We celebrated Tristan's birthday late this year. On his birthday he
was on day two of what turned out to be a five day fever. Not the flu.
But miserable none the less. We celebrated two or three weeks later up
at Cheryl and Dan's house. They were kind enough to let the friends
gather at their house for a celebration.

The photos are self explanatory.

Filmed on Saturday morning on our way to Rhode Island for our vacation. The only time in the holiday that Sebastien swam. Too scared of waves at the beach.

We don't remember Sebastien being such an adept climber. But then we didn't
have the toddler table and chairs at a similar age. Yesterday Tristan pushed
a toddler chair over to the dining table so that he could see what Sebastien
and I were doing...

One of the highlights of our vacation was spending that much time with
Tristan. We got to know his tricks and he learned a few more from his dad.
The ones in the video would be: Hello, Goodbye and Peekabo.

It does photograph well.

But the lack of air conditioning.
Plus mosquitoes
and the possibilities of ticks....

Lyme disease is named for a place in Connecticut, not a person.

Photos from our vacation in Rhode Island. This is an email blog post, so I
can't caption each photo.

This first is a family shot in the Crayola Factory (Easton, PA). A bit of a
misnomer as you pay money to get into the building to play with all of
crayola's products. The saving grace being you don't have to exit through
the gift shop as you do most museums. The crayola store is two doors down :)
And we paid a visit. Bought Sebastien another set of markers. (Useful thing
learned during the crayon making demonstration: you can rehydrate dried out
markers with a water soak. Put the cap back on and they should be good as
new). We were foolish this night and pushed on to New Jersey. Got lost.
Arrived at the hotel past the point of good boys. No one slept till well
past ten. Mihai and I then hid out in the bathroom surfing the internet....
Anyway. Sebastien had a red marker in the back of the car with him.... Next
thing I know it was all over his face, hands and arms. "Like a Pirate". He'd
has his face painted two weeks prior. Not a happy mother.

We stopped in New Haven for a hamburger place I'd read about in the best
hamburgers of america book. It had closed. But I did manage to get a photo
of Sebastien in front of some Yale building with his Teddy bear. Will save
this one for when he actually does head of to university (hopefully without
teddy bear.

Next two, Sebastien at the beach. It was one great big sand box. Waves were
not very popular. The only time he went into the ocean was to pee and wash
off. By the last day he was lying on a body board at the edge of the surf,
"surfing'.

Tristan hung out at the beach in Philips boat, cousin. He really just wanted
out to eat the sand...

Mihai at the outdoor shower. Septic system at the house, better to use
outdoor shower. a little vague in the details. But with the heat (90F) and
the humidity showers were a necessary part of cooling off. In evening a
shower outside was nice as the beach breeze finally blew across the pond and
into the outdoor shower.

Some of the mornings were FOGGY. did not stop the boys from enjoying the
beach. Betty and I walked Tristan one morning and shopped the outlets (one
hour away) another morning.

We spent two days in Mystic. Where the boys did get to go sailing. The wind
was shifty and the river shallow. So the sailing wasn't excellent, but at
least they sailed. Sebastien spent a lot of the trip yelling "Hep-a-la". Not
sure why. Could be his version of "Anchors away!". This is after getting
yelled at by his father for not moving out of the way fast enough. Not sure
about Captain's rules, yet.

The best money we spent was having the boys (little, with a lot of input
from the dads) build boats at the Maritime Museum. They spent hours playing
with them. Especially after Mihai gave them all anchors. Sebastien even
brought his to the table. I'm pretty sure we put our foot down on bringing
it to bed. Bed time was bad enough without boats in the mix. The older boys
slept together. Tristan was with Mihai and I. We got to know the local
coffee shop Very well.

The anchor was useful when Mihai and Sebastien took the row boat (that
leaked) out onto the pond to test Mihai's sail boat. Both of which are
pictured.

And then the photo of the Mihai and Sebastien in the surf. Probably getting
clean.

We spent last week in Rhode Island with Mihai's brother Ion and his family.
We used the house as a launching pad for the beach and for Mystic, CT
(seaport, aquarium, pizza, and ice cream). We bought the younger boys
tshirts to commerate the trip. Sebatien insisted on wearing his to bed that
night (it glows in the dark). The next day all three boys wore their shirts.
Ion took these photos near the beach. It was damp and foggy. The waves were
from the Hurricane 'C' that was heading up the coast (but missed us entirely
despite the forecasts).
Getting three boys to cooeprate for a photo: impossible.

Follow the link to see Zanna having fun on skis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_PsOnzT3iQ

Good thing it is a few more months till ski season.

Sebastien is helping get ready for our party. Rice Krispie treats.

I think it counts as breakfast. I'm sure it did this day.

(I'm on a food kick. Imagine that).

We had an "American As Apple Pie" party to celebrate my becoming a US
Citizen. Our neighbors, the Mulhollands, kindly hosted.

We had hot dogs and Mac'N'Cheese for the kids. But they really just
ate potato chips (to our dismay).
And for the biggies we had chicken and Beef satay. Gado Gado
(Indonesian steamed salad). Corn. Zucchinis.
Yummy Apple pie, Stars & Stripes jello, USA Rice Krispies.

Something american and somethings not. All around too much food. but
delicious.