Amelia in Jungle Book

Amelia with her friend Amara

See a video here

Halloween 2014

Amelia has been counting the days until Halloween since school started...

Finally, a couple of weeks before Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch oto each choose one pumpkin. We went to Oxbow Farm, about one hour away. 
 

We got the best ones! 

 Amelia had decided a long time ago that she was going to be Elsa... She used the beautiful dress that she got from grandma Carolyn this summer, a inventive braid from mom, tiara, the the very important gloves so that she doesn't freeze all by accident.

Lillian, her best friend from preschool, was dressed as Anna. We got together the weekend before Halloween. Amelia had also invited several of her friends from her kindergarten class (all princesses).
 

FINALLY, it was Halloween!

Our very friendly ghosts.

Antoine was hesitant at putting his costume on, but really embraced it when he saw that there was candy involved and that this sister was there to hold his hand.
 

Olaf, and Elsa. 

First days

On Tuesday, Antoine started pre-school...

Everyone at West Campus Children Center loves him already. He's super excited to go to school every day (so far). Climbing is currently his favorite activity.

Then, on Wednesday, Amelia started kindergarten!!

 

She loves Salmon Bay Elementary School, and so do we. The short walk in the morning has been wonderful. It's great to be part of such a nice (and busy) community. Public school is a bit of a shock for all, but in a good way.

Then, tonight, we went to celebrate with a nice picnic at Golden Gardens, our local beach.  A great week!

Summer Camping

We went camping a couple of times in August - the weather in Seattle has been wonderful. We had a great time in the mountains. Antoine and Amelia love sleeping in the tent and hiking!

First we went to the North Cascades, where our friends Vivian & Heidi (and their parents Sasha and Jessica) met us for the second night.

Last weekend we went near Leavensworth, also in the Cascades, with a larger group of friends.

Too many pictures to share here, but the link below should bring you to an album with several good ones...

https://plus.google.com/photos/104886721151796732867/albums/6052112348736436241?authkey=CLX_w-nHuabQZA

self-portrait by Amelia & Antoine

Amelia graduates from preschool

San Diego, part 2

A few more pictures from our time in San Diego, at the end of April. 

Visiting the Star of India and other ships at the San Diego Maritime Museum - we had to leave after the submarine, because we spotted some pirates that made Amelia and Antoine fee uneasy...

But a hot chocolate really helped!

For most of our time down in San Diego, Melissa was at a conference while Luc and the kids played. We did go visit her once or twice, and found this cool slanted elevator at the conference center!

On another day, we went to Old Town and made some new friends...

... and Amelia never hesitated when they asked for volunteers for an impromptu dance competition! She got a free root beer float for showing her best moves in front of a large crowd (during the intermission of a Mexican traditional dancing competition).

It was hot, so we spend a lot of time in the hotel pool...

We celebrated the end of Melissa's conference with an amazing ice cream sandwich (2 homemade cookies and a scoop of ice cream - yum! Antoine and Amelia love Pacific Beach too now!!!)

Then spent a couple of days in La Jolla, playing on the beach near Scripps.

The kids couldn't stay still!

Love

San Diego

We spent a great week in San Diego. Bit Amelia got covered in seaweed at the beach!

And Antoine slept through the modern art exhibit. 

But maybe that was better. Amelia was intrigued but dismayed. 

Yes. That is a plane slowly flying over a city. 

Yes. It crashed.