Congratulations!

Congratulations my eldest E for finishing the primary school! Congratulations my middle E for finishing second primary! Congratulations my other middle E for having finished pre-school or the French maternelle! Finally, congratulations my mini E, for having started the pre-school! I love this period of the year, full of celebrations, birthdays, farewell parties. The air is filled with nostalgie for the past school year, and anticipation for the long summer holidays. Preparations started already few weeks ago, shelves full of gifts for friends, birthday girls/boys, school and music teachers. This year, the shopping took another level with three sets of school books to order and four lists of very specific school materials to order. I have to admit I spend a few thousand euros to complete all the book and material lists, sniif. No further comment on that. Back to this weekend, Friday was the last school day, and it was heart-warming to see my eldest with her friends, white roses on their hands running from the school yard. The parents had to stay out of all the ceremonies, given that the covid-19 is still present everywhere. It was quite disappointing. And yet, I was secretely relieved as knowing myself it would have been extensively emotional moment to live the primary school ending with my daughter. So we followed our own ceremonies, respecting our traditions, we drove to Capoue, our favorite ice cream parlour, for a treat, all of us. We picked-up even dad from coordinating between the workers at home, to leave the projects for a moment and join us for this unique moment. The ice cream was delicious and yes, against all the odds, tiny Estelle managed to finish her giant crepe-apple pie-ice cream dessert this year as well! The next day, I had organized a surprise with my kids best friends and we all drove to the Ardennes for tree climbing. There was an animal parc next to it and, although we were in a rush and did not get to discover it this time (had to get back to Brussels to let a next workers team in!) we all absolutely loved the tree parc and will come back here for sure! We drove back to Brussels accompanied with an impressive rain and lightning, but with a small dry window our workers managed to get the heat pump up to the girls new rooms just on time before the sky was pouring again, ouf! With my husband, the long day was rewarded, as I had booked a babysitter and a table at our favorite restaurant close by. What a nice finish to the day, just the two of us and a glass of wine. Sunday, long waited Sunday. Our son's "fake birthday", as he called it. And it actually was. For the first time we wanted him to celebrate his birthday with friends and class mates, as we were always on holidays abroad on his actual big day. Oh boy, the whole family was involved. I had made double-sure that there would be friends coming, as the holidays had indeed started, and sent the invites around and about quite loosely. And of course majority of the kids showed up! So we had 10 little heads popping in, one after the other, from the rainy front yard. Fortunately, we were geared up, girls helping out ensuring everybody washed their hands, knew were the toilet was, my husband being the master game organizer.Everything went just greatly! The rain stopped and we managed to go outside and even hunt the treasors. I was super pleased I had found a red chocolate Cars Flash McQueen cake, which I absolutely would not have found time to bake yesterday evening. Only my husband and I actually liked it. Brithday boy was more than happy with the party and gifts, and so were the rest of us. The spring rush is now OVER, let the holiday season step in!!!