My birthday

The 9th of April is my birthday, and in my view one of the best days of the year. My family, friends and I celebrated by going to the wave pool! Being in a wave pool is like being shipwrecked, but with your feet touching the bottom and without the sharks. I received many wonderful gifts, including a bicycle and (stripy) helmet! The delicious cake was made by Mom and Grand-maman Lili. Now, we are all enjoying a day of rest before Mom's birthday tomorrow!

Lights out!

Two days ago, as you might know, was earth hour, which, if you don't know, means that for one hour, everyone must turn out all the lights in their house. Since it is very important to us to protect the environment, we did not only that but turn out the power too. We sat around the table and played a round of Parcheesi in the dark (Renée's favourite game because she can send notes to her fellow players « To warn you I am going to win!» to use her words). There are no pictures of this event my camera is not good with low lighting conditions.

March breack

Now at last, it is March break. Today, Dad, Renée and I went to the McMichael art gallery. At first, we were going to go birdwatching at the Kortright center of conservation, but many, many, other people had the same idea (I mean a lot). For those of you not familiar with the McMichael, it is a gallery of Canadian art priding themselves for their collections from the group of seven (Obviously though, they do not pride themselves on their french translations which are awful). The gallery is built on the site of the old McMichael house and most of the group of Severn are buried there.
Planned for tomorrow: painting by the lake.

Paris

Just last week, I was in Paris. It was my first time traveling on my own! My friend Clara and I were very busy during my stay, so here is a feel of what we did.

Arrival

Day one
Boating along the Seine and climbing of the Eiffel Tower on foot (701 steps up, 701 steps down)!

Day two
Versailles, of which we visited the king's rooms and Marie-Antoinette 's quarters

Day three
Le Louvre, so naturally I went to see the Mona Lisa. Absolutely no satisfactory pictures of that, due to the seemingly permanent crowd all around, but a picture of Clara and me in front of the Vénus de Milo.

Day four
Sacré-Coeur cathedral and the village of Montmartre

Day five
The Catacombes, in wich Lafontaine's remains lie (strange thought, that, but a strange place, too)


Departure

Even without the fact that this was a week off from school, it was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go back with the rest of my family!

Imminent departure

I actually wrote this last week, but then got distracted, so the whole part about leaving for Paris is no longer correct. The post about Paris will come later. I apologize for the inconvenience, and all those formalities (giggles).

Only a few hours before I leave for Paris! I am very exited! I did not have time to write this yesterday, but now I have a minute.

We may not have much snow here in T.O but just enough to build a snowman, which is exactly what R.C and I did yesterday. But our snowman was special: it was on our roof! It did not last long as we are not great builders, and the different parts were quite wonky, but it stood long enough to take some pictures.

sweater

Some of you may already know this, but I have been knitting myself a sweater, and I have now completed it. With the help of Grandma Bider who was visiting at the time, it is now in wearable condition. My anxieties over the fact that it would be too small were relieved because my wonderful sweater in in fact a little big...but no matter because it will last longer this way!

Oh, and a picture of Dad on the pond.

Picture

A picture of R.C and I on the pond that I absolutely wanted to share with you.