We’re halfway through our vacation now… So far we’ve had a lot of fun.

We kicked it off with a dinner with our neighbor friends on the Friday, then Xavier’s birthday party on Saturday.

On Sunday, we spent the day with my parents on their sailboat. We had visited the boat before, but it was the first time we had time to go out on the river. There wasn’t enough wind to sail, but we had a nice little cruise using the engine.

The kids played on the harbour’s muddy beach, too.

On Monday I went to see “Albert Tessier et sa petite patrie“, a combination of play and historic tour downtown Trois-Rivières. I really enjoyed it — and not solely because my sister worked on a few costumes for the production and her friend is one of the actors! It’s a clever idea, which makes a historical tour more lively and interesting. They had the audience participate in a few spots, too. Xavier came with me, and although he was a little tired and didn’t really understand what was happening there, he behaved really well throughout!

From Tuesday to Thursday, we were on a ROADTRIP! We crossed to the New York state and visited Lake George. We left early and got there by lunch, then at 1:30 we took a cruise on the Minne Ha Ha, a steamboat, on the Lake.

After the cruise, we went to a PIRATE THEMED MINI-GOLF! How cool is that? The kids greatly preferred that to the cruise, hehehe…

After the mini-golf, we checked in to the hotel, then went out for dinner at a Uno — ever been to Uno? Do so when you can, it’s yummy!

To end the day, we took advantage of the hotel’s indoor pool.

On Wednesday, we went to THE GREAT ESCAPE + SPLASHWATER KINGDOM (6 Flags)!!

The kids loved that place, of course. Frank and I didn’t take advantage of the big coasters, really, but there were many kids rides (and we did most of them with the kids, since Orly was just small enough to need an adult with her). Part of the park was a water park, which came as a handy refreshment in the midday sun.

There were also shows to enjoy. Orly LOVED the Looney Tunes Dance-Off (Xavier found it much too loud, with scary mascots) and sent off (and received) many air kisses to Lola Bunny.

Then there were these guys. Xavier loved those and was mighty impressed (as were we!!) by the on-fire diver at the end.

Ice cream afterwards, then off to bed!

On Thursday, we checked out of the hotel and went for a small stroll at the Lake George harbour. We used the camera’s self-timer to score a family pic:

We drove North into the Adirondack park, then, and visited the Adirondack museum.

It’s a great museum, with many old vehicles (trains, boats, carriages) and stuff tied to the history of the Adirondacks. It was also very well suited for children, with many things they could get their hands on and test out.

After that, we were homebound. Halfway there we stopped for dinner at Applebee’s, then crossed the borders into our own country.

Friday was a quiet day, although we went at the Ferragosto (Italian themed weekend downtown) in the evening, and saw the beginning of Marco Calliari’s concert at the harbour. We had to leave because of the kids, but what we saw of it was nice!

Saturday our friends Amélie and Nicolas were in town and we had brunch at Cora’s, then went to the yearly Family Fest here in the city, where there were many inflated games, balloon sculptures and mascots for the kids. They loved it — and we got some free time to chat with our friends while the kids bounced!

Yesterday was quiet; our friend Phil visited and started us on the TrueBlood miniseries. We have some light plans for this week, although we cancelled camping because of rain predictions. (We know better than to cancel plans because of weather predictions — we’ve had downpour on the road to Lake George, but no rain whatsoever during our activities! — but Frank declared camping in the rain with kids wasn’t his idea of fun, so we’ll likely just go up to the National Park for a day trip.

I hope your vacation time was or IS a lot of fun, too!

PS. There are even more photos in our Picaca summer album (the last 150 are from our vacation, hehe!)

Xavier had parties (plural) last week, for this 4th birthday.

First on the 24th, at Frank’s parents’ place: Frank’s family held a home sushi dinner, and celebrated Frank’s and Xavier’s birthdays, which are in the same week.

Then on Wednesday the 28th — his actual birthday day — uncle Christian (my brother) with Joanie, and our neighbors came to share a cake.

Xavier’s birthday was also celebrated at daycare with cake, balloons and surprises.

And finally, his big birthday party with friends was the Saturday at Burger King, where 11 friends came to play with him and Orly — and eat a few chicken nuggets!

Thanks to all who celebrated with Xavier and us. He had a lot of fun (and was really spoiled! oof… Legos, misters Potato, Tag books, games, puzzles, etc.)

Congratulations to my Xavier!

We went to see a battle simulation on the St.Lawrence shore… and took pictures, of course. An interesting activity!

You can’t see on the pictures, but the back of his t-shirt states “Xavier 95″. Hehe!

I had a little less ambition for Xavier’s (almost 4!) mural, because he was already living in his room when I painted it, so I didn’t have the luxury of working at night after his bedtime — and probably because I didn’t wish to invest the same amount of time in the project, too!

Just like Orléane’s mural, I used the wall’s initial colour for the background and used leftover latex paint for some colour mixes, in addition to acrylic paint. (And, yes, I mixed latex and acrylic at some point! I don’t know if there’s a rule against this, but it worked: the paint texture wasn’t ideal, but it was still serviceable.)

So here is my basic illustration:

I used whales/fish illustration from the web as models for putting together my own composition while correcting the colours. Yes, yes, the “water” is green, but since the room’s sky is already a dark blue — with silver sprinkles in the paint, for stars — I wanted to keep the green. It also allows the blue fish to pop out a little better.

I traced a grid on the illustration, because I had used that technique to reproduce Orly’s forest on her wall but, so Xavier’s dunes would look more natural, I started by tracing these, then I reproduced each fish “by eye”, about at the right spot.

I didn’t take a picture before starting, so we’re jumping directly to the first step: sea bottom dunes.

I started with the whales at the back, then. I tried to give them a green tint (like the “water”), so they would look farther — otherwise their proportions would squish the other fish! It worked a little better for the humpback than the killer whales, but oh well…

A few hours (and a few days) later, other fish, plants and mammals appeared.

I didn’t count how many hours I put in, but it really didn’t take so long: maybe 4 to 6 blocks of 2 hours. Here is the final picture again, with the addition of the eyes, a turtle, a school of fish — and a few children!

To strengthen the juxtaposition of the mural under the sea and the starry sky, a few boats are sailing on the shelf that stretches between them. The duvet full of fish came from Ikea a few years back, and the big turtle a was gift from auntie Karine. Xavier loves his sea and sky room!

(I really don’t have all that much experience, but if you have questions about the process, leave them in the blog comments and I’ll answer from my experience.)