Weekend in Ottawa

Celebrating Patricia's birthday

Testing out a ski-doo at Winterlude

Boys on a 4-wheeler

Leo on skiis!

First time down was a bit scary but the second time down was FUN!

Clara mastering the snowplow

Successful lesson completed

Rideau Canal

Girls on skates

A day at Leo's school:

Valentine's morning program in Ica's class

Mini prof in the afternoon in Sieta's class.

Leo was the mini-prof at school for a whole week. This is a BIG deal in the life of this 5 year-old. He got to plan the afternoon activities for the entire week and invite special guests to visit. On Sunday night we made a plan for the week...
lundi: dance to a CD of my favorite songs.**
mardi: invite Papa T and Cathy and play games like 1,2,3 Soleil and Statue.
mercredi: bring comic books to show the class.
jeudi: bring a snack to share.
vendredi: invite Papa and Clara and have them read stories to the class.

**Leo's song list:
Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night - Black Eyes Peas
Waving Flag - -K'naan
Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
Pump up the Jam - The Lost Fingers
We all live in a Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

Presentation of 2nd grade project - Les souris

Presenting her research to Leo and Papa

Clara's presentation on mice was excellent, she knew her stuff and took the presentation very seriously. This is no surprise - she takes all of her school work verrry seriously, sometimes even a bit too seriously. She's a perfectionist and I dare say that is not going to change any time soon.

Apparently the tension in the classroom the day of the parent presentations was palpable. Annie, Clara's teacher confided to us that the kids had been bickering with each other all day which is very unlike their group. Sounds like all of the kids were feeling a certain amount of stress leading up to their big night. Well, they needn't have. They were all on top of their game and presented wonderful projects complete with bibliographies.

Did you know what a bibliography was when you were in grade two? I certainly didn't, but Clara explained it was to thank the author of the book she'd learned from and to prove that she didn't make anything up. Yup, that sounds about right.

Leo's love bugs

Why oh why did no one ever tell me about the existence of picture only comic books?

They are perfect for my 5 year-old non-reader who wants to read before bed like his big sister but finds it frustrating to look at picture books without being able to read the text.

Clara introduced us to Game Over which is apparently quite popular with the boys in 2nd grade. I'm not exactly what you'd call a fan but Marc, Leo and Clara poured over the copy we were giving away as a birthday gift just before Christmas. So, great mother and wife I am, I bought a copy and wrapped it up for my family to open on Christmas morning.

Leo has been looking though the book incessantly since December 25th so today I had the bright idea to ask the librarian if there were other comics that he would enjoy. It turns out there are two whole shelves of "première bandes dessinés" at the Plateau library and many of them have no text! I grabbed 5 for Leo and brought them home. He's been engrossed in Rêves de Robot since he walked in the door. This is going to be great, I wonder how long it will take him to blaze through the two shelves...