. It was too easy for these kids.

The children ate cakes, sweets, played, ran, screamed etc. It was hard to get a group photo. Still, I managed to get them to wear their minion hats and had this funny photo taken. They looked so Minion, don't they?

A1 is one lucky boy. The weather was sunny and he had lots of fun with his friends.

The cross-country runner

Tim and family arrived on wed the 29th March. As I do not work on Wednesday, I was able to go to the airport to fetch them. That day, A1 had his first cross-country event organised among 4 schools. 

Seb and I knew that A1 is a fast runner. Last year, he participated in a race organised in the nearby town. He run 720m and clocked 3min 56sec. He was 10th among 50 kids his age. As it was his first race and we did not know the path, we told him not to run too fast and tired himself out before the end. He finished the race easily and could have done better had we not advised him to run slower. 

The evening before 29th March, Seb and I advised him not to run too fast again. I know, we are weird parents. We did not know the distance of the cross-country and did not want him to be out of breath before the finishing line. We told him to run behind the first boy and just before reaching the finishing line, sprint for it if he still has the energy to do it. For non-runners like us, that was the best advise we could give him.

On 29th March, I picked up the Soh family early in the morning. The other mothers who did not work on Wednesday joined the CE1 and CE2 classes for the event. Near noon, one mother sent me a photo of A1 running with a caption "He won". A1's teacher sent me a photo of my boy with a medal around his neck with a caption "Gold medal". I was taken by surprise. I would love to be there to cheer him on and enjoy his moment of glory. 

When I went to pick up the boys in school, the mothers told me A1 was far ahead in the race. No one could overtake him. No one was able to tell me the distance nor his timing. The teacher told me A1 was his usual modest and shy self despite his achievement.

At home, I asked A1 about his experience. He told me they walked from the finishing line to the starting point. Parents were dropped along the way to guide the kids during the run. A1 chose to walk behind so that when they reached the starting line and turned around, he would be at the front. This is one smart boy. He started with this little advantage and took our advise running behind 2 boys. However, he felt that he could go faster and overtook them easily. When he won, he felt stressed as all the mothers were praising him and his friends cheering. This boy is not used to having such attention on him. 

Seb and I are proud of him. I sent the photos to Seb as he was not in town. He was surprised like me and of course very happy for his son too. 

Less of that Christmas magic

A1 and I went to choose the Christmas tree on Saturday when A2 was having his tennis lesson. We chose the tallest tree in the 150-175cm range for 29€. The two boys decorated the tree and I only helped to put the star at the top. They were really happy that Christmas is coming.

2 weeks ago, they each wrote a letter to Father Christmas. But alas, a 8 year old boy told A1 and his friend that the parents are the Father Christmas. A1 had his doubts but his friend and him were assured that Father Christmas exists because both of them had sent their letter to the same address.

Père Noël

1 Rue du Ciel étoilé

Pôle Nord

Note: La Poste (French postal service) takes care of letters addressed to Father Christmas. No stamp needed. We even get a reply from Father Christmas if our letters are sent out in time.

Yesterday, the canteen lady told us that during lunch, A1 had told a table of younger children that Father Christmas did not exist. I found a moment to be alone with him this evening and talked to him. He told me he believed a little that Father Christmas exists. I confirmed his doubt and he was surprised that we were the ones buying the presents. He asked if we went out on 24 Dec night to buy the presents. LOL. I told him that the presents were bought in advance and hidden in the garage.

I explained that a real Father Christmas existed a long time ago. Now, it is tradition for adults to fulfil Father Christmas' job in bringing joy to children. He is a big boy now to know this secret. I told him everyone in the family contributed to his presents. He took everything well. But he mentioned that it was no good to lie to children. That made me smile again. He had promised not to let the cat out of the bag for the younger children including his brother.

Then he went to get the money given by the Tooth Fairy. He wanted to pay me for the presents we bought them over the years. LOL again.

Gee. I am not sure how much he believes in the Tooth Fairy. But that is for another discussion. Christmas is just that little less magical. A2 is not stupid and he hangs out with A1's friends often. I wonder if he has doubts too.

Kapla joy

Boys still love playing with kapla, especially A1. He had the patience to make this tall tower. It was taller than me.

On another occasion, he made a castle wall at the entrance of his bedroom door. He managed to walk over it without any problem even in the dark.

As usual all these constructions last less than a week when the floor has to be cleared for the cleaning lady on monday. If I have to vacuum the rooms, I would try my best to avoid them. Not easy at all.

The Captain America birthday party

We celebrated A1's birthday on Saturday with his friends. There was a total of eight children. 

A1 chose the theme Captain America and we made a pinata togather out of cupboard.

We home made the invitation cards too. I cut and he pasted as he could not cut the circles well. I also made Captain America masks for the kids from felt. It was not difficult and as usual, I found template from internet.

Here was A1 posing for me while waiting for his friends to arrive.

As the weather was cloudy and windy, we had the party in the house. Seb organised the games. He took a big floor puzzle and hid the 24 pieces upstairs. The kids went in pairs to look for the puzzles and pieced them togather. They had a good time working togather as a team.

We then put the kids all in the guest room except one. He/She had to hide A1's favourite soft toy and the others had to look for it. Each kid took turn hiding it. When the kids came out of the room to look for the toy, they were running and shouting in excitement. 

We played other games like passing a ball in a circle with a kid outside the circle randomly shouting 'Patate'. The kid with the ball would be out of the game. This continued until all but one kid was left.
There was also a game on bursting the balloons by sitting on it. This created lots of laughter too.

When the grey clouds passed by, we quickly went to the garden to break the pinata. Everyone took turns and shared the goodies in the pinata.

At the table, the kids put on their masks and sang birthday songs in different languages. French, English, Chinese and Portuguese. I baked a chocolate tart and decorated it to make it look like the Captain America shield. There were strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and mashmallows. In the middle was a star shaped goat cheese. None of the kids wanted the cheese so I took it off and put it back in the fridge.

For once, A1 did not receive Lego or Playmobil. He had a 350 pieces puzzles and we completed it in 2 evenings. He also had a Frisbee ball, a few books, 2 board games, a transformer toy and an art and craft activity.

My boy was happy with his party. So were his friends as feedbacked by the mothers. This sunday, we would celebrate his birthday with the grandparents.

A1 turns 6

Few months ago when I asked A1 what he would like as his birthday party theme, he told me without hesitation that it would be Mickey Mouse. So, on saturday he had a Mickey Mouse birthday party with his friends.

I made Mickey Mouse birthday invitation cards and slipped the invitation paper into the pockets for ten children. I would like to keep the party small with 6 guests and A1 obliged by giving me just six names though he had many friends whom he played with in school. Seeing him carefully choosing the names of the six children, I relented and told him to just name who he wanted to have at his party. In the end 9 children turned up. 

 As I had left over black felt fabric from last year's party where I made pirate hats, I bought red felt and sewed 11 Mickey Mouse goodie bags. In the goodie bags, there was Mickey Mouse pencils (my brother gave me a few dozen last year), Mickey foldable fans or Mickey purses which I bought from Daiso in Singapore and sweets and bouncy ball and Mickey chocolates that I bought from our recent trip at Disneyland Paris.

This time round, I made a Mickey pinata from cardboard. Compared with the Green Globlin pinata, this pinata took less time to make. The kids were surprised to see plastic plates serving as Mickey's ears.

The night before, I made Mickey and Minnie sugar cookies. They turned out better and tasted better than the Mickey birthday cake I made.  

 On the day itself, my friend lent me her girl's Mickey and Minnie. I put the pair on the garden chairs to watch over the bowls of sweets and cherry tomates and cookies.

 For games, it was Seb who organised. We had team games and the children enjoyed themselves. With the good weather, they had fun just running around the garden.

  And again, my pinata was unbreakable though it was made of thin cardboard. We had a hard time breaking it. The children were happy with the sweets and goodies in it.

A1 received many presents as usual. When mothers asked me what A1 would like as presents, I checked with him. He replied 'I let you decide.' That is so A1. He is contented with any present. So I told the mothers to give him a surprise.

He got a small car, a Planes toy, a Captain America toy, a set of Sports UNO (waterproof), a LEGO camping car set which took him an hour to build by himself, a mini NERF gun, a cross bow etc. As we do not buy toy guns for our boys, A2 was excited with the NERF gun. A1 being a kind big brother offered the NERF gun to A2 while he played with the cross bow. We gave strict instructions to never point the weapons at people and animals. Handsome had already swallowed two out of the three NERF foam darts.  We had to buy a few more.

At the last thirty minutes, I took out balloons and twisted swords for the children to play. We also blew bubbles. One boy was chasing the bubbles that he run into the hedge and suffered a cut just below his eye. He was crying and covering his eye. It took a few minutes for the bleeding to stop. That was the stress of having so many children in the house.

After all the children left, while having dinner, A1 thanked me for the party. A2 added that I was the best of all mothers. I was delighted that the boys had a good day and appreciated our efforts. I shall gladly do this while it lasts. My colleague's daughter who was turning 18 asked her parents to leave her the house alone for her birthday party. My colleague had to plan an evening and night out with her husband to leave the house. That would be in a dozen year's time for me.

The age of reasoning

At 5 years old, our little boy is at the age of reasoning.

Here was what I overheard one morning over breakfast.
Translated into english. The dad went "You have to finish your breakfast. In order to grow up, you have to eat." A2 asked "Papa, are you still growing?" Dad went "Non, papa has stopped growing." "So why are you eating then?", questioned A1 innocently. That just made me laughed. Seb stammered back with something like he needed to eat to have energy for the day.
I have to give some backgound information on why Seb said that to A1 in the first place. A1 does not eat a lot for breakfast. He is contented to just drink a cup of milk. We have to constantly make him finish his bread, biscuits, cereals or cookies. He would prefer to eat fruits which we do give him sometimes. While A2 on the other hand, can finish his breakfast and that of his brother's if given a chance.

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And two days ago, while having dinner, Seb was putting fish on A1's plate. A1 asked 'Papa, you don't eat meat, right?' The boys are aware of this since a while but I guess the idea is not encasted in their minds. The dad replied 'Yes, I don't want to eat animals because I don't think it is good to kill animals.' 'Then why (did) you give me meat?', asked A1. Oops. We were at a sticky situation again. We explained to him that he needed meat for its proteins and vitamins to grow. And that he could make his own choice when he would be older if he wants to eat meat.

Seb and I discussed and realised that we have to be careful with what we say to our boys. They are no longer babies and can put things togather through logical thinking. OK, for the moment it is just A1. Still, we must not lie to our children.

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Something else I remembered. A few weeks ago, I was driving with A1 to Paris to meet up with friends. A1 said he learnt from school that there were two kind of eggs. If the cock gives the hen a seed, the egg will hatch and a chick will be born. I kept up the conversation and said: 'You know, your father gave me something to make you just like the cock.' He asked if it was a seed. I told him no and gave him the name. 'Where did he put it?' came his next question. By which, I quickly changed the subject: 'Let's see if there is any aeroplane in the sky.' He looked up as we were on the highway passing by the Orly airport. Then he went back to the topic and asked 'Why always boys you make?' I laughed out loud and told him we did not choose. It was a 50% chance. Well, he did not understand that. I told him he would understand when he would be older.

I hope to note down all these little innocent questions he asked. For a start, putting these in this post would help me to remember in later years how sweet and naive my 5 year old boy was.

New school bag

A1 is going to the grand section in Septembre. As he would be bringing school work home, he would need a bigger school bag to hold the A4 size folders.

I looked up on the book Seb gave me and decided to make him a cartable. I bought faux leather and cloth and bag accessories and sewed my way through three nights. Clocked up a total of nine hours and presented to my son his new school bag.

Though A1 asked for a bag with rainbows or planes, I made him one with submarines because I thought the prints suit him a lot. I showed the bag to uncle Tim and he said it was rainbow submarines. I think that impressed A1.

A1 loves it. I was happy. I realise that the shoulder straps are a bit wide for his little shoulders. Hoping he would grow broader in the months to come. 

It was not easy sewing this bag. I had to undo some stitches due to mistakes and if one look really carefully, one can see tiny needle holes at the back.This is only a difficulty level one bag.

I planned to make a bag for A2 and chose a difficulty level two bag. I shall post it soon. I just finished it yesterday after three working nights.

The pirate theme birthday party

The big day arrived. Yesterday, we celebrated A1's 5th birthday with his friends. My brother the balloon master arrived from Singapore the day before. He made wonderful balloons for the children.

A1 had a parrot perched on his shoulder. He also had a sword and a belt to keep his sword.

 Thank God for the fine weather. We had the party in the garden. For the decorations, we had red and black balloons with pirate flags banner.

Food wise, I made a chocolate cake with the number 5 mould. My sister in law decorated it beautifully. I also made pirate cookies. We decorated bananas to look like pirates. There was tomatoes and comté with pirate sails. Pop corns on pirate cupcake stand and lots of sweets. I found pirate theme candles and put five on the cake.

 

I made pirate hats out of black felt. Here is the site where I got the idea. It was simple and the children loved their hats.

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2012/01/a-felt-pirate-hat.html

 

The dozen of children arrived at 3pm and we had many games to keep them entertained. There were "walk the plank"; sticking the eye patch on the parrot; 123 Soleil; mini treasure hunt; throwing a bean bag from a distance into a circle drawn on the ground; drawing on the floor with chalks among other games. Still each game did not take long and we were running out of ideas at times.

 

For prizes, we had pirate coins, mini puzzles, sharks, eye patches, erasers, telescopes, pirate rings. Most of the prizes were brought from Singapore.

 

My brother made more balloons swords and the kids had fun running and fighting in the garden. The only peaceful moment was when they were all seated and eating the cake.

 

 

A1 was a lucky boy. His friends brought him nice presents. Mostly Playmobil.

At 6pm, the parents came to bring their tired children home. The 3 hours was long for us. Though we were 7 adults, it was still tiring for us. Seb was the MC of that day. My brother made balloons and played with the kids. My sister in law and I did the logistics. My friend Denise helped to take photos. My friend Anca helped out and mostly showed the kids where the toilet was and even helped three children with their big business.

It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Made my efforts worthwhile.

 For A2's birthday, we had decided to keep it shorter. 2.5hours is max. We would welcome all help we could gather. Just hoping the weather would be as fine come September.

Birthday invitation cards

A1 is turning five in April. For the first time, he is inviting his friends from school to his birthday. As A1 and A2 are in the same class, they are both invited each time to a classmate's birthday party. They attended one just two weeks ago. In another two weeks time, they have another birthday party to go to. Lucky boys.

I asked A1 who he wanted to invite and what theme he wanted. After much suggestions from me, he decided to have a pirate theme. He gave me 8 names and I included my neighbour's children and a friend's son. Seb and I togather with my brother and his wife should be able to manage a dozen of young children.

I wanted to send out the invitation cards fast as the date was set on the Saturday right after school holiday. As I did not have time to go shop for pirate theme invitation cards, I searched on internet and made my own cards.

They were simple to make. I chose the text in french from internet and pasted them in a Word document. I printed out the invitations and rubbed hot tea bag over the papers to give them a browned look. I then crumpled them and let them dried. Once they were dried up, I burnt the edges of the paper with a candle. It was tedious work and I burnt half of a paper away. As a precaution, I did the burning over the sink. The end product had a treasure map kinda feel. (The flash from the camera lightened up the paper a lot). I rolled them up and tied them with stripes of red cloth. That was it.

I wrote the names on the ribbon and was surprised that A1 could recognise his friends' names. This morning, A1 brought them to school to give out to his friends. I hope most could make it to his party.

Next up is looking for ideas for the party to be a success. Internet helps a lot. I just found a site on making pirate hats out of black felt. I shall go to the fabric shop this weekend and get some felt. The challenge is to make a dozen of pirate hats in a month's time.

A1 can cycle like a big guy

At 4 years and 5 months old, he made a milestone in his life. He can cycle on two wheels.

On Saturday, we took off the training wheels. Just before dinner, Seb guided A1 on his bicycle. He practised for about 10minutes before he got upset and came for dinner. He was frustrated at not being able to balance himself and having his dad to remind him to step hard on the pedal to start.

 

The next day, Seb brought the boys to the park and removed the training wheels there. 20mins later, he called to say that A1 did it. He can cycle on his own, going straight and making a U-turn. I quickly took the camera and went to join them.

 

I was thrilled to see my boy pedalling away. He can balance himself so well. Seb told me once A1 found his confidence, he was off at lightning speed.

Then came A2 asking to do the same as his brother. We told him he was too young. He just turned 3. I was only expecting A1 to cycle on two wheels next year. I am delighted that he did it earlier. I think the balance bicycle prepared him for this big milestone.

Another bag for A1

For my birthday, Seb gave me a book on sewing bags for children and adults. It was mainly bag patterns for school children and teenagers.

 

I was determined to do a bag from this book before I start work tomorrow. Out of the 25 bags pattern, I decided to make a sling bag for A1.

 

Here is the end product. The author suggested using leather for the whale but in the fabric shop I went to, it sold leather or fake leather at a minimum cut of 50cm by 100cm. That was way too much. In Singapore, I bought some felt materials from Daiso (a $2 shop). So I used felt instead.

 

This is the back view of the bag with a pocket. 

 The inside of the zipped bag is red. It matches the handles.

I showed A1 and he was happy. He will bring it to school tomorrow. He told me not to do him any more bags as he had enough. He is reasonable. He has a backpack and this hand made bag and he felt he had enough. Few months back, I made him a messager bag but we left it in Singapore.

When A2 saw the bag and the book, he pointed to the bag on the cover and said 'This one is for A1. Me, I want this one.' He was referring to the other bag on the cover. I tried to convince him to pick another design. But he insisted on that. I guess I shall have to make that rocket bag though I do not think it is practical for A2. I have to go back to the fabric shop to get a little yellow fabric. With me starting work, A2's bag will not be done any time soon.

I will post it when it is completed.

Father's day gift

After mother's day comes father's day. A1 made this pens holder at school. Seb loves it and it is now sitting on the computer desk. Right beside me while I type away.

The gifts for both mother's and father's days' are made from recycled materials. This pens holder is a yogurt pot sitting on a cut out calendar board and decorated with used coffee capsules.

Come September, A2 will go to school. He will be in the same class as A1 as the class is made of small section and middle section. A1 will be promoted to the middle section. I wonder will I receive the same presents from the boys since they will have the same teacher. We shall see that in a year's time.