Léna turns 4 today!

 Yesterday (Sat 27th) we drove to Saint Cannat, near Aix-en-Provence, to meet up with everyone at Thomas' cousin Pascal & Sylvie's house.   I brought the cake (well really it was 2 cakes one top of the other, but that's another story).

 The 8 Smurf candles were certainly the crowning touch - they should be, at 14 bucks.  !

 Andrée & Guy drove to Pascal's from Calvinet, where the girls had been since April 12th.  Though both of them had been car sick, they were in fine form.  Aurore (pictured above, Pascal's younger daughter), had also made a cake to celebrate Yvette's 81st bday which was on the 25th.

 Somehow Estelle was the one to blow out the candles!

 Yvette & Dédé live right in Aix, so we were so happy to see them too!  It was a nice reunion.

 Meanwhile, Agathe, Pascal's older daughter, owns a horse, named Cascabel, and the stables is just down the road.  So she brought him by, and SuperChat (class mascot of Léna's class who has been with us since April 12th) got to meet the horse!

 After the horse, we went back in and lit the candles again (gotta get my 14 bucks worth!)

 Finally the sun came out and Estelle got to do what she's been waiting for - the trampoline!

 Meanwhile, guy talk.  And, Guy talks.  (I know, I know, but it was too fun a joke to pass it up).  Thomas and Pascale (first cousins), Dédé and Guy (married to sisters).

 We got home LATE last night - 10:15!   One of these little girls below stepped into the apartment, put on her pymamas and went right to sleep.  The other stayed awake until midnight.  Guess which was which.  Hmmmmmm.  This morning, said night owl was awake at 6:45.  Hmmmmmm.......

 The day began with Barbie.  Then, waffles and a card from Grammie & Aunt Lisa & Uncle Dan.

 Then, we took Léna shopping with her special birthday money from Papy & Manou.  After, we went out to an Indian restaurant.  SuperChat enjoyed this outing as well.  He's really been getting around France in the past 2 weeks.  I think he'll be happy for a little peace and quiet back at school tomorrow.

 After lunch, back home to open up the new Barbie and her horse, Tawny.  Thanks Agathe and Cascabelle for inspiring us!

 Merci Papy & Manou!

 So much to play with, so little time.  It's hard to be 4 years old.

 There's a lot of decisions to make.

 And cake to eat.  (please note the "4" candle in use AGAIN. I'm saving the Smurfs for their encore appearance next weekend at Léna big birthday party  - lord give me strength).

 And after bath time, one last round of singing Happy Birthday, behind the lilacs from Saint Cannat.  We also REALLY enjoyed Aunt Martha & Uncle Chris calling and singing pretending to be their cats meowing out the Happy Birthday song.  They were on our speakerphone and our whole family was howling with appreciative amusement cause they REALLY sounded like cats.

It's been a great birthday, even if it rained all day!

Calvinet in April

Last weekend, we did a quick up and back to Calvinet to bring the girls to Guy & Andrée for their 2-week vacation.  We pulled the girls out of school on that Friday (12th) and were on the road by 7:30 a.m. to begin the long drive.   By early afternoon we had reached this village below, Entraygues.

 Soon after our arrival, since it was raining, it was time to play card games with Manou:

 This darling darling photo is Léna (wearing what was Heather's old favorite sweater), playing with Guy (already wiped out from 2 hours with Léna) and this vintage Lincoln Log set that had been Guy's as a child.  They were precious.

 We saw a lot of Uncle Riri.  Here's he and Thomas engaged in some intense philosophical discussion.

Friday evening the rain stopped and we went for a little walk down to Riri's, just down the road.

 The girls immediately jumped the bikes of their 2nd cousins, Annaelle and Hugo, Riri's grandchildren.

 This valley was beautiful in the falling light that evening after the rain.  You can see  the church steeple, where Léna was baptised and where Guy & Andrée were married!

 Saturday we had nothing but sun and blue skies, so here's a photo of us down below the village, checking out a friend's garden.  You can see Léna is carrying a large bouquet of yellow daffodils, cut by friend Christiane.

 On the right, the rather "modern" house with the white paint belongs to Henri Ouillade, Guy's cousin, who has been in a retirement home with his wife for a few years now. Their house sadly sits empty as they had no children.

 It was a lovely morning walk.

 After lunch, Thomas and I went for a quick walk/hike up to Puy Majou, a lovely scenic viewpoint just above the village, probably a 15-minute walk from their house. 

 At some point the BoyScouts or somebody put up 3 crosses.

 Maybe 2 summers ago, a local couple married up there, and they had a log altar built, which still stands.

 There's a bench and a picnic spot too. 

 These photos do not do this scene justice.  It was like looking at a painting - so many colors of green, it didn't seem real.

 Sunday morning we pulled up stakes to make the long drive back.  Here are the girls looking out the kitchen window.  30+ years ago, this building had been the barn, and they converted it into their vacation spot.  4 years ago they did the major renovation/addition with the glass cube and the mezzanine.  Now, the "old" kitchen in this photo is about to be re-done.  This door below was the original split barn door, except last week Guy has a mason come and "stone over" the bottom half of the door as part of the renovation. Soon this will be where the kitchen sink will look out!

 When we were on our way out of the village, we saw the lunch pit stop for a bike rally.  It would have been a great ride for sure - I was jealous!

Now, back in Nice a week later.  We had a busy week - I was teaching a week-long immersion course for adults and it was tiring, plus had a translation to do at night.  This wkend has been relaxing with a lot of socializing and today we went to eat in Italy with 3 other couples.
Our girls are having a great time in Calvinet!

15 years of wedded bliss

And here they are, 15 years ago today.  It was a windy but lovely spring day as I recall.
Happy wedding anniversary to my wonderful brother and his incredibly kind wife!  It was fun to be part of the wedding party that day, even if my slip did ride up under my dress and look like a spare tire.  ha ha
We had a wonderful meal and yummy cake and ice cream with beautiful bird house decorations everywhere!  I remember doing Darlene's hair that morning, and setting up tables the night before.  Both my dad and Darlene's were with us then - such special memories.

Cluck Cluck Cluck Scratch Scratch Scratch

Remember this post from January 2009?
Well, lucky us.  Here we go again.  But "Varicelle" unfortunately doesn't have a nice catchy rhyme with "Léna".......