Weekends and Family

Last weekend was extra special - we went to the maple syrup festival in a neighboring small town, and I picked up a box full of kid's books cheap at library book sale fundraiser. This weekend was special for a different reason - my brothers and their families were coming over. Gui has a new-to-him stormtrooper costume so he decided that he needed to have a costume party with the cousins coming to visit, and Pascal and I prepared cookies for snacks.


Saturday mornings still follow the inviolable routine I set with Gui when Pascal was a baby, back in New Orleans. A little bit of sleep in time, homemade pancakes (these days Pascal is my erstwhile helper, though I can still get Gui to crack eggs occasionally), and then a trip to the library. Our pancakes were served up with maple syrup and strawberries this week - yum!

It's been cold here this month - the nice weather in March was a tease, I guess - so we drove to the library instead of walking. We returned last week's books and settled in to browse. Gui was excited to find out that the library clerk's daughters go on his bus - the clerk is one of our favorite people, a lovely british ex-pat who remembers everybody's names and sets new Hardy Boys aside for Gui to read. The boys scored some chocolate eggs from her on our way out.

My brother Ger and his fiancee had an appointment in town yesterday afternoon, as did I, so we left the pile of kids trying on costumes and went into Brockville. When we returned home, the kids were partied out and watching a movie and the adults were merrily chatting away while Dad made a turkey dinner. (Why turkey? Why not - there was one in the freezer and a ton of people for dinner!) Things quieted a bit when most of the kids were put to bed, but there were enough people left around after the kid's bedtime to play a board game.

Then today on our way back from mass today we spotted a sign announcing that the local farmer's market had free food and music today and I decided that sounded like fun. The boys won some prizes in an egg hunt and ran around in the brisk air with other local kids, we sampled goodies from numerous vendors, sang old Tommy Makem songs with a remarkably large bearded man in voyageur costume and a Scottish accent, petted lambs and kids and the sweetest lop eared rabbits, and brought a cherry pie home for dessert.

All in all, a good weekend.