Hoppy Easter!

Here's how we decorated the week before the girls left:

The Sunday before we took the girls to Calvinet where they are now on vacation, we spent part of our afternoon in a park that we had not gone to in probably a year - we used to go frequently when we lived on the port.

We got there with Estelle and me on bikes, Léna on the back of my bike, and Thomas on rollerblades to stay right by Estelle's side up and down the hundreds of sidewalk curbs we had to negotiate. Should mention he had had a hockey game earlier that day so he was pooped that night!

The park is called "Castel Deux Rois" (Castle of the 2 kings). The playground had a major renovation since the last time we went. Below: Estelle on some kind of twirly thing.

Lots of other stuff to check out:


Not to be outdone: why stay on the side of the playground for 2 year olds, when the side for the 10 year olds is so much more alluring? And dangerous!

Ran into Thomas' colleague Gilles, who was minding the 2 year old of a friend. Estelle is quite taken with Gilles, and lets him pick her up though she's only met him one other time.

Here she is with Gabin (blue hat).

The park has great views, and great palm trees.

Meanwhile: The Wednesday before leaving, while I was doing some preliminary packing, I discovered this:
All 3 of those white chairs are in Estelle's room. Léna dragged them all into her room and set up this little party for Baby, The Cat in the Hat, and herself.

Here's a photo from last Sunday, Palm Sunday mass in Calvinet, the day we left the girls. This was outside - the girls did NOT attend, too long.
Interestingly, the French in this region use boxwood and laurel sprigs and boughs, not palms, as certainly they would have been/are too hard to come by. It was quite pretty. I have just a tiny bunch in my hand - most mass attendees had large armfuls.

These cherries are edible - made of mazipan (almond paste). Thomas' favorite.
And speaking of hoppy Easter, here's a silly video only of interest to family, showing Estelle following the directions of an American folk song. She cooked this up by herself. Léna spends her time just trying to do whatever Estelle does.

Visits from London & around the corner

The Saturday before break, Estelle's classmate Alice came to play.

She lives a few blocks away and her mother, whilst French, is an English teacher and speaks to Alice in English quite a bit. This is funny for Estelle because Alice understands a lot of what I say.
Things to do:
Tug of war with a jumprope

Play with Dressy Bessy:
Léna likes having visitors in her room!

Decorate brownies...(with chocolate chips from Canada - Helene that's you!)
Get out the playdough:
Board games:

I guess when you are invited for a playdate, you should bring flowers. Even if you are 4. Here is the rose Alice brought Estelle.

Make music:

Eat brownies!
There were a few tears when someone won or lost a game but in general they had a great time. You can see they are used to "sparring" in the classroom because they were very comfortable with each other and made no bones about defending themselves.
Meanwhile, queen for a day:


I'm getting up on this bench if it's the last thing I do:
Ready for the Phish concert:
One other afternoon we got to see our friends from London, the Berrys:
Eleanor and Benjamin entertained the kids:
Janette and I chatted nonstop.
Benjamin, 5 years ago, took Latin lessons from me when they spent a year living in Nice in their home here. Since then they are back in London.

Eleanor got a workout:
Doesn't she look tired?
Great to see them, as always.
So, here we are, Thomas and I are on morning 3 of waking up to an empty apartment. Let's put it this way, it's 7:51 a.m. and one of us is still asleep.

Fingers, Fish, Fools, Fountains, Fowl

April Fool's Day in France is called "Poisson d'Avril". The object is to stick some kind of paper (or other) fish on other people's backs without them knowing it. Just as simple as that. Nothing more, no pranks, no hoaxes, no War of the Worlds. Just slap that fish on without the other guy knowing.
This was so much fun for Estelle. She made this fish at school. The big 'joke' for her class was that when they open the gates (literally, there are gates) and all the parents rush in at 4:30 to pick up their kids, Estelle's class was not in their classroom. They were no where to be found. They were....hiding with their teacher in the "library" (which, p.s. I didn't even know existed as we have never been in it nor shown it nor told about it).

Sunday the 3rd Thomas took the girls to a big enclosed animal park near the airport (I was frantically working, as I have been for 2 weeks on 2 big deadlines). There happened to be an antique car show next door.

Antique? This? What?

Yep. cute.
Here's a look towards the Asian Arts Museum of Nice, adjacent to the park.
Some great fountains at this park. Some are musical!

A bit of waterfowl.
She might as well be in high school. Look at her! She's FOUR.

Some kinda wierdo kangaroo stuff. (Remember thomas took all these photos)
Later in the week, Léna, true to her recent obsessions with advertising leaflets (remember the Playmobile circa 1986), carries around a DVD ad for Curious George for 3 days.

Why do anything else? Stick beads on your fingers. In perfect colored symmetrical order, please note. (OCD? Whatever do you mean?)

"Get those beads outta my grill, sis."

Okay off to bed.