Photos from Angers

One month ago we went to Angers and I didn't ever post many photos - here's the balance of the shots. Above - Estelle and Manou enjoy a book in Estelle's room.

At the Nice airport on our flight up, we ran into Estelle's buddy Loup. That was a fun way to start the trip.
Always good to start things off with a lovely cake....
A beautiful Sunday afternoon at a park I had never been to...

Estelle enjoyed this "spider's web"




Making crepe batter.


A beautiful walk on the bank of the Maine river - just a 5 minute stroll from the house...

aha...CREPES!

Yummy crepes! Papy makes a face on one for Estelle.Even Léna knows a good crepe when she sees one....

Playing hopscotch with sidewalk chalk...

Here Estelle tried to draw every one of her 24 cousins in America.
Claudine and Rollant came to visit and brought dominos for Estelle. Poor Claudine didn't know what she was in for. Estelle wanted to play with her all the time.

Making her hobby horse for her Cowgirl costume.

Tea at Claudine and Rolland's house - homemade goodies - those shell-shaped sponge cakes are a French tradition called "Madelines".
Outside Claudine's playing tag.


The day before we left, we went into downtown Angers and Estelle had a few pony rides...

This blur is me, holding Léna on the fastest bumpiest merry-go-round this side of the Mississippi. I was dizzy and naseous for a long time after!
Estelle on the horse, after her real pony rides!

My Cousin's "CSA" Farm in Jericho, Vermont

My cousin Christa Alexander and her husband Marc run Jericho Settler's Farm.
I've blogged about them before (click HERE), for example.
Anyways, here's a recent video of Marc talking about the farm!

Hog Heaven

That's sisterly love. Below, Léna enjoys a little playtime with Louise while their big sisters were at swim class.


These things below are edible pigs, they are quite a delicacy - all cream and mousse and cake inside. My friend Philippe brought them for the girls last Sunday morning when he came for brunch.
Neither girl would touch them. Thomas and I were "forced" to eat them, snort snort.
And here's Léna showing how she can "Meow" and sign "cat".

He Shoots, He Scores

An amateur-professional sports photographer that Thomas knows went to his game Sunday night. Here's a sampling:














I always was a sucker for a man on skates.

Happy Halloween! Ride 'Em Cowgirl!

Happy Halloween, everyone! And Happy 43rd Bday to my brother Wesley!
We just flew back today to Nice after having been in Angers for 10 days.
Estelle got to celebrate Halloween Thursday night at the English Library in Angers.
Photo below: Estelle and Papy working on Estelle's hobby horse that was part of her costume.

This was one cool horse, which was discussed at breakfast and was a finished reality before lunchtime. It was made with the end of a hockey stick, some pieces of Thomas' playroom, and part of a strap of a boot. Good old homemade Halloween costumes!
Meanwhile, Léna, a.k.a. the Busy Bee. And below, Estelle a.k.a. Annie Get Your Gun.
That other little girl was just one of the MANY princesses at the Library's Halloween event Thursday night. Of about maybe 5o kids, there was only one Cowgirl and one bumblebee!
Estelle's cowgirl outfit came piecemeal from Aunt Martha over the past 2 years. We are thrilled! The only thing I bought was the hat for 5 bucks.

The Library's event was many different stations, all manned by real anglophone university exchange students, and each station had a different activity/task, at the end of which kids got candy and stickers on a map that they had to complete. It was great fun, for me too!
This was some kind of Harry Potter thing:
This nice Welsh lady pulled creepy things out of her bag and told the kids their names in English once. Then the kids had to locate each thing once she called out the name. Estelle thought this was easy-peasy - she said "why does she want me to tell her where the nose is? Doesn't she know it is called a nose?"
This was some kind of maze with music. The boys running this gave us lots of candy!
Pumpkin carving! Yeah!
There were some fun costumes....


Some great activities and some of them were arts & crafts, like turning oranges into mini-pumpkins with candles in them, a new one on me. The whole event itself took just over an hour. Great Halloween fun.
We had lots of fun during the week, thanks to Papy & Manou - more photos on another post!

Strike, Strike, Go Away

Another one today. If only I understood it all, but I don't. Now there's a gas shortage because the strikers are holding the petrol hostage in tankers off Marseille. If we make it out of here Friday morning and make it up to Stephan & Laure's wedding in Nantes this wkend, it may just take a miracle.
Meanwhile:
No this is not child labor in strike aftermath. 2 Saturdays ago we had a little soirée with 2 1/2 other couples and a total of 7 kids. Estelle's room got pretty wild.
Eliott hung tough as the lone boy amidst 6 girls.
Estelle enjoys a bath, making Irish soda bread with me one morning....
A visit from my friend Chantal...
Socca with 2 retired teachers from Hazen High school, colleagues of my brother Wes.
Playing PlayMobil with Pierre. Supposedly we'll be getting on a plane Friday morning......if there's not a strike....