The specialists at Arc-en-Ciel (that means the gym teacher, music teacher and art teacher) organized and coordinated an end of year spectacle with the students that knocked our socks off! It was Cirque de Soliel-esque with music, song, acrobatics and dancing.

As always, Clara the performer enjoyed her time in the spotlight but she did gave me permission to tell the truth about my favorite part of the show "you don't have to say my part was your favourite mama, tell me the truth okay?" To be honest, I can't even pick just one act that was my favorite; the gumboot dance was excellent, the drumming on recycling boxes was fun, the music made by tapping different lengths of plastic tubing was funny, and Clara's class playing xylophones and singing Les Chansons Comique was painfully cute. All the kids had their faces painted to be insect like creatures and they came to school dressed in mono-tone colours. Clara was a little sauterelle, a grasshopper.

Why today was exciting...



Two unrelated events sure shook up our street today. First, this morning a fire alarm was tripped in our building (on of the other condos) and three fire trucks came screaming to a halt at our front door; there were firemen with axes, with extinguishers, and walkie-talkies. It was all very exciting and it made Leo and I late for our park date with Stephanie, Mathieu and Gabriel. Then in the evening, just after I'd tucked the kids in to bed I went outside to toss the garbage on the curb and I was faced with a huge chunck of tree laying across the entire street! All the neighbors were out milling around and according to them it had just snapped off the tree. Earlier in the day it had been stormy and there had been some thunder and lightening but apparently whenthe giant branch went down it was not due to particularly bad weather. As far as I could tell the only casualty was a little Mazda 5 who happened to be parked in the wrong spot on the wrong day. Bad luck for someone :(

No Summer move for us. Summer vacation plans here I come. Wohoo!!!! What a ride, we are feeling pretty good about the process though. Sure learned a lot.

On Saturday we decided to back out of our contract for the condo. After the inspection we found a few problems that we were unaware of when we made our offer and we felt that the price was no longer fair. After discussing it with Jim and Jayne (current ancestral home owners) we decided we'd need to do about $20,000 of work to be able to use the space as we'd originally envisiioned. We told our agent yesterday (Sunday) that we'd still be interested in the property if the seller would drop her price by that much. We expected to be turned down cold but... we still haven't heard back!!! So, still playing the waiting game. If it is meant to be ours it will happen, that is still my feeling, same as when we started this insane journey.

Condo purchase update:
Natasha has brought it to my attention that I've left you in suspense long enough. The counter-counter offer was accepted! We are on to phase two of the adventure which is to have the building inspected. Since we are talking about a 125 year old building we think it is pretty important to have it carefully looked over before we make our final decision to buy. I'm completely freaked out by the amount of work that is loming over our head if this all goes through as planned. We've got to get this place sell ready, pack up 8 years worth of stuff and move it 2 blocks away!!! Seems like an aweful lot of effort but I know it will be worth it in the end.

We are lucky. Thanks to McGill's department of theology we have a whole new branch on our family tree. Cathy and Dad, or Papa T as he is better known on this blog, met at McGill while they were pursuing their second (or maybe third) careers. On Saturday we were invited to watch Cathy become an ordained minister of the United Church. Clara and Leo were thrilled to participate in the ceremony by leading Cathy out of the service carrying a pole with flowing ribbons. It was a glorious day and there were smiles abound :)

Here is a little slide show of the coldest, wettest family camping trip we've undertaken. At least we were in great company, 24 other families from Clara's school joined in on the insanity :) In the end, only a camp chair and Leo's new raincoat sustained permanent damage, both flew into the fire in a rare dry (but windy) moment!

No news on the condo front, they countered our offer and we've now countered their counter. It is complicated and stressful but Marc and I are remaining calm and hopeful. Clara and Leo sort of know what is going on, Leo expressed concern that we'd be leaving all of our stuff here if we move. He's much happier now knowing that he'll be sleeping in his bed no matter where we live!