Flowers

It is first of May soon. As with French tradition, we give a brin of lily of the valley on this day as a good luck symbol for the rest of the year. My friend told me there were lily of the valley growing in the forest nearby so I asked her to show me. We went this morning and she showed me where they were. It was not a trail that we usually took when walking the dog. It was a pleasant walk catching up with my friend and I managed to get a brunch of these delicate flowers. I had given some of the flowers to three neighbours.

In return, a neighbour gave me a brunch of lilac freshly cut from her trees. They smelled so good. 

Not so long ago, the same friend told me that at another forest which was about 5 mins drive from home, there were daffodil. On a sunday when visiting the boys' grandparents, I told the boys that we were getting flowers for grandmother. I directed Seb to the place and when we reached, I asked the boys to get off the car to join me to pick flowers. A1 replied 'I thought we were going to the florist. No, I do not want to go pick the flowers.' I asked A2 and though he usually followed his brother's decision, he was kind enough to come pick flowers with me. That was sweet of him.

One advantage of living in the country side is having free flowers. Spring is here and the forest is green once again. A really lovely sight. That is another advantage.

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.

Happy Easter Sunday

It's Easter Sunday today. It is funny to watch my two boys looking for eggs while the older cousins watched and helped. The cousins were the one who hid the eggs. Only a few years back, it was the adults hiding the eggs for the children. Kids do grow up fast. 

We were blessed with lovely weather. The sky was blue.

Among the chocolate eggs were a few beautifully crafted chocolates. Of course, they were table center pieces and not hidden for the boys to find. Such a delight to the eyes that I do not bare to eat it.

There were about a hundred chocolates in total. As usual, the harvest was shared among the four boys. Here is the basket full of chocolates for A1 and A2. To be taken with moderation, of course.