Thomas turns 34!

Thursday (22nd) was Thomas birthday. So today (Sunday) we made him pancakes:


On his real bday we enjoyed a few bakery-bought tarts:
Estelle was sick as a D-O-G from Wednesday night to Friday a.m. so Thomas' birthday plans got postponed, but we did make it out to a film Friday night - "Deep End", from 1970. New re-mastered version. Starring Jane Asher, former fiancée to Paul McCartney. Pretty cool film.
Anyways, back to the bday: Léna would have preferred cooking some garlic stew:
It's getting a little cooler (in the mornings) and so the girls need to cover up before going to school/Cathy's:

Lavander biscuits:
Bead bonanza:
Playing "fort"
This weekend we played catch-up from Estelle's illness, especially with all the "vomit laundry".
Today was a relaxing Sunday.

The Hills Are Alive

Playing catch up with photos from our 2 weeks in the Cantal.
Readers may recall that Thomas and I stole away for 2 days in the Volcano region.
Here are photos from our walks OTHER than the hike up to the Puy Mary which you saw in a previous post.
One afternoon we hiked in a field where it was just us and the cows. With horns.


And many little sheperd's huts out in the middle of nothing with no electricity. They are to watch over the herds the cows.

This was a bull who was a bit away from the cows. We had to go around him. I was terrified. There was not a single other soul, we had seen no one for 2 hours, and our phones had no reception.




















2 amazing and beautiful sunny days.

Back to School

On Monday, Estelle went back to school:
And Léna went back to Cathy's. And I went to the beauty salon.
Meanwhile, before they went "back", there was a lot of mischief to get into for the one week we were back before picking up the routines....
Dressing up Eliott as a girl, reading school notebooks from last year.....

Taking a nap:
Wrecking the kitchen:
Celebrating (again) Estelle's bday with a VERY top-notch patisserie cake purchased with funding from Papy & Manou:
Stuffed animal party in Léna's crib:
Dancing with Daddy:
Park time:
Modeling the new BLUE smock for school:
It's been a VERY busy week but we hope next week things will slow down as we all settle in to our new routines. And Estelle's new mezzanine bed arrives! And Léna's crib goes bye-bye!

Maxence & Berenice

While Vermont reels from Hurricane Irene, a few images from calmer days:

48 hours after we returned from America at the beginning of August, we spent a day in Cannes with our buddies Maxence and Berenice.
Berenice is 2 weeks older than Léna. She knows how to work an Ipad. I mean, like, really work it. My kids don't even know what an Ipad is.



Here's Thomas & Melanie trying to keep the troops in line.
Maxence is 4 weeks younger than Estelle, and an inch taller. All 4 of these girls are giants compared to their peers.
We enjoyed the pool at Emmanuel's mom's vacation home.
I got to see Melanie and Emmanuel twice, and a 3rd evening Melanie came to Nice and we had a totally extravagant evening at a top-notch restaurant right on the beach where my friend Ludo is a chef. It was great to see them all again.