Amélie's 5th birthday

Amélie turned 5 last weekend! This was a time for the parents to remember all her birthdays before that, so many memories on this blog already - see her first, second, third and fourth birthdays in Bloomington!

The morning of her 5th birthday started with gifts from mom and dad:


We played during the day with her new playmobile enchanted fountain thingy:


For her party, we went to All Fired Up, a ceramic painting studio. The kids painted ceramic figurines (choices included a dog, a mermaid or a transformer), they really got into it and the parents could just get to know each other and chat in the mean time. Amélie was wearing a princess dress (thanks Mutti Mutti), and loved her rose decorated cake, as well as the big balloons that were attached to her chair:





One of the balloons is a singing balloon, that starts the 'Happy Birthday' song every time you tap it, cute for the first 5 times, really interesting after that... The person who invented that balloon must not be a parent :)...



Overall a great birthday with new friends in a new city!

January 2011

OK OK many excuses I could give you for this long silence, but instead, I will use that time to share some recent pix from our new life in DC!

Amélie's transition to school is a rough one, she misses her friends, teachers, and the freedom of a developmental curriculum where the child is the curriculum! Instead her parents are 'making' her go through a Montessori rigorous program with kids she doesn't know and half day is in French! It's taking time for her to adapt, with tantrums, meltdowns, and other pre-schooler supplications during our drop off routine.

Fortunately, after she is in school, she is totally fine, collaborates well with other kids, and takes part in the activities offered... So we are feeling our way for now, finding a balance between assuring her that we understand how hard this is for her, and helping her understand that this new school is a great prep for kindergarten, that she will make new friends, etc... Work in progress!

Here are a few of our recent activities in and beyond school:

We bought a new stroller - Amélie's school is about a 30 min walk from our house, still too long for her, but with this new stroller, it's a breeze for both of us:


Amélie and I had a blast making a snowman post-snow/ice storm - The only problem was to try and break the ice, which explains the small size of our 'oeuvre':


Amélie is helping more and more around the house, one of her favorite things to help out with is cooking:


She also like to write on the computer, and imitates how I type too (movie forthcoming):