Quentin’s Vernissage

 

On Friday, Quentin had his vernissage for school. Every spring, for the last 8 years, I’ve had a vernissage at our daycare. Each kid has made a painting that has taken a few weeks to make (in stages – see pictures below). I was blown away with Quentin’s painting this year – it’s even got a picture of Quentin climbing to the moon! His painting is based on an Eric Carle book called Papa Please Get the Moon for Me. I’ve got a little artist on my hands. I can’t wait to find a place to hang this up on the wall!

 

Mr. Quentin

 

Ah… Mr. Quentin. My baby. Our source of entertainment. He’s quite the comedian. At almost 3.5 years old, he truly keeps life interesting, eating dinner with his backpack on (as he cannot take it off), or watching Caillou on the computer, through binoculars.

 

He plays very nicely by himself (on the benches at Sean’s baseball practice, while Mack runs around with a classmate of his, whose brother is on Sean’s ball team, while Mommy knits). He comes up with stories beyond my imagination, for the toys he brings with him to the ball park. (In his backpack of course). Quentin recently had a vernissage at daycare, and I got the most beautiful piece of artwork from him. I need to find a place on the wall to hang his art.

 

About a month ago, I traveled to Toronto with Quentin, a good friend & her daughter who is in Quentin’s class at daycare. While visiting a friend in Toronto, Quentin fell in love with the superhero cape that belong to my friend’s son. He was so cute in it, that my friend made some capes for each of my boys. (Thanks again Jen!)

 

Quentin is just a cutie. Always making us laugh.

 

I just want to eat him up! He’s talking up a storm now, far from from his speech delay, which is now the past. Some words we are still working on, but he’s slowly but surely getting them. He uses full sentences (though not always in the right tense, but that’s ok!) and when I used to say “I wish he would talk already”, now I say “does he ever stop talking?” LOL!

I cannot believe my baby will be 4 this year. FOUR! Where on earth does time go?

Cameo Scarves

I decided to make the teachers Christmas gifts this year. I was going to be ambitious and make all 16 gifts that I was giving out, however, in the end I only ended up making 6 scarves and the other 10 gifts got a store bought gift, with some chocolates. I ended up running out of time, which is why I didn’t end up making all 16 of them, otherwise I would have.

The Cameo Scarf is a very fun & easy pattern on the back of the ball band. It’s not listed on Ravelry, but it’s by Estelle and available free as a PDF on their website. Above left is Quentin’s daycare coordinator, Fatiha & on the right is Quentin’s teacher Karlene.

It’s knit up using 10 mm needles and it took me an hour each scarf (I timed it out of sheer curiosity). Above left is Quentin’s teacher Stella and above right is Quentin’s teacher Tina.

It’s a great project to make for a gift and I’ll probably make up a bunch more of these in the future. Above left is Mackenzie’s Kindergarten teacher Mme Françoise & on the right is Sean’s grade 1 teacher Mme Catherine.

The rest of the support staff that I gave gifts to (Bus driver, Elementary school office staff, lunch ladies, Sean & Mack’s after school daycare teachers/daycare staff), I got them an adorable picture frame snow globe (that resembles this one) with some chocolates. I also gave the teachers along with their scarf, a snow globe & chocolates. Everything was well received & I even got an email from a friend of mine, who is also a lunch mom at the school, that the snow globes were a huge hit. Brownie points well received.

What did you do for teachers/daycare Christmas gifts? Curious to hear about what you did!

Shake your bon bon

Got to daycare today to pick up Quentin and he was in a silly mood. His teacher told me he was doing this little dance all day (which made her think of when Mackenzie was in her class, as he used to do the same type of dance). I had to get it on video, it was just too adorable. Happy Tuesday!

Mackenzie’s Graduation!

Mackenzie graduated daycare today. So proud of him! It was touch & go if he would actually do the show today, as he came down with an ear infection this morning, but after getting some medication in him, he was good to go (after a little bit of compromising too). This video is 7 minutes and 46 seconds long, but it’s worth watching every minute/second. From someone who didn’t do the show last year and was in hysterics, he’s made a full circle in the last year. He’s got the moves, let me tell you! Enjoy! The video is too freakin’ cute! I am glad they changed it up a little bit from the dance Sean did last year at his grad.

School Pictures 2012

  

I finally received Mackenzie & Quentin’s school photos from this past fall. A few of them are super cute. I had to do some photoshoping after receiving the photos (but that’s a whole other story) but once I fixed them up (mainly exposure, and food on my son’s face – she couldn’t take a few minutes to clean up the photo in photoshop?), I’m super excited to get these printed for friends & family (and must update some frames in the house on the walls!) Quentin is so cute, he just needs to learn how to smile for the camera!

   

The middle picture of Mack, is so “him”. My little mister with attitude! But a shy/sensitive attitude. It’s so cute. Looks like he had fun with the props too!

 

The 2 above are just stunning! I wish I would have been able to sneak Sean in that day to get a photo of all 3 of them together. I’ll have to take the boys soon to Walmart to get a shot of all 3 of them together. I don’t own any backdrops, and our work-in-progress home isn’t the greatest scenery for a nice photoshoot.

Wishing all my readers a happy holidays!

My Little Graduate

  

I finally got Sean’s graduation photos back from the photographer last week. They are beyond adorable. I love them all. I was able to buy them all on CD, which I did, with a small package of 1 of the prints. They’re all so nice though, it was so hard to choose. I can’t believe my first born is going of to Kindergarten in the fall. Time sure does fly by. Especially when you’re having fun.

  

First Day

Quentin started daycare today. He went for just a few hours in the morning, and stayed for lunch. His teachers weren’t ready for him at nap time yet, so I picked him up just before the others went down for their nap. He took off running into the class when I dropped him off. Wanted nothing to do with me. THANKS QUENTIN!!! My baby starts daycare, and he’s totally independent. Actually, I think that made it SO much easier on me. Tomorrow he’ll go for just a little bit in the morning, as we have one of our last music classes in the late morning, which I don’t want him to miss. I’m hoping we can work up so that by the end of the week he’s napping at daycare too. I need him to be there all day by the end of the week, so that I don’t have to chase him around while I’m in Mackenzie’s classroom for his year end concert. (I can’t wait to see Mackenzie perform, it’s all he talks about!)

I forgot what bliss it is to run errands without a child in tow. I was able to take care of a few things this morning while Quentin was in daycare. Normally, I work from home, but I managed to finish up all today’s work last night while Jamie was at baseball, so I had time this morning to check off a few other items on my to do list.

Hopefully tomorrow goes as smoothly as today went. I’m also loving (for now, until Sean starts Kindergarten) this one stop drop off.

Apple Picking

Last week I went apple picking with Sean & Mackenzie & their classes.

My mom came with to help.

Did you know that you have to pull an apple upwards to remove it from the tree?

Thank goodness the apples were delicious, this field trip was expensive!

Sean had a good time picking the apples.

Mackenzie had fun putting the apples in the bag (that he made other people pick off the tree). This is Mack's first time apple picking - last year he wasn't old enough to go with daycare.

And he enjoying eating a few apples off the tree!

As did Sean!

And myself too - I think I had 3 right off the tree. We picked Ida Red this year, and they were beyond delicious. I have now 3 bags of apples, and I'll give one to my step-mother-in-law to bake with and the other 2... please give me some ideas, only so many apple cakes I can make (to freeze). I think I might try my hand at apple sauce too! But I need some other apple recipe ideas please! What are your faves?

It was a great morning, and we were so lucky. We made it back on the bus and just as we did, the rain came down and it started to pour! Talk about good timing... The fresh air was nice, and it was nice to be able to attend this field trip with the boys.

New School Year

Now that it's the beginning of the "new school year" at daycare, Sean has been in his Pre-K (yes! Pre-K - I'm slowly freaking out that he'll be off to elementary school in a year) class for almost a month now (he got moved early as there was a spot and he was the oldest kid in the class so he was the next to get moved), and Mack just switched from his class to the next class, I wanted to give all their teachers gifts for the "end of the school daycare year" as a thank you for the past year. (I also give the teachers birthday gifts and holiday gifts - because they are awesome and so good with my kids). Though, getting the gifts can cost a lot, so I try to be creative. I saw this idea online, and just had to make some for my kids teachers. I also only used the top flag from these 2. I love that she had a PDF already made - very easy to use & cut out for the straw.

I got cups in green at my local grocery store (on sale to boot!) and I bought about 9 different flavors of the drink packets. (Ice teas, etc). I divided up the flavors over 6 cups (Mack had 2 teachers, Sean had 3 and 1 for the Coordinator of the daycare) and got a matching green picture frame, and wrapped everything all up. I think it looked super cute - and I hope that the teachers like it. We gave them to them on Friday morning when I dropped the kids off in the morning. A little late (I wanted to give them on Wednesday as that was the technical last day of the school daycare year but I hadn't finished wrapping them up & writing out all the thank you cards on time.

What have you done for teachers? I'm always looking for new ideas. Please share!

Field Trip

On Friday Sean & I took a school bus with his class to visit the Montreal Biodome.

We had a great time.

Sean loves the penguins, just like I do. (My fave part!)

We had fun exploring & discovering new things.

It was a perfect day!

While we were in one of the rooms, Sean notices a bird standing on one leg and turns to me and says "Mommy, the bird has a broken leg." So I turned back to him and said "No Sean, his leg isn't broken, he's just standing on one leg, it's what some birds do". He looks at me and says "If the bird's legs aren't broken, and he can stand on both of them, can the man with the broken eyes see when he takes off his sunglasses?"

I.almost.peed.my.pants.of.laughter. (Because it was too cute).

You see, a long time ago, Sean was watching an episode of Sesame Street with Stevie Wonder. He turned to me and asked why he was wearing sunglasses indoors. I told him that Stevie Wonder was blind and he couldn't see so he wears sunglasses so people don't see his eyes. So, from that point on, when that episode would come on, he'd call Stevie Wonder, the man with the "broken" eyes.

Gosh, is he smart the way he thinks sometimes.