When I asked one one Leo's teachers today how his day was she smiled and said "impecable." She also said "il est vraiment adorable ton garcon". Leo's explanation of the day went something like this. "I had a really good day, we went to the park two times, the park with the blue slides that start together and then go different ways."

While I was kid free today I decided to try using my bike to get around and do my errands. It went great - I sailed home from the Carrefour in a fraction of the time it takes me to walk and then I got all kinds of little errands taken care of on two wheels. I still have plenty on my to do list but after just one day solo I feel great about how much I managed to get chipped away.

Leo and I just had a lovely little impromptu lesson on the alphabet. He wanted me to write the recipe for pizza and then we looked for some of our favorite letters and circled them. This is the first time he's asked me to do anything that involved writing and letters with him. Clara was all over this stuff at his age but I'm excited to see him showing interest all on his own.

Before hitting the road this morning

First day of school, first day of school!

Leo went to the Carrefour des Grandes Soleils today for the first time. As expected, he waltzed in, popped his apple in the communal collation basket, stuck his bôite a lunch in the fridge and took off to play. He's been part of the preschool class for years really but now he officially belongs there. When Clara was in the 3-5 year old class Leo couldn't wait to get in there. Last year he got to join in once a month while I had board meetings but now this year, he has finally got a hook with his name on it :) Funnily enough, he is not the only Leo in the group of 10, this year there are two hooks with Léo written underneath them.

The only possible negative of Leo's first day of preschool was that I was cheated out of my "hi Mommy hug" at the end of the day. I ended up running into Leo's class (well, what was left of them at the end of the first day) on Mount Royal as I was heading back to pick him up. Instead I got a smile and a "Mama!!!"as he noticed I was waiting for them as they crossed the street toward me. I did get to hold the tail of the serpant as we made our way back to the Carrefour, perhaps that made up for my missed hug and kiss.

While Leo and I were walking back to the Carrefour and then biking home, Clara and Bérénice came home together. They had a snack and Clara did all her homework by the time Leo and I arrived. I'm thrilled with this arrangement!

My big boy

I guess it is officially official. Summer is over.

Labour day has well and truly passed and today was the first of (likely many) gray and rainy days. Luckily, in our house rainy days mean a bright yellow slicker and wellies for Leo and a pink plaid raincoat (with boring black wellies) for Clara. They look good out there puddle jumping!

I feel like I have to do some sort of a Summer roundup post because, really, we did SO much this Summer and I only managed to document a fraction of it all in the blog. I didn't even do that great a job of picture taking. I blame it on my rechargeable battery issues.

So, in short, this is what I did on my Summer vacation:

• Visited Auntie Dorothy in Toronto for 10 days
• Saw Bran Van 3000 with Marc at the Jazz festival and took the kids to la Petite Ecole du Jazz as is our tradition.
  
• Saw Jennifer Gasoi (children's singer) at an outdoor concert
  
• Spent a long weekend in Boston with Jon and Erin
• Took the kids to Soccer on Mondays (when it wasn't raining and we were in town)
  
• Went camping at La Minerve
• Did a house exchange in the Thousand Island region of NY State for 5 days
• Swam at Piscine Levesque several afternoons with the kids
  
• Went up the Olympic Tower (not that exciting but it was free!)
  
• Did a house exchange in the Adirondacks for 4 days
• La Ronde with Karen and the kids
  
• Spent a day at Plage Jean Drapeau
  
• Did an overnighter in Bromont with most of the family at Labour Day
• Many, many park dates with various friends
  

Grand Papa Marcel came and spent a day with us and brought along his new toy - a video camera! We spent a lovely afternoon on Mount Royal and this is what Marcel put together when he got home.

Falling and squealing at the Brome fair - they loved it!