Emilie's wedding Aug 25th

 3 weeks ago we were getting ready for Emilie's wedding in Calvinet.  Emilie is Thomas' cousin once-removed, his cousin Joelle's only child.  Above, shining shoes.

 The building below is where Joelle & Thierry, parents of the bride, live.  Thierry rebuilt this whole building.  He also built Guy's new addition (designed by Guy).  The ground floor of this building is the village bakery.

 Unfortunately, just at the moment of the 2 p.m. civil ceremony and the 3 p.m. church service (both held in "downtown" Calvinet), it was raining.  So I have almost no photos of that part. 

 I have almost NO photos of Chris, the groom.  Ooops!  He was very handsome, all in white.

 Estelle & Annaelle, in matching dresses, blowing bubbles in the rain.  After the church service was the "vin d'honneur", which is a tradition.  The champagne was outshone by the biggest brioche rings I have ever seen in my life, like the size of a tractor tire.  Everyone kept saying "But how did the baker do it?  Where's the over that they fit in?"  Tragically, I haven't any photos.  Again, the rain made it difficile.

 At 7 p.m. the convoy left for the 1 hour drive to the chateau where the real party began.  This is an example of one of the flower displays.  It was as tall as me.  I found out later that the florist, while mounting this, was stung many times up her arm by hornets.  More on that later.

 This was a chateau, called Chateau Labro, in a place called Onet-le-Chateau.

 The barn turned into a dining hall reminded Thomas & I of our own Vermont wedding at Maple Manor.

 The piece montée - caramalized creme puffs turned into a sculpture. 

 Chris & Emilie have a 4-month old daughter, Anna - it was also her baptism.  So this is the piece montée for her baptism - a cradle.

 Find your seat by looking at this seating chart.

 Emilie giving a speech!

 All of her aunts & uncles did a little show.  This is quite traditional in France, for people to do skits and songs at weddings.

 These are Emilie's own cousins, who also did quite an impressive skit with complicated choreography, all to the tune of "Oh What a Night".  You can see the bride and groom watching.

 Here's me participating (I was strong-armed) in a game called "Gage" (which means a dare, or challenge).  12 contestants come up with their chairs.  The DJ hollers out a "gage", for example:  "Go get a high heeled shoe!"  and the contestants go charging into the crowd of guests, scrambling to grab someone's high-heeled shoe, then run back to the line of chairs and sit down (The DJ having removed one, like in musical chairs).  So each round one person gets eliminated.  Guess who the first person eliminated was. 

 In my defense, everyone else knew the game and I didn't even get it explained to me until I had already lost!  Each round's loser has to do something for the newlyweds.  I'm supposed to take them to play boules in September.  The person who lost for December has to bring them a Christmas tree, etc.   I admit it was hilarious to watch some of Thomas' cousins running their butts off to try and get back to their chairs with a glass of red wine.  Or a champagne cork.  Or a wedding ring.  See that girl in the red dress who smartly removed her shoes?  She won.

 This photo was taken at 4:30 a.m.  I kid you not.  Anaelle and Estelle look better than Thomas and I did!  Emilie looked so beautiful!  Léna left with Guy and Andrée at 2:45 a.m. to head back to Calvinet.  We had a hotel room just nearby.  The inner circle had the rooms at the chateau.

 Estelle didn't want to leave!

 Next morning, back for the brunch!  It was a short night's sleep.

 A vineyard surrounds the swimming pool at the chateau.

 A few shots from inside the chateau.  T's cousin Marthe took me up to show me her tower room.

 View of the swimming pool from Marthe's room. 

 This tree house is the bridal suite where Emilie & Chris stayed.

 Here are all the cousin's once removed.  These are all the butcher's grandchildren. The butcher being Andrée's late brother Raymond.

1 minute after I took this photo, I was stung in the ear by a hornet and a surreal chain of events followed, including lit cigarettes on my ear and vinegar-soaked cotton.  It's funny now though was not at the time nor for about 4 days afterward.

A VERY FUN WEDDING!  Now I need to see if I can get some boules shipped to the happy couple in Calvinet.  hmmmmmmm...........

Fresh Start

 Back to school!  Estelle moves over to the "big school" for first grade, and Léna begins preschool full-time.

 Léna must wear a yellow apron with her name on it.  This is one of the 2 we bought.  They cost 33 dollars each.  Seriously.  Not including the name badge.  It's a racket.

 Matching backpacks!

 Estelle on her first day!

 All week Estelle has been asking me to cut off her hair.  She brings it up every day.  Today we decided to do something about it.  BEFORE:

 AFTER!

She looks old to me!

Return to Vermont - Estelle's birthday party!

 Friday July 20th - Over morning coffee, Lisa recounts her trip to Nantucket.  I hope my legs look as toned as Lisa's in 15 years when I'm her age.  She looks like a marathon runner!

 Léna listens attentively.  If only she looked this sweet all the time.

 That day, I drove back up to Vermont with the girls to Martha's.  I threw the girls into the pool and turned out and went out the door to the Richmond Farmer's Market, to help Cedric sell Susan's new brainchild, Vermont Switchel.  What a great afternoon I had with Cedric!

 After he came back to read the girls a story and relieve Uncle Chris who had been on duty!

 Saturday morning:  I ditched my rental car and Martha & Chris took us all to Colchester.  Finally, I was able to go to dear Aunt Becky's grave.  She died in early April, and I was the only one not at her funeral. 

 She is in an incredible cemetery, known as The Munson Cemetery, for her husband's Walter's family.

 From there we headed straight to Shadow Lake, as it was a hot day.   Along the way we listened to South Pacific non-stop, had a picnic in Johnson, and got Chris some bad coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts.  We ran the back roads thru Craftsbury to get to the lake, and when we arrived,  Ed & Sandy & Elijah were there waiting for us.

 Estelle even caught a fish using Elijah's pole!

 As luck would have it, it was the day of the annual Shadow Lake Boat Parade!

 I don't know if there was a theme, but there were some funny floats.  Below was Mardi Gras.

 This guy was Neptune/Poseidon.

 Sometimes we had no clue exactly what they were supposed to be. 

 These ladies were the Milfoil witches.  Too funny.   They threw out ziplock baggies of candy, for which Uncle Ed promptly dove right in to fetch.  The bags had candy worms and eyeballs.  This was for source of much squealing and excitement for Elijah, Estelle & Léna.

 So lovely to be back at the lake - not to say we didn't love all those days in Lisa's pool!

 Uncle Cedric joined!

 And hey the gang's all here!

 Peter & family and Wesley & family & Joan all joined. Martha & Chris were so nice they even took all my stuff up to Joan's and fetched some groceries so I could stay in the water with the girls.  AND they even took my rental car spare key back to the airport that night.  Now THAT'S love.

 Corn, chips, hotdogs.  What every 6 year old wants on their birthday.  Plus, the most beautiful cake ever:

 Look at that!  Darlene is a professional!

 She was SO EXCITED!

 Look at all those happy voices singing!

 She can't believe her good luck:

 Dig in!

 Whoah baby!  It's good to be six, you get 6 dollars!

 Look at all that loot.

 Glam accessories!  Heeled slippers, what she's always wanted!

 Thanks to everyone for all your nice gifts and cards, that day, and many others who gave her birthday gifts at some point this summer!

 Life is good when you're the Queen.   Estelle loves having her birthday at the lake.  It is so special for her.  And for me!

What a great, great evening at the lake and we were so tickled that so many people were able to join us on a moment's notice.  The power of family. There were 19 of us there.  Wow!
 It began a long stretch of many many days and nights at the lake for me over the following 2 weeks and 5 days.   Stay tuned.....