Pre-Bday & Other Fun

This particular school day, Estelle designed her own hair-do.Last Friday, Thomas biked back and forth to work. A huge feat! 22 kilometers (14 miles with a big hill). Wearing all my Louis Garneau gear from VT.
From the balcony at 7:00 a.m. - Thomas and our English neighbor Richard, starting out - yes Thomas did have a helmet, just had taken it off for the photo.
Last Saturday evening: a visit from Thomas' hockey buddy Stephan and his wife Lillian who is Brazilian and their son Kilian. They enjoyed Léna's bird book from Joanie.
Sunday: Estelle and I went to Villefranche for a swim, just the 2 of us.
Later that day, afternoon tea with Valerie and Xavier, our olive friends. Here's Xavier working on his beehives and Estelle attentively "helping".
Enjoying the pool, Valerie holding Estelle.
Watering the trees:
This week my friend Simon arrived from London. He stayed with other friends for the first part of his week here, but came for lunch on Wednesday. Estelle enjoyed using him as her English Patient.
Then Dr. Simon took over.
Léna thought his accent was funny.
That day Estelle decided to wear one of her old onesies from when she was 6-months old, Ben & Jerry's baby from Uncle Paul.
Wednesday night I had a student come from 7:30 to 8:30, something I never do, but as it is the season of the Bac (International Baccalaureat), student panic is rampant. Thomas had to go to a hockey going away party, was annoyed that my student was coming and couldn't come earlier. Really, though, there was no hockey party - after my student left at 8:30 pm., I went into my kitchen to find 4 friends who whisked me out for a bday bash, having reorganized the original plan for 7:30!
I am between Veronique and Fransiska, and across are Emilie and Marie. We all have 4 year olds (well, they do, Estelle's not quite 4 yet).
So totally a surprise, and so great. We even went to have hamburgers!I got home at midnight and it just about killed me to be out late like that with a full plate of teaching and biking here there and everywhere the next day on Thursday, but it was worth every second. So FUN!
Today, Friday = start of the World Cup, France had a 0-0 game much to my husband's disgust. But I spent the day on the beach near Monaco, my birthday present to myself. heaven.............. photos on that tomorrow!

Wednesday Play Date

Today was gym class as usual, then after Oana came over to visit with Serena, who is now 5 months.Then this afternoon we had 3 of Estelle's classmates over for a playdate, with their moms and one little sister (named Lina, who is 4 months older than Léna).
These photos are from when you could still see the floor in Estelle's room. In the foreground you can see the Lina/Léna show.
Solange in green, Emma in white and Selma in pink.
Julie is Lina/Selma's mom. Missing in my photos (while things were still calm enough to take photos are Celine and Christine, the other moms).
Here's a 2 minute video before the fun began. I should mention that I served fantastic scones that I made in about 12 minutes, rockstar! And a marble-cake that Thomas made at 10 p.m. last night. Also good (even though he forgot to put in the milk!)

Mother's Day in France

Mother's Day is today in France. Our day started with some chocolate croissants from the bakery down the street, then off we went to the beach on the edge of the French border to Monaco.
Above, Estelle in between Eliott and Loup on the water's edge.
Léna loved played with the pebbles while the kids played with Arnaud.
Léna says 'No way am I going in that water'.
The water was a bit chilly so us mothers let Arnaud, Eliott's father, take one for the team! He stayed in a good 30 minutes with all 3 kids.
Meanwhile, everybody's favorite Frenchie raked the beach to get rid of the dead blue jellyfish that you see lining the rocks.
What you don't see is Fransiska, me and Veronique (Loup's mom) laying down drinking tea.
Back at the ranch, it was time to have some fun with France's favorite vegetable, leeks.
And later, playing with a sand project kit from Estelle's godfather Francois. We got this when we saw him a month or so ago, but it was the same day as "The Outbreak" (lice) and so it got thrown into a cupboard and we forgot about it. It's been a hit every since we (I) stumbled on it whilst in a OCD clean-up phase.
I also got a nice card and a new blouse from my family. And lots of kisses! happy French mother's day!
Below: 2 minutes of Léna, her spoon, Estelle....

Pentecost Party

First, a few shots from BeBe Nageur Saturday morning:
Above, Thomas holding Léna on a watermat. Below, Estelle Merman in rehearsal for Ziegfield Follies.


Fun for everybody:
Sunday: Park in Villefranche.

Pentecost Monday - national holiday and our little friend Eva's 4th bday bash. Léna looking not sure about the cheese stuck to her face....
Estelle can't believe her good luck, she has a bag of potato chips, first ones since we were in VT in February.
Léna finds an empty bag of chips.
The party had a nautical/seaman/sailor theme. In fact in French it is called "Moussaillons" which is the little children who would work on boats and would always wear this little special hats. We went wearing our handmade printed fish shirts, each printed with a real (dead, frozen) painted on then stuck on fish. So cool! Thanks Jericho cousins!

Eliott REALLY looked like a little sailor. It was a bit like "On the Town", what a great film.
There was a lot of little sailors at this party!

You see Estelle in the yellow shirt, to her left is Eva, birthday girl. Next year they will be at the same school as Estelle will switch schools in September.
Ludovic, father to Eva and owner of a small creperie, made Nutelle crepes for everyone ahead of time. The candles went on the crepes and everybody sang.
A lovely 3-day weekend!

Firsts (and Foremost!)

My First (and only) godson, Wayne, made his First Communion a week ago. Is he a cutie or what?Meanwhile, his much older cousin Sara who is the First Grandchild is the First in our family (of many?) to become a lawyer! Here's Sara at her Commencement ceremony where she graduated from GW law school.
The First Lady, Michele Obama, gave the commencement speech!
While these events were happening across the Atlantic, here in Nice we were doing a few fun things in honor of my Dad, new things we'd never done. We started our day with Léna's first trip to the pool, photos on that for another time.
In the afternoon, we tried to go for a little walk/hike, but couldn't get to the little mountain because all of northern Nice was blocked off for the Nice soccer match that happened to be that evening. So, instead, we stumbled on a park.
In the background above you might make out some kind of marble structure with columns. Le Temple de Diane. Below: Sisterly fun.
Enjoying walking with help.
pint-sized playground:
Up to something.
The "Temple de l'Amour"
I had seen this almost 9 years ago my first year here in Nice. It was fun to check it out again from a different perspective.
Below: Thomas and Léna are "walking".
That evening, it was the Museum Night at museums all across Europe. They were open in the evening with special events. Here's the Modern Art Museum at the end of our street.
That's an Alexander Calder sculpture next to Estelle.
Facing the museum is the Theatre where I go.
On Sunday the wholesale market of the whole area had its Open House for normal people. We were there right when it opened because over 100 thousand people attended over 2 days. Normally you have to have a badge, etc to get into this massive complex of wholesalers which is located near the airport.
Above: We Sell Beets, and only Beets. Here are some below:
This is just one of the many many halls where we went to buy fresh fruits, veggies and local products direct from the producers/wholesalers. Here we are buying lavendar honey for Estelle, who is a fan.

This rooster was twice the size of Léna. There was quite a bit of small farm animals.
Nap time.
First ice cream of the season. Bubble Gum Flavor!