Bashes, Baptisms, BBQs & Baby Teeth

Let's begin with May 28th, Veronique's 40th bday party:
Above: Yannick, Marie, Lisa - below you can see Ludovic to the right:
It was a costume party with the theme "change":
Thomas mixed all kinds of summer and winter clothes and went as "climate change".
I wrote about 15 different famous quotes about change on index cards and put them in an envelope which I wore around my neck and doled them out to people as conversation starters. Ex: "Be the change you want to see in the world" (Ghandi). "Change is the state of norm, not stability" (Heraclitus).
Above: Veronique, the birthday girl, with her costume as an intergalatic woman, changing from one galaxy to another!
Everyone's wigs got a lot of use:
In short, Veronique (below) had fun! Note the time on the clock - at that point Thomas had already biked back to relieve the babysitter, Hippolyte (yes that is really his name).
Saturday June 4th: Léna's little friend Louise had her baptism:
Does Louise look scared? She should be. The priest was half in the bag.
It was the oddest, and funniest, baptism I have ever attended!
Here's Lud playing it cool:
At this point, Marie had to turn her head to stop from laughing....
Cute kids!
At the party after at Marie's stepsister's house, the pool was a free-for-all:



Squirt guns were a BIG hit with Léna!
We also had a little cake for Eva's bday....

Dance Party:
Meanwhile....
Thomas gets into the action:
The "piece montée"
Louise goes for it!
The next day, we went to see my old Scottish boss Shona far out in the hills of the Var valley....
It was to be a BBQ but torrential storms kept us inside. Estelle & Léna got the royal treatment from Shona's amazing kids Martin, Rose & Sarah, all 100% bilingual incredible kids who have no TV and probably an IQ of god knows what.
Léna had a blast! Shona & Jeff's house is in a perched village, meaning literally hanging off the sides of a mountain. It is 5 floors with terraces or balconies at each level complete with plunging vertigo-inspiring views. None of which I have photos of due to the storm.
Rose with Léna:
Sara holds Léna's hand...
Above: Art and sticker work by Estelle....

Lastly, Friday afternoon at the park, Estelle was eating string cheese and pulled a piece out of her mouth and said "Mommy, here's my tooth." I said "No Estelle that's just cheese." I was wrong!
I them promptly let the tooth go flying out of my fingers onto the gravelly pavement in the park where everyone I know, children and parents dropped onto their hands and knees to find it. Marie was the lucky one to lay her hands on the tooth at last! Phew!
The tooth fairy came and gave Estelle a 2 euro coin!

Video of her highness:

Mother's Day & Ascension Weekend!

Last Sunday the 29th was Mother's Day. We had a nice outing in the afternoon to a parc way way up looking over Nice. It was hot and deserted.





Here's a photo from the same park, 4 years ago. Estelle's not the only one who looks younger!
Back to the present:



Back at the ranch:
Shelling peas:
My mother's day card:
My mother's day framed art:

Ascension: Thursday (2 days ago) was Ascension - a national holiday here. Most everyone takes Friday off to make it a 4-day weekend. Schools are all closed. So far we've had 3 great days together as a family.
Thursday: bad weather in the morning, but by mid-afternoon things were looking up. We headed out to the beach at about 5:15. Our favorite: Villefranche.
Our first trip to the beach this season. What a difference - Léna is so much older!












Léna's not the only one growing up:

Estelle, after swimming lessons twice a week for the entire school year, is no longer afraid of the sea:




y

Friday/Yesterday at lunch we met up with old friends who have moved away....
Sylvianne and I were pregnant together 5 years ago. Some faithful blog followers might recognize her. When pregnant with #2, she & her husband moved back to central France where she is from.

Here's an old photo of Estelle, Pauline & her dad Philippe and Eliott too....
Another old photo with the same trio...
Estelle and Pauline jumped right into playing together as if they see each other every day - and yet it has been 2 years! Estelle is about 6 weeks older than Pauline. Funny it makes no difference now, but back when we were all pregnant, we all knew exactly WHO was due WHEN.
Here they are in late June 2008, just before Sylvianne moved.
Now, back to the present: here's Nils asleep - he's 2 months older than Léna (who was also asleep in her stroller!)
We met for a picnic yesterday with Sylvianne & Philippe, Pauline & Nils while they are here visiting. We had a blast.
Best mother's day present from last Sunday: my daughter, asleep wearing a Runaway Pond t-shirt, holding a doll that one of my incredibly talented sisters made me about 37 years ago.
Mother's Day morning video. (Think I look groggy? out til 2 a.m. the night before but Thomas actually let me sleep until 8:45! Can you imagine! Me, the early bird. 8:45. Decadence).

More to come: Veronique's 40th birthday party last wkend (hence out til 2 a.m.) and Louise's baptism today (tipsy priest and all).