August 27, 2011 by Dad.

Hello All,

Finally I am getting around to updating the blogs. For those of you who do not know, we moved from Naperville, IL to Dublin, CA and are just now getting settled in our new home. This move happened rather quickly due to a job change that was really a long time coming. From the blog posts it may not appear that this was going on, but we have been packing up and moving out and then living in limbo then moving in and packing out and settling down all since Dec 2010. The dust has finally settled enough for me to spend an evening sifting through all the photos for the last few months.

I am going to do what I do when ever I catch up and that is to work forward from where I left off last so please enjoy as I try to bring you up to speed.

Ok, excuses out the way, on we go…

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August 22, 2011 by Dad.

Today was a milestone day for Cezanne and Etienne had his whole world turned upside down… His sister, his playmate, his buddy, his pal was now whisked off to school each and every morning… Oh well, he now gets to go for a morning walk to a place with lots of kids and a playground and then gets to do more walking / strollering and when he is returned home, he has sole access to all the toys. I think he will be just fine

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July 24, 2011 by Dad.

We bought a really neat train table for the kids at Christmas time but after hearing that it required a 2 - 4 hour build time and knowing we were moving we left it in the box and figured it would be a nice new toy for when we arrived in California. Well the stuff arrived and after a few weeks of sorting and making space we finally got around to building the train table. It was really not as bad as 2 - 4 hours in terms of building and the end result was exactly what we had hoped for - both kids love the table and play with it almost every day !

The silly posed photos with the kids showing off their trains !

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July 18, 2011 by Dad.

Finally our stuff arrived and one of the first things that had to be unpacked was the vast collection of toys - trust me the word vast is an understatement - I think we have enough toys to open a day care. These kids don’t know how spoilt they are ! We do try point this out to them any chance we get, but we also realize that we are enablers in this - we’ll try to do better, we’ll try…

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July 4, 2011 by Dad.

We had a couple of days in the new house behind us and then it was 4th of July and the big question was where we could go to watch fireworks. Each city seems to have their own laws about fireworks, some do not allow them at all, some will allow the sale of fireworks but not the use of fireworks, while others seem to have no rules - so rather than take a chance any buy and use we figured we would let somebody else take on the task of entertaining us this 4th of July. We had to dress for the occasion - all red, white and blue and once the kids were dressed the mother needed to get herself ready so I had the kids wait for her. This was easy for all of about 3 minutes, I even have pictures to prove they say still and did wait.

Then things got silly and Cezanne and Etienne started running around and doing gymnastics in the vacant space in our living room. Etienne has become quite good at copying Cezanne when she does her handstands and round offs.

Finally we had to pose for our annual 4th of July photo - I think we ended up taking 30 or 40 photos and none of them were really any good - trust me, this was the best of the lot !

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June 21, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne gets in the shot as Cezanne poses with her birthday gift - a fish tank with a couple of guppies.

After a few really nice photos the sillies crept in and the funny faces had to come out.

Still stuck in the hotel, but a day closer to knowing…

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June 20, 2011 by Dad.

Yet another day in the crapped quarters of the hotel as we continue to wait for final confirmation and closing on the house…

What made this day special was that it was Cezanne’s 5th Birthday and we made the most of it by celebrating with cupcakes after dinner.

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June 5, 2011 by Dad.

Wagon Kids; Etienne & Daddy at the Zoo

Etienne enjoys the dolphins.

Etienne & Mama; Misty Cool Dude

On our last day in Illinois we decided to visit the Brookfield Zoo one last time with our dear friends the Bassons. The kids had a great time running wild from one habitat to the next. The kids all behaved beautifully and this made the day really enjoyable for all. This is a great zoo and we have enjoyed each visit over the years.

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May 30, 2011 by Dad.

We set off to enjoy a final day at the Morten Arboretum’s Children’s Garden. We have truly enjoyed this wonderful kid-friendly outdoor play area. We are very sad to be leaving this behind and will have to find some replacement when we get to California.

Puddle Jumper; Etienne, Daddy & Cezanne; Mama & Etienne; Etienne on the porch; Cezanne & Etienne

Tree-house Siblings; Happy Tree Huggers; Lovely Lads & Lassies Lost in Lavender

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April 23, 2011 by Dad.

Look how smart we are dressed up for Easter. A shirt and pants like a real little grown-up.

Bubbles are wonderful and Etienne loves them, he now says the word bubble as if it were a questioning word, “Bubble ?” ( As is you are going to put on some bubbles for me now right ? )

It did not take Etienne long to figure out what an egg hunt was and once he knew he had to collect the colorful eggs and bring them back to Mama he was off and running. He was so busy and so much fun to watch and photograph, I almost missed Cezanne completely !

Once the eggs had all been harvested, Etienne showed me how brave he was and just how good he was at sliding down the big slide. He really has no fear when it comes to things like this…

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