Today was a party for the 3 other kids at Estelle's "nounou", Cathy. These are the 3 kids that have been full-time with Cathy for 2 years. Up to the recent start of the school year, Estelle "filled in" whenever one of the 3 wasn't there - a few mornings here, an afternoon there, etc. Now they have all turned 3 and this means going to school full-time (welcome to France).
Marie, whose grandfather hosted the party at his villa, no longer sees Cathy at all since she started school. Carlo, the Italian, goes to Cathy's everyday after school at 4:30 (yeah, no getting out at 2:45 in France!) and all day on Wednesdays (remember, so elementary school on Wednesdays in France). Mila's parents have opted for the half-day only, and so every day at 11:30 when all the kids go home for lunch, she goes to Cathy's for lunch and stays for the day.
These are a lot of choices. I have no idea what I'll do next year for Estelle. Cross that bridge later!
Here's Estelle enjoying the swing in Marie's Papie's yard.
The point is, Estelle loves these 3 kids, and all 3 of them turn 3 in September, so it was a big joint party. All 3 of them are also only children, so there are some sharing issues! Estelle was the model of perfection, of course!
There were gifts for everyone. For those of you that remember my gaffe at Christmastime with this same crowd (i.e. everyone gave presents to Estelle and all I brought was cookies), you can bet your bottom dollar I was not to be outdone THIS time. I came armed with a gift for all three of them AND cookies. Not just any gift - personalized photo frames with their names on them in 3-D and a photo of the 3 of them together that I had taken this summer at Cathy's. Everyone else's presents were toys essentially, and nothing educational. And to my EXTREME pleasure one of the kids' parents didn't bring a gift for Estelle thus I felt vindicated.
There were cakes galore. I sampled everything, bien sur.
We realized how nice it is to have a yard!
