December 30, 2011 by Dad.

Playing outside as the year comes to an end. Saying farewell to Aunty Celeste and Uncle Frederik as they return home to Canada after spending the week visiting.

Family photo session,  Uncle Frederik & Aunty Celeste and Ouma & Oupa with Etienne and Cezanne.

Happy New Year - we hope your 2011 was a memorable one and may your 2012 be event better !

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December 25, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne following Cezanne down the stairs and then on to check the status of the milk and cookies left for Santa. He looks on as his big sister checks the crumbs left by Santa. A quick pose next to the tree and the mountain of presents before the opening madness begins.

It really was madness, with 8 people in total, gifts were being handed out and opened faster than I could capture. Etienne scored big time and got 4 balls for different sports, here he opens his football to go with his basketball, baseballs and soccer ball. The big hit was his fleet of air planes and his gigantic aircraft carrier. After the madness a quiet pose with Cezanne next to the tree, now devoid of presents.

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December 17, 2011 by Dad.

The local fire station / fire house help a type of open house and Santa visited and took pictures with the kids. We got to see a real fire truck up close and even got to climb on and inspect the many levers and hoses. The best part were the junior fire fighter badges and helmets that were handed out. Etienne could not get enough of the old fire engine and climbed it and inspected it and checked to see if any of the parts were loose. Thankfully everything was well secured and nothing broke off !

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December 11, 2011 by Dad.

On a rather cold and windy day we decided to take a drive into San Francisco and show Ouma & Oupa the beach, get some lunch and try see the gingerbread house at The Fairmont.

Etienne and Cezanne both love the beach and even though we needed to wear jackets they were not able to hold back and enjoyed the beach as much as humanly possible.

Lunch was lucky  as we bumped into Santa who was taking requests at a restaurant just off Fisherman’s Wharf and Cezanne and Etienne needed to be asked only once if they wanted to see the old man. Etienne really seemed to be having a good chat with the man in red - wonder what he asked for ?

After quite a lot of time in the car the kids were sick of sitting and so by the time we got to The Fairmont and the gingerbread house all Etienne wanted to do was run around. The Fairmont is not really the place to do this, but the long corridors from the parking garage to the lobby were just what he needed to get his energy levels back to normal.

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November 24, 2011 by Dad.

We are thankful for all we have been blessed with this year. We hope your year has been a blessed one too and that you are celebrating your thankfulness too.

I think off all things, Etienne is most thankful for his big sister whom he love and who loves him back !!

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October 31, 2011 by Dad.

So we had a Candace and a Perry the Platypus this year. Etienne loved being Perry / Agent P (study up on Disney’s show Phineas & Ferb) and played along with his sister.

Lanelle made some homemade decorations - the milk jug ghosts seen above and the kids needed to be in the pictures when I was taking photos of them for her. I have no idea where the pirate eye patch came from or why it was being worn, but there you have it.

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October 28, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne and Cezanne love the Disney show Phineas & Ferb and so we decided to dress as Candace ( the big sister ) and Perry the Platypus ( the pet ) for Halloween. Etienne loved his hat ( when Perry plays Agent P ). Cezanne’s school ( John Green Elementary - JGE ) held a costume parade which included Perry and later that night was the Fall Festival where Perry again got to enjoy some fun like sliding down the big slide all on his own ( Dad was not allowed to help ! )

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October 26, 2011 by Dad.

Our sweet little baby boy was transformed into a big boy in a matter of minutes when we gave him his first hair cut. We had wanted to make a big deal of the event and take him to a kiddie hair cut place like we did for Cezanne, but after two different places were just so uninterested in our business we took matters into our own hands. Lanelle did a great job and even shed a tear when we saw the results. Baby no more…

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October 2, 2011 by Dad.

We started a bit of a tradition a few years back to go apple picking in the early fall. The kids always seem to love the outing and so we figured we would try to continue the tradition despite now being in California. We were spoilt in Illinois with a really wonderful farm not more than 45 minutes from home. Here in Dublin we needed to drive almost 3 hours to reach Apple Hill an area outside Sacramento with a collection of smaller apple farms with a much smaller concentration of self pick farms but then the benefit was that each farm was smaller and less crowded.

Etienne and Cezanne really enjoyed the day picking apples, helping Lanelle pick pumpkins, tasting apple cider and eating apple doughnuts.

After a long hard day amongst the apples we called on old friends Tim & Rachel after asking for some advise on where to find the best apple farms. We used to belong to the same small group and had last seen them Easter 2010 at Gavin & Christina at their home in Folsom. Well this was a real treat for Cezanne and Etienne because they have horses and the kids each got a turn to ride the horse. Etienne shared a ride with Tim’s youngest (approaching 3 years).

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September 22, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne opening gifts - Trains, Trucks and a Trike !

Etienne “reading” the birthday card that Cezanne made him. Etienne doing a little drawing during the day.

Blowing the candle and celebrating being two ! Hooray !

We celebrated Etienne’s birthday today. He is now 2 and a real little boy. I think his big sister has a lot to do with just how big he is, not physically ( which he is ) but in other ways. He has learned to sing and dance; play all sorts of made up games; cook at the outdoor kitchen; ride bikes, trikes and scooters; and yet he has also found his own “style”.

It is hard to imagine life before Etienne, much like it was hard to imagine life before Cezanne. He is a busy little guy, always up to something. He has his two year appointment on Monday and we’ll post the stats once we have them.

Happy Birthday my BIG little boy !!

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