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 !