Julien spent as much time as possible during our trip to France pouring over Tintin books. We brought one with us for the trip and, as luck would have it, the people who owned the house we rented were big Tintin fans. They had every book, in French of course, but Julien could still poor over the pictures.
Our trip had a promising beginning; at the airport in Indianapolis there was a couple practicing making balloon animals. They had been at the Christian Fellowship Magician's Conference. Who knew such a thing existed.
We filled up the pool again this weekend and let the kids splash around. It was hot and the cold water felt good.
Sebastian turned two yesterday!
The boys are both completely obsessed with Thomas trains. Julien has been building elaborate tracks, which now lead off the table and around and about the family room. Sebastian now knows most of the trains names. His favorite is Thomas.
After the hike the boys played on the tire swing until Sebastian was collapsing (and crying) with exhaustion.
There was a little brown bat sleeping in between the sign and the pane of glass. We saw him wiggling. The kids were thrilled. He was so tiny and cute.
You may notice that there are not as many photos of Julien. He frequently requests that I not take photos of him.
After a pic-nic we went on a short hike at Mc Cormick's Creek. For some reason Sebastian kissed a few trees along the hike. It was very cute.
Sebastian and Julien had lots of fun playing with the doctor's set Sebastian got from Grandmum and Grandad. Sebastian loves to show off the pretend band-aids.
After the party we hung out with Maia and Tara for a while. It was nice and mellow. Sebastian and Maia were interested in watching each other nurse.
As soon as the food came out we put Emmett in the basement. He was not happy about it.
We made "robot" cupcakes for Sebastian's birthday. They were fun to make, but most kids preferred the strawberry ice cream cones. Sebastian ate neither. 
Sebastian didn't want a towel, he wanted to go straight into my arms. Luckily it was hot out, so the water felt good.
Joelle and Julien had a blast together in the pool. Cedric and Josh, the french boys, were only in the pool for a couple minutes, but Joelle enjoyed the water as much as Julien and with equalling energy. Seeing them play together made me understand why Julien talked about Joelle so much. My understanding is that at the end of the year Joelle sat next to Julien everyday at lunch.
Eli and Sebastian were in the pool the longest. It was Eli's first time swimming. Sebastian enjoyed belly flopping. Eli didn't mind.
We had a nice birthday party for Sebastian this weekend. We invited Joe from Sebastian's class, Maia, from play group, as well as Julien's friend Cedric with his big brother and little sister, and Joelle from Julien's kindergarten class and her little brother Eli. Julien has been helping me plan the party the last two weeks. We loosely had a robot theme. Julien helped decorate and set out the pools.
Julien has started to help me clean the bathrooms on the weekends. He is very enthusiastic. He pretends he's on the show "Dirty Jobs" and has a running monologue about the smells, tight spaces, and his careful scrubbing.
We got Sebastian a train table for his birthday this year. We got it a bit early because we found one cheap and we didn't want to miss out.
With the summer in full force the boys had lots of time to play. While Sebastian has been discovering many of Julien's toys for the first time, Julien has been equally excited re-discovering many of his toys.
Julien has now lost three teeth, one a day. Last night his front tooth was barely hanging on and sticking out a right angle. It was driving Julien crazy when he was trying to go to sleep, so he got up and asked Dad for help. Richard gave it three little tugs and it came out. Julien was so releaved!
