Last night, we read our special book, The Blueberry Pie Elf. My own personal childhood favorite.
This weekend, lots of parties...Saturday noon BBQ in Castaigners (in the hills behind Nice, no longer part of Nice) chez hockey buddy Thierry and wife Ghilaine. Quite a view:
With lots of land and space and their son's toys, it was fun!
In the background you see our host, Ghilaine and another hockey buddy Jean-Hubert who recently became a widower. It was nice to see him out and about.
Here's Thomas with another hockey buddy Stephan, whose Brazilian wife Lillian just had their 2nd child, a little girl who has become the lucky recipient of several suitcases full of little girl baby clothes from Estelle & Léna....
Friday night my friend Philippe came over for socca before we went to the theatre....Léna looks nasty but she wasn't.
Sunday, another bday party - Estelle's music class buddy Lucas turned 4. We don't know him very well, just music class once a week. But his mommy is named Estelle (so unusual, only the 2nd here in France I have met in a decade), so they took a shine to my Estelle right off.
The theme was cowboys and indians. Works out well considering last year's Halloween costume!
The night before, I texted her and asked if parents were meant to stay or just drop off kids or what. Her response was "comme vous voulez" so Thomas said that meant not the whole family was invited. He stayed home with Léna and I drove into the hills to find Lucas' grandparents villa where the party was......um......let's just say Thomas and Léna could have come:
15 4 and 5-year olds, and 30 adults including ALL the fathers and siblings. There was one other mom there alone, and, like me, she was an acquaintance thru some other venue other than family/school/neighbors. She and I stuck together around the champagne table.
There were games, there were swings, a pool, a boules court, a homemade teepee, a handpainted totem pole, a campfire with suspended copper pots and "bedrolls" around to lay on. It was unbelievable. But all from scratch, all made by hand. Very impressive.
One of the party favors Estelle won - inside was an indian headband with feather!
You can't tell but this is a "spill-over" pool. Quite chic. And the view of the sea beyond...
Front and center in the photo above is the birthday boy, wearing an incredibly elaborate suede costume, with many details - all handmade and sewn by his mom. I mean serious sewing. She's younger than me! Who sews like that anymore that's under 40?
Above: Estelle enjoying her teepee cake, in the teepee. Below: pool madness:
That's Estelle in the blue bikini, and Lucas to her right in the vest.
A few shots of the villa. I in my oh-so-discreet-"I'm a foreigner" manner said to the grandfather (of which there were 3 - 3 pépés and 3 mémés, was totally confused until Estelle (mom) explained who was divorced from whom and who was remarried to whom) "So what was your line of work?" answer: shoe store. Musta solda lotta shoes. Dang.
I shudder to think of the value of this property. Did I mention the boules court?
Above: Estelle and Estelle and another little Indian, bringing out the teepee cake. That cake was pretty impressive. Handmade by Estelle the senior. Did I mention she sews? That cake rivals my sister Martha.
The detail on the cake was not quite Martha-standards but it was pretty darn close.
Estelle very sweetly held onto her gift and waited until the birthday boy had ripped open everything and then handed him her homemade card and book of English CD's and songs. It was so sweet to watch her.
A great party.
