Month: January 2025

A quick jaunt over to the Vars cemetery for some afternoon of fun.  Vero commented that she was surprised none of the kids put up too much of a fuss when we got there.  I think she’s scarred from the first skate of the year where Ezra just laid there and cried the entire time!

At the end of our trek Ezra and I took the main path out and Sierra and Maman took another.  It was a race to the car!  There was much laughter at the end when we were trying to figure out who the winner was.  Was it the team who touched the car first?  Was it the team who entered the car first?  I had to throw my snowshoes into the car for Ezra and I to win but Sierra and Maman say that doesn’t count. Who knows who won?

Ezra and I know who won, that’s who.

The teachers at school mentioned that Ezra needs more snacks in his lunchbox.  This was getting a little crazy because he was already taking 7-8 snacks.  We went all out one day and packed ten snacks and the boy ate them all!  The teachers figure he’s in the middle of a growth spurt!

Saturdays and Sundays around our house are typically slow moving.

7AM – We hear the pitter patter of Ezra jumping out of bed and waking up his sister.  I find this hilarious because they don’t technically do things together at 7am.  One of them watches YouTube kids on the TV and the other has an iPad in hand watching YouTube kids.  Once in awhile you can hear them talking.  “Look at that craft they are making!  OOoh.”

9AM – Generally this is when Vero or I roll out of bed to see what’s going on.  Usually there are Cheerios surrounding Ezra to the point where I wonder how many actually made it into his mouth!

10AM – Maman usually makes a nice breakfast like french toast or oeuf dans le trou.

At minimum we are doing laundry during the weekend and some Saturdays we clean up the house.  Vero supposedly grew up like this so she’s trying to get us to do the same thing.  At least she doesn’t force us to do it if we have other plans!

It was a mix of rain and snow yesterday so we found a time around 3PM to venture outside and build a fortress wall near the road.  The plan was for me to walk along the road and the kids would throw snowballs at me.  They did this last year and wanted to continue the tradition.

Unfortunately the fort wall collapsed about 30 minutes into building it so the kids decided to build snow thrones with cup holders in it instead.

I’m not entirely sure how I missed out on the Bluey craze when it first came out, but I did.

It wasn’t until Kindergarten that Ezra came home and mentioned watching something called Bluey at school.  It is rare for Ezra’s eyes to light up talking about school but when he mentioned Bluey, he LOVED talking about it.

Turns out Bluey is an Australian children’s show (which Ezra watches in French at school and that’s how he likes to watch it at home) and it is fun to watch.

The other day I saw a Bluey box set with a poster included at Costco so I picked it up for him.  This is his first poster on the wall hung up with scotch tape.  I used to have a Mandalorian framed poster but that was probably more my choice than his!  He loves looking at this poster.

There are also photos of the family up on the wall.  A few years ago I wanted to update the family photos in the picture frames in the kids rooms but they kids wanted more photos than the frames could accommodate so if you walk into the kids rooms nowadays you see a bunch of 4x6s taped up to the walls.

Vero received this little garden for Christmas.  I don’t know much about it but supposedly it can grow small items (herbs, lettuce) inside the house.  We look forward to its progress!

I had a good laugh when I received this over text message the other night!  I guess Sierra is getting pretty good at making her own memes and sending them to me?

We were playing a card game called Pair Them Up with involves pairing up cards with socks on them.

I believe I ended up winning four games in a row and then it was bedtime.  She couldn’t believe I kept winning and then I received this picture on my phone and laughed.

I did go to her and explain that I have witnessed her legitimately beat me in a few games in my life, the first being 7 Wonders Duel which really surprised me since it’s a fairly strategic game that I still hadn’t wrapped my head around.

After that day I decided to not let her win anymore and I explained that to her.  At 8 years old, she has proven to me that she doesn’t need me to let her win anymore but I did say that if she wanted me to let her win games again, I could certainly do that.  But she declined the offer and went to bed still upset that she wasn’t winning any games.

Life is rough!

I should start letting her win regardless because she’s the only one in the house that proactively comes to me and says “Do you want to play a game?”  It’s my favourite thing to hear in the house!

I read quite a bit in my 20s because I was taking the bus to work every day.  Nowadays I don’t read a lot.  That doesn’t stop me from building up my library and Vero comments on it once in awhile.  “Do you even READ any of these books?”

I decided to start chipping away at the backlog of books.

Patrick Stewart’s autobiography kept my interest.  He had a way of writing that kept me engaged and coming back for more.  50% of the book is about his life in theatre work, 20% is about Star Trek/X-Men stuff.

Some stories that really caught my interest:

– He grew up quite poor.  For bath nights once a week, him and his brother would haul the bathtub up from the basement, set it by the fireplace and when the bath night was done his brother would have to bring up a rubber hose from the basement and siphon the water out of the bathtub which was disgusting.

– One time Patrick Stewart was at a restaurant and in walks Paul McCartney with Ringo Starr.  He had met Paul before but not Ringo.  They end up chatting together and at one point Paul says “Hey!  We have Sir Patrick, Sir Paul and Sir Ringo!  We are the knights of the round table!”

All in all, an entertaining read, especially if you have a bit of interest in how life was over in England and life as an actor.

A few years ago Sierra tried snowboarding with Maman at the Rigaud ski hill but fell out of love with it.

This year Vero managed to convince her to try a ski lesson that they both attended together.

She seemed to enjoy the event.  She said the best part was riding the chairlift and the food afterwards!

That same day Ezra and I decided to visit Uncle Rob and we had fun playing with throwing the ball and trying tricks with Kaya and Uncle Rob also treated us to McDonald’s to Ezra’s (and my) enjoyment.

Friday night had Sierra and Vero show up at the Vars rink.  They were out for a few hours so they must have had some fun with friends!  Ezra didn’t want to go.  Vero had a hard time with him on the rink the week before (he just lied there and complained) so we will ease him into skating.

The kids made a fortress on the living room couch.  The issue I had with it after a few days is that I had nowhere to sit!

I ended up having to teach them a new word to add to their vocabulary.

Later that night Sierra was playing Super Mario Maker 2 and we realized there were world records to beat at how fast you can beat a level.  Maman beat it and they wanted a photo to document the moment.