One More Week Gone By

Firstly, here's some photos from Easter Monday the 13th. We were at an Easter Egg Hunt at Emilie & Jerome's house. Their son Noah is about 6 weeks older than Estelle.
Eliott, Estelle, Ava and Noah. Ava is the oldest of the 4 - born mid-May.
Estelle enjoys Easter stickers from Aunt Martha and immediately puts all of them on the same piece of cardboard.
This week has been one to remember. High emotions, fatigue, unexpected events and yet lots of joy have combined to make it memorable.
I slept poorly for 5 consecutive nights which made me feel like a walking zombie. Our living/dining/everything room was empty for 4 days as painters finally came to repair/repaint the ceiling and walls after a leak from an upstairs neighbor. Better now than after our baby arrives, we decided. They should have finished by Friday. They have not. We are living like gypsies in the 11th hour of this pregnancy. It is frustrating, bizarre, and comical all at once.
My father's older sister who fell in her home lowering a windowshade on Saint Patrick's Day has been in ICU for a month. She lost both kidney and spleen, simply cannot recover from this accident and has asked to die with dignity thus is home on hospice. There are many reasons why this is sad and hard, for many people. She is the first of his 3 sisters to leave. It is particularly hard to be far away, and surreal to be expecting life when another treasured one is ending.Enjoying some couch time with Estelle this wkend once we put our couch back in the living room so we could at least function for a few days (and sit down!)
Thursday I got my first taste of a contraction this time around and thought for sure the jig was up. Yet here I sit, Sunday evening, and still chugging along. Who knows!

This morning we hit the beach in Villefranche around 10 a.m. just to enjoy the beautiful weather. Who knows when I'll be on the beach again!
Walking down the lane to the beach.
A dog enjoys the water.
Boats in the bay:
Hanging out with a croissant:Making Stone Soup:

Playing a "flute"
A nearby chateau just above the beach:Sadly, we did encounter a natural disaster at the plage.....a beached whale:Cooling off in the water:
Estelle decided to get right in!Later, back at the empty living room ranch, we had some fun with a puzzle of the States. Thomas said 'I can do that no sweat." Here's what he came up with after a minute:
The block of states in the N.E. (of course VT), Florida and W-territory Texas. Then things got trickier. He kept trying to put Kansas where Oregon should be. Ouch.
This afternoon we went to visit our neighbor, an elderly widow who fell and broke her arm 2 months ago at a bus-stop and has been in a clinic ever since as she could not care for herself. I thought of how lucky my aunt is to be home with her husband and children and grandchildren surrounding her. Thankfully our neighbor is finally coming home this week.
And here's a little video from this morning:

Happy Easter

Our Easter weekend is full of fun. Look at all our goodies from Papy & Manou!
This chocolate plaque says "Joyeuses Paques", or, Happy Easter!
Amongst the goodies were these incredible works of art - all marzipan!
Thomas ate all of them, one right after the other, in about 4 minutes. We all have our vices.
Here's Estelle enjoying her Easter morning with a funny little cow egg cup from Cathy. The red egg you see on her tray is one that we dyed together yesterday.
Today we headed out at 10:30 to Mougins to Craig and Doug's Easter Feast. It was a warm day, not too sunny, but no rain. Here's a few shots of the grounds:

The new "conservatoire" or solarium recently built downstairs underneath the terrace.
Here's the cabana were I relaxed inbetween the meal and dessert.
I'm not the only one who needed a chaise lounge. It's a dog's life.
There were about 28 or 30 of us, including 5 kids.
A lot of super-yummy food, as usual. As you can't get hams here, one of the guests brought it over from London in her suitcase on Thursday so that Craig could cook it up.

Some poolside mingling.
Doug and Estelle take a stroll.
This used to be the back shed. Now it is Doug's office complete with Wifi - MELISSA, can you believe this was that old shed full of spiders?

And now for my traditional look at......the desserts:
Here's a flourless chocolate and almond cake covered in cream and fresh raspberries, decorated with chocolate eggs. Made by a British woman whose mom was a famous cook and had her own show.

Here is my cake, which is less stunning but a visual treat for all the children. I incorporated the chocolate plaque we got from Thomas' parents and several little decorations off an Easter package from sister Joan years back. 3 colors of frosting. And the children helped me decorate. Hence the crazy green lines (Martha, please note done with a plastic baggie for lack of a decorator's bag). Yankee ingenuity.
What you DON'T know is that I in fact made cupcakes last night, but as greasing and flouring just didn't work and they were not fit to bring as they didn't come out well of the mold. So I made a SECOND cake and went with the tried and true sheet cake. Mother, this is that Dairy Association 1956 cookbook recipe for the Fluffy Layer cake. But it wasn't fluffy! But Thomas has enjoyed eating about 14 cupcakes since last night since I just left them here.
Here's Doug's homemade apple crumble: whoah baby.
Here's the only store-bought dessert. It was loaded with cream and raspberries. Lucious.
Here's Claudia (Dutch), grating fresh chocolate over her Tiramisu. Thomas said it was fantastic. I don't eat Tiramisu because it always has coffee in it, which I don't care for. But it was a hit.
And if you just needed some fruit:
After dessert there was the big Easter Egg Hunt. These 2 little boys live in London but their parents are both American. They were all visiting C&D for the wkend.

Finding eggs in a tree.
On the prowl around the pool.
Estelle in hot pursuit of the older boys:
Estelle find some in the back next to the goldfish pond & fountain:
Little Dylan checks his intake:

My friend Philippe gives Estelle a hand while Craig looks on:
Estelle rakes it in:More running about:
The 3 littler kids comparing all the loot:
And then those boys took a dip in a chilly pool before going into the hot tub. Estelle enjoyed dipping her fingers and toes, under Daddy's watchful eye.
Meanwhile, before all this, Estelle's new bed finally arrived Friday:And here she is enjoying it:
Earlier in the week, my mid-wife and the other woman in my childbirth class came over and we had our class at my apartment as the center is having some renovation. Helene is one of the mid-wives who helped me during my first pregnancy - and here she is holding Estelle!

Here's Estelle, showing her affection:
Here she's trying to listen for a response:

All in all, a lot of fun and chocolate! And as tomorrow (Monday) is a national holiday, the fun continues - stay tuned!

Happy Fete to Me!

Today is my "fete", or Saint's Day.
Every day is attributed to a saint, and April 8th is always la fete de Sainte Julie. This means I get lots of emails and text messages from people wishing me "bonne fete"! It is kind of fun!
A few photos of last weekend:
On Saturday after the pool Estelle decided that all her Playmobile people should be more free-thinking, thus as a result most of them had their hair removed to allow more brain energy. At the same time, she thought they could all benefit from a tea party using a Jordanian tea service I brought back from Amman years ago.Sunday off to the park with friends. You can see which kid ALWAYS gets down the slide first. Evil Kenival.
A little group at the park. Esteliott, Thomas and Loup (mom's Fransiska, Celine & Veronique).
Profile shot for the full effect.
We got out our Easter decorations.
Also we realized we could take one side off Estelle's crib to get her used to sleeping "in the open" as we anticipate the delivery of her new big bed in the next few weeks. Friday night was the first try. We found her on the floor many times - fast asleep. Since that 1st night there have been no incidents - but the cushions are still in place, just in case!
Sunday afternoon everyone got to have some tea.
Quite sure that the Jordanians don't put plastic Easter eggs in their tea sets. Sure this is some kind of sacriledge against Islam (or whatever).
And lastly, an opened-up delivery box makes for great drawing.

Always something happening!