June 13: Pentecost & Parties

Last weekend was a 3-day weekend for Pentecost.
First, on Saturday, we had our friend Pierre over for lunch.
Thomas made a sautée de veau (braised veal)and chorizo with a green-olive tomato sauce and polenta. Yum!

Pierre spent some time in the States and can hold his own with English. He enjoyed reading "The Tooth Fairy" to Estelle who had just lost her tooth the night before. He then used his iPhone to show Estelle diagrams of the human mouth to determine the official name of the tooth she had lost. I already forgot what it is!

later Saturday night - last swim lesson for the year:
Here's Eva going done and Estelle waiting on deck
This is into water well over her head (over my head too!)
Once she plunges in, she swims over to the ladder in the corner...
Fabio and (some of) the herd:
A celebratory cocktail afterwards....
Read a few books, thanks to Eva (who can read!)
Celestin and Estelle look on....
Sunday 12: prepare for the tea party:




Morning of the party - Pentecost Monday, no school, no work for Thomas.
One game of "set the tea table" ( I was literally tracing these things onto the paper as the girls were arriving, hence the mutant fork).
Irina, Estelle, Emma, Alice, Lilou
Decorating scones:


The finished scones:
Play time!
I bought many tutus at a church shop - plus Snow White. Martha may recognize the white and pink outfits from Alexandra?
Racing to set the table!
Singing moment:
Now the dollies get their tea:
Games #2: stacking sugar cubes:

Mae made a flower:

Happy birthday, sung in French, English, Roumanian (Irina) and Japanese (Mae).
I served each girl her own scone, and suddenly saw them all grimacing. Long story short...I realized that in my panic of party prep, I had used one tablespoon baking SODA and not baking POWDER. YUCK. Threw it all away and pulled out ice cream cups!
Enjoying some gifts:

More piano action
After lunch: Birthday fun for Mommy: touring Nice's answer to Arlington Nat'l cemetery, which shockingly I had never been to (out of the way).
WWI graves.....

Fransiska & Eliott joined us...

military -


A grave for nuns: nothing but a cross, no names. Very striking.
Here's part of the more modern Jewish section...





And then, off to the beach at 5:30....

Back at the ranch, Estelle takes our photo!
This little piggy went straight to bed....
What a great birthday weekend!

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: