Laureva's 8th Birthday, Part 1

Laureva's birthday festivities started a day early when Sylvain took her to the nursery to purchase a new banana plant. Last year's did not survive the winter. This year's is a heartier variety - bananier tigre rouge - that is supposed to withstand up to -10°C.

This morning, I heard noises from the girls' rooms around 6. I got up at 6:30 to start making the crêpes Laureva had requested for her birthday breakfast. Laureva came upstairs at 6:55. She said she'd been awake since 5:55.

She had a crêpe for breakfast and opened up a few gifts before school, including a Lego Friends electric car and wind turbine charging station, the building of which kept both girls busy while I finished cooking the batch of crêpes. As soon as the car was assembled, Laureva started flying it around while humming the Back to the Future theme song.

She dressed in a new outfit from Marie-Elisabeth, and we walked to school with a box of Devil's Food cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles to share with her class.

Laureva came home from lunch with a present from her friend Apolline: a handmade ceramic cat painted black. It bears a striking resemblance to the cat on the front of the birthday card that Maëva had picked out for her sister. It's tail had broken off, so I did a quick Super Glu repair.