Scenes from a birthday!

Sylvie is now three years old!  Sylvie's birthday has been a much anticipated event in our household for the past month. She has been enthusiastically working on holding up three fingers--instead of two--to show how old she is, and fortunately, her birthday didn't disappoint!  (I was worried that the actual day was going to be somewhat of let down, given how much it has been built up, but no problem there!)
We kept it simple...a small family gathering with Joc, Amine, Iman, Bibi, Mimi and Pepere.  The kids, as usual, had a blast together.  Never a dull moment with the three of them together.

 Here's Sylvie's massive birthday cake.  It was yummy, but I think we'll be eating it for the next couple weeks.

 Henri, after a little chocolate cake, as well.

 Some present opening.

 Iman was right there, to coach and supervise.

 Sylvie, enjoying her musical birthday card.

 Bibi, enjoying Sylvie's new lap harp.

And finally, Sylvie and Henri adore the new play kitchen Joc, Amine and the cousins got for her.  Here she is, calling Mimi on the kitchen phone, to tell her all about Henri's ear infection.

A little Christmas decorating

Sylvie and Henri are both home today...Sylvie had a fever yesterday and needed to be picked up from school mid-morning.  She's still a bit sick, but is on the mend.
Also, I had a doctor appointment set up anyway for Henri yesterday afternoon, and came to find out he still has an ear infection and is now on his third round of antibiotics in a month and a half.  Poor guy. 
So, what better pre-Christmas activity to do when the kids are under the weather, it's too cold to go out and while Henri is napping than to build a gingerbread house with Sylvie!
We picked up a pre-made house out at Wilson Farms in Lexington last week when we went to get our Christmas tree, and I've been looking for a good egg-free royal icing recipe that I could use with Sylvie.  I found one that seems to be working so far.  (Just powdered sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and water).  We'll see when we put the roof on!  I think the part Sylvie enjoyed the most was licking the spoon.  Hopefully it will all stay together, and then we can decorate it a bit more. 
Until then, here are pictures of our work in progress.

Henri Crawling

Henri started doing very short micro crawls Tuesday morning. By Wednesday night, he was going short distances and this weekend he's moving between rooms. It's amazing how you wait for the slightest indication of these major milestone, but once they reach the tipping point (check out the book) it's all downhill.

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More pictures from Sylvie's classroom

A few weeks ago, we had our first parent-teacher conference with Sylvie's teachers, Debbie and Jana.  Aside from hearing that Sylvie is absolutely loving the Green Room, as her classroom is called, we also received a picture CD from them to take home with us.  Such a great idea.
So, since our own camera battery died a couple weeks ago--and who knows where on earth the charger is for it among our many boxes in the basement--I'll use these pictures to do a post.  We also have her class picture from picture day, but again, due to technical difficulties (a.k.a. not knowing where the cord is for our printer/scanner) I haven't been able to put it on here. 
Here you go!  Sorry to slam you all with so many photos, but there were dozens and dozens of pictures to choose from.
On another, unrelated note, Henri started crawling last night!  Yay for Henri!

A Happy Halloween Weekend

In addition to it being a festive holiday weekend, we also had the added bonus of having some visitors come to town...my mom and my sister, Amy.  They came up on Saturday and stayed for the day before heading back to my sister's house in CT. 

Earlier that day, Sylvie and Henri had some QT in Henri's crib.  The first picture is a bit blurry, but I thought I'd include it anyway.

 

A little artistic photography.

 Here are pics from my mom and sister's visit.

On Sunday, we visited the family in Roslindale, where the kids (young and old) had fun playing in the leaves, and later, dressing up in costume.

Iman and her fairy dance.

Trick-or-treating!