Play, play, play

The principal activity of the holiday is of course play... hours of it. Endless scenes are created and shifted and recreated covering every available surface of the upstairs.

the record snow

 Out the front door.

 Connecting chambers.

They say that it is the most snowfall in one day ever in Montreal. Hard to believe, but there was lots of it. Certainly enough for some good fun!

Lily in her last day as an 8 year old...

 ... and wearing her new Christmas garb. Not yet pierced ears but she begins to make rumbles about them.

Christmas 2012

 Before and after Santa.

A backyard visitor

 I think that this is a rough-legged hawk. What do you think Mum? A strange sight out our back door.

The Haul

Yes indeed, there were a few candies collected and this is after the larger part had been redistributed to other trick-or-treaters who continued to come to our door.

The terrible four

Once again we were blessed with a beautiful evening for trick-or-treating. Our neighbour hood was in full swing with sidewalks packed to the gills and costumes and decorations galore. We had the girls two best friends with us  - Annaelle allias La reine des neiges, and Beatrice allias Count Dracula.

Off to School

A fearsome trio with Ziana the clown.

Halloween - morning preparation

Halloween morning - the 'Elf of the shining sun' and the Bat are in full preparations (with the help of their trusty valet).

 Bat hat and cape by Marc.

 Golden dress from Léonie.

Ears thanks to cousin Owen.

The Halloween gnome

 Marc under close supervision.

Marc Sénécal (Owen's partner) invited the girls and I to his workshop for costume manufacturing. What a treasure chest of materials! and what a treasure of a 'mon oncle'.

September birthday #3: Alice

Such amazing synchronicity !!  Just as we were singing "Bonne Fête" to Alice after her 7th birthday supper, and just before she was about to blow the candles on her moka-swirl cake, the phone rang and it was Meo and Doco calling to sing her "Happy Birthday" from New Denver... I knew Muriel has always had impeccable timing, especially when it comes to birthdays, but that has got to top it all !

Rachel of course follows in her mother's footsteps and is always planning birthdays at our house with great attention to all aspects of gifts, games, guests, invitations, food, decorations, etc.

Here we see Alice signing the invitations that Rachel prepared for her upcoming (and fourth) birthday celebration: the friends' party at our house next Sunday.

My first day at the Races...

Finally I got to see Rachel doing her Dragon Boat rowing.  It was a splendid autumn morning at Montreal's Olympic bassin on Île Notre-Dame and Alice, Lily and I just got there on time to see Rachel lining up with her team for their second race of the tournament.

There were hundreds of teams from all over the province, of various levels and genders: all-male, all-female or mixed like Rachel's "Remix" team.

After watching a race of very impressive all-male boats paddling like crazy across the bassin, we got a good view of Rachel's race which was very tight between the first four boats, although Rachel's boat was at the very back (boat #5) and we could only catch a glimpse of the green-top girl.

They finished the 500 meters in fourth position, as it turned out, but their coach was pleased with their performance...

... and so were her rowmates...

... as wel as her fans on the dock !

Thank you Koko, Meo, Doco, Paulo...

We are so excited and happy with our two new paintings.  Thank you so much, Koko and Paul for the gift and the shipping, and Muriel and Cole for the other gift too.  It is such a pleasure to contemplate these scenes of natural and artistic beauty in our bedroom and main central room !!

Hallelujah

The Rachel 40th birthday celebrations continue.  At last we make it to Marie-Claude and Alejandro's new chalet in St-Adolphe.  We spent the night there and a good portion of the following day exploring the surrounding woods, hill and lake.  Some lovely singing was bestowed upon us by Alejandro and Rachel around the fireplace, the central piece being Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" sung by Rachel and joined in by all of us.  Very moving, as you can see on the picture above from Rachel's eyebrows ;-)

P.S.  In case you're wondering, the all red dress code wasn't just a coïncidence, but very much a Lily idea imposed on all of us.  Why red, you ask?  Hmmm... I didn't get that piece of information, too busy cooking the meal :-)

September birthday #2: Rachel

A carrot and a tomato as presents for mommy on the morning of her 40th birthday.  After her husband's gift of a symbolic apple picked from the garden, Rachel must have felt some kind of nature trend going on here...  She is coming into a beautiful maturity, my dear wife... I must say... and Alice, Lily and I are the lucky harvesters :-)

September birthday #1: Gabriela

A subset of the family celebrating Gabriela's 18th birthday, and the fall of the Charest government... which was one of her most ardent desires (even though she couldn't vote because she was born one day too late).  As for every single one of her 18 birthdays, the weather was exquisite !

Crazy Girls

The Crazy Taillefer Harris girls are back in town... to the great delight of friend Beatrice and neighbour Zaiana.  After a delightful summer in the country, they don a definitely more urban fashion look...

Forest nymphs

Lily, Alice and Ellen had a marvellous week deep in play and exploration of all sorts. What a nice trio they make! Here they are at there most bucolic!

Doco's meditation

Eric made Doco a meditation bench for his birthday and here is Doco diligently putting it to use.

Wood fired kiln

After the clay house and the clay oven this summer it was time for the wood fired kiln. This was the first firing of the oven made by Anna (in the red sweater). There were some adjustments made after this fireing as the chimney appeared not to be high enough and the flames were jumping out of the front of the fire box instead of up the chimney during the very hot 6 hours of fuelling.

Girls to the power of eight

 This is our two with Douglas and Candy's two girls along with Cynthia's (the grand-daughter of my step grand-mother) four girls. They are - from left to right: Sarah 1, Morgan 3, Jesse 6, Ellen 5, Alice 6, Michaela 8, Lily 8, Molly 9.

Just five on the raft.

Tee-Pee construction

After walking over to the William's place and seeing their Tee-Pee the girls managed to convince Eric to help them make a tee-pee of their own which they did in the pouring rain. The rain let up just in time for them all to climb inside and,  from the sound of the squeals coming from inside there was great fun had for the next several hours. In fact, the girls have had their supper in there for the last three nights, which makes for quiet grown-up dinners inside!!!

Serious swimmers

 Lily all ready for Lock Colin.

Alice and favourite cousin Ellen getting ready for their synchronized swimming show.