Fall break

Two months have passed since I last told you about me and just like that we went from Summer to Fall.

Two months in 1st grade already and i am doing quite good. Sure I don't have to work too hard since the bulk of 1st grade is about reading and well, I read chapter books now, so I don't have much to learn in that area. I still find it not very appealing to write though. I have tons of ideas, my imagination is running on non-stop but putting it down on paper = painful. Not because I cannot spell but the process gets me tired before i even begin.
As for homework, that stuff is way too easy and I am taking ownership of it and doing it on my own. The prospect of staying at recess the next day to do it is also a good motivator I must say.

I have began taking judo classes. I ma not quite sure I am cut for any type of classes. I tried swim class, gymnastic class, basket ball class and could not wait for all those sessions to be done. I am already counting down the number of judo sessions left!
On the other hand, I am also doing a Lego creator class: now, sign me up for more of those because I love it!

Papa took me to a Lego Fest a few weeks ago and boy, that was fun. I just don't get why the Ps are not willing to buy me all the Legos in the World. I am sure trying to do more chores to pay for it on my own but at a rate of 10 cents for setting the table for dinner or making the dinner salads , I am not going to get any set any time soon.

This is week 8 of the school year which means that I am on VA-CA-TION! Ok, well when I am typing this it is actually the last day of my break. Saaaaad...

The weather was absolutely fantastic: take Summer weather with the colors of Fall and you have a pretty good idea of our weather this week. Although, if it had been for me, I would have spent my days inside playing games on the tablet, reading books, making Lego constructions and playing board games. But my Ps have this idea that the outdoors are good for me. Sure when they pry me out of the indoors, I do have fun out there but I still prefer games!

So here is a recap of my week

SUNDAY
We drove South to go see my baby sister Lilian. She is a month and a half and this was my first time seeing her. I usually can care less about babies but I was quite interested in knowing her. We spent 9 months in the same cozy place so we sure share a bond. OK, I do make a face on that one because I don't like posing for pictures.

I even got to hold her and although that felt weird, I was very gentle. But I quickly lost interest because her P's bought me a present: A Star Wars Angry Birds Jenga! How cool is that!
While Maman was cooing over Lilian I played with Lilian's dad with that cool game.

MONDAY
Maman began her cooking marathon during the week-end and cooked some more on Monday. But the weather being so nice, we put the bikes in and on the car and off we went to Willamette Park.

It was so warm I needed to refresh in the fountain and there was a super cool rainbow I tried to catch!

TUESDAY

If I don't get to go to OMSI during my breaks, it is not a real break. So of course, we went and as usual I had plenty of fun there just running around trying all kind of buttons and learning some Sciences along the way. I really like the bridge building station and I am beginning to understand the relationship between the number and width of trusses needed to make a solid bridge.

WEDNESDAY


Maman had to go to school ( yeap, she cannot help it, even during her break!) so she dropped me off at my friend's Juliette and we made crêpes for breakfast. YUM-MY!
After lunch Maman and I explored a nice park we have up the hill from our house and we played in the sun. I got plenty of exercise.

THURSDAY

Papa took some days off and to Bend we drove and relaxed in the hot sun in the afternoon.
I also found the game of RISK in a drawer of the house and even if it said for kids 10+, I still wanted a go at it. Oh, I loved that game. Getting territories and getting full control of continents was very much fun. I was good at strategies and, just like in Monopoly, took a lot of risks and it paid off.
Maman just wished that the game would not be about war but more about how many countries you are able to help along the way...

FRIDAY

Another beautiful day and after another long game of RISK, we took our bikes and rode the beautiful Shelvin Park trail. The only problem: it is slightly uphill the whole way so there was a burst of energy on my part for the first 10 minutes, followed by a lot of whining and a lot of "Are we there yet?" We still rode for an hour before heading back which required no pedaling at all from the adults and no whining on my part since it was easy peasy lemon squeezy!

At night, my friend Grant had an Halloween party at his school so I gladly joined in for the fun games and prizes that came with and I even got a tatoo.

SATURDAY

Papa took me to the parks in the morning so that Maman could work ( Pfff). We found this pirate park where you have to go a treasure hunt and that was pretty cool.

And after another lunch on the deck, we went for a 2 hour walk along the Deschutes River Trail. Great colors again.

We ended the day at a restaurant with our friends and I got to make my own pizza and have a chocolate chip cookie. There is no better end to a vacation than that right?

See you in a 7 to 8 weeks...

End of Summer...

It had to happen. It is the end of freedom and in a few more days it will be back to sch..., hum, schoo.. hum, I cannot say it.
But, it's in a few more days so let's talk about all the fun I had during the rest of Summer.

Papa took me camping to Wallowa Lake where we met Grandpa and Grandma. They were camping during the day with us and sleeping in a motel at night. I was so excited about going camping and it was as much fun as I thought it would be.
We had a great spot with view on the lake.

I did explore the lake... just a little bit, just to try to get my boat floating.

It did not quite work as I expected but the scenery was sure beautiful.

What I really, really wanted to do though was mini-golf! Yes, we traveled for 7 hours, we found a cool spot in the beautiful nature but what I wanted was mini-golf. So every body obliged.

But camp life was also great, especially when everybody is wither cooking, washing dishes or cutting wood and I am, well, I am chilling.

 

To be fair though, everybody was chilling. We worked on crossword puzzles,

We went for a hike...

And the bestest times were at night when the fire was going and I could roast my marshmallows or roast a stick until it burned so I could write with it. Fun stuff, fun stuff!

The good thing about the active life of camping, the being outside all day is that you sleep sooo good.

And too soon it was time to head home for some more relaxing time. Relaxing time for me but not for Grandpa and Grandma. See there was a big fire that came super close to their house and it was quite scary. Sadly, 5 homes got burned down but luckily theirs did not but as you can see on the pictures, it was indeed really close.

I was barely back home that my cousin came for 3 days and we sure had fun together. From chasing each other with water guns at the splash park, to going to the zoo, we had some good laugh.

And for the rest of the month, between bike rides,visits to OMSI, and hikes, including this one up to Multnomah Falls, it really felt like Summer.

And for the last week of the month, another exciting adventure: zoo camp! Maman asked me why I love zoo camp so much; I told her about the cool rules like rule number 3: Have fun! Maman told me that it could be a cool rule to share with my 1st grade teacher. I looked at her like she lost her mind or something and told her that there was no way: you don't have fun at school, come on.
She then kept asking about other things I really liked better about zoo camp. Without hesitation I said: Freedom. At camp, you are free!

Maman sighed: she thinks I have a pretty sad outlook about school and it's probably going to be another wild ride in 1st grade.

I'll let you with a picture of Papa ready to go for a bike ride. See, he is wearing the jersey we got him in Birttany. Cool hein!

Breaking News

Monday, August 19 2013

For the past week it was wiggling. I could feel it. I tried many times to pull it but it felt like it would hurt. Every body seemed to have a good idea as to how to remove it and that even included tying it to a string and attach the string to Papa's trailer hitch.
I said no to all suggestions.
And then, on Monday, as it seemed that it was moving back and forth and balancing dangerously, Maman tried again and YES!
She got it out. My first ever fallen TOOTH!

I found the little car with the pocket for lost teeth and set it under my pillow.
Now, you have to know that since in this house we have both American and French traditions going, I was very curious about what would happen during the night: would the tooth fairy come? would the souris come? See, the souris, a mouse, is the equivalent of the tooth fairy here.

When I woke up, I actually forgot about my lost tooth but run back to my bedroom to check under the pillow. And there it was: the proof that both the Tooth Fairy and the Souris do exist ( as Maman is typing I am looking over her shoulder and told her she should type "Toot Fairy"... yeah, I know, 6 year old type of joke!).

I began rapidly making some math and decided that I will now wait until I have 5 teeth to put under the pillow to get a full $5! Smart, right?

J'ai 6 ans!

July ended with 6 candles on a cake!
I was quite excited about my day... and since it's basically my day every day, the cake and candles made it different!
But it all began in France where my uncle and cousins thought it would be fun to give a piggy bak that you can only open by breaking with a hammer...in 10 more years. I filled it up with secret messages.

 They also seemed to know me well enough after 4 days and thought I might like a water gun. "Might" like? You mean I LOVED it!

 At my last day with Papi and Mamie I got to blow my first set of candles.

Every year, Maman has tried to come up with a cake that matches my liking of the moment. This year, I am into Ninjago and Star Wars so we both figured out a plan and I helped: we made two round cakes: one dark brown representing the Death Star and one yellow one representing Tatooin, another Star Wars planet.

Then we made Sand troopers using marshmallows. Marshmallows are made of pretty bad stuff Maman says, but they are mmmm, so good.

And of course I was spoiled as you can see by the loot I got from Papi and Mamie, Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Olivier and my cousins and Papa and Maman.

And I am very, very happy with all my gifts. As you can see, there were a lot of books; that's because when I am not working on my  title for  "Most annoying kid on the planet", I spend hours with my books.
I had barely opened Grandpa and Grandma's present of a set of Ninjago books that I was already avidly reading one of them: my first ever chapter book in English and I devoured it and the 4 others in no time.

I also got this cool fort kit from my friends in Indiana. That was a great idea for a gift and i went to work right away!

Today, a week after my actual birthday, it was my birthday party! Was I excited ? That is an understatement. Maman is very happy that my birthday happens to be during the Summer because at least she can send the wild crowd outside. And since I had planned to have a water gun fight, the hot sunny day was another thing that was welcomed.
My friends seem to have different social skills that I do though: while they seem to play together, I tend to either jump on every body or take a book and read while they play.

And if somebody needs to be goofy, you can count on me... and on my friend S.

Now, we had a lot of fun with the water gun fight. We ran to the park that is about 10 minutes away from our house. Papa drove the car containing the supply of water we would need.

And soon we were chasing each other and getting super wet, super fast! We did teams and the team split that got us all happy is when we decided to do kids against adults, which meant 4 kids against Papa and Maman. Ha, that was cool!  Good thing we had our water guns on the way back home because it was hot, hot, hot!

After a great lunch, I got to have more cake and candles and then we spend the afternoon building and creating with cardboard and all kind of materials that we glued with hot guns and not water guns this time!

Voilà! Birthday time is over and being 6 is as much fun as being 5.

I'll leave you with a bunch of pics that show you that I keep Maman entertained when she tries to take my yearly pic with Winnie the bear...