11

11 years gone by. Seems like more, seems like less.

Taken around 1994, at my Aunt Becky's. Wish he could have met my husband. Wish he could have seen my children. Wish he was alive to tell me to get myself over to La Rochelle and start researching more on the Perrons. Last night I dreamed Becky was cracking jokes about him telling me I should be sleeping on a foam mattress. Funny, the subconscious. Here's to remembering a life well-lived!

Bonne Fete Estelle! Birthday Cupcakes and the Tooth Faire

Today, May 11th, is Estelle's "fete" - her saint's day.  Here are some photos of her on Wednesday morning when she woke up to find her note from the tooth fairy.

Wednesday we baked cupcakes from scratch with homemade buttercream frosting for Léna's belated bday celebration.  We had fun.

It's so nice to take naps on Wednesdays.

Today, Friday, Estelle took lollipops to school to share with her whole class to celebrate her fete.  Yesterday Léna took the cupcakes to the nanny's to celebrate her bday since she was away for the real day.  I forgot how much work cupcakes are (in a small kitchen).  But dang they're good.

Video of girls!

Click here to see a video entitled:  
Estelle's loses Tooth #5

Girls Home!

The new blogger format has me totally upended.  Between that and my new camera, I may never learn to blog again!

Sorry for these rather abrupt blogs, but this is all a little tricky for me.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Aix to get the girls!

We met Andrée and Guy at Pascal (Thomas' cousin) & Sylvie's house in Saint Cannat, just next to Aix.  Yvette & Dédé (Pascal's parents) also arrived (they live in Aix now) with Agathe & Aurore (Pascal's daughters), who had spent the night with them.

There was a LOT of cool stuff at this house. 

When we got home, Léna had cards to open - Martha, Lisa, Joanie, W & C & H - thanks everyone!

I found this gift for Léna at the church shop for 2 euros.  You can imagine my absolute DELIGHT. Excellent condition.  Though only included 2 dogs and 2 pieces of the fence.  Who cares.  We love it.  At least the door "moos" and Léna loves that!  Vintage Fisher Price!

Finally were able to bring back some of the girls' Xmas gifts that had been up in Angers...

Above:  homemade cream puffs, courtesy of Yvette.  Amazing - we filled them with strawberries and fresh cream.
Below:  Andrée & Yvette (sisters), Thomas, brother-in-laws Dédé & Guy (lucky enough to be married to those sisters!)

ok sorry for the lame photo order but need to spend some time with this new blog format!

 Pascal has a zipline - Estelle couldn't get enough

 I tried to explain to her that she had to not break her neck on this!

 Léna came to give me a hug

 Not happy to be told to take a break from the trampoline!

 Today was a national holiday - Thomas had the day off and the girls did a LOT of bike riding, Estelle lost ANOTHER tooth (makes 5 total) and now is a big toothless grinner.  A riot.

Happy Birthday to Léna! Vacation begins in Calvinet

Today Léna is three years old! I spoke with her on the telephone this morning and her first words were "Bonne Anniversaire, Maman!" Well, she almost got it figured out! Last Friday we drove the long drive to Calvinet to kick off the girls 2-week vacation. The weather was pretty rainy the whole time we were there, but we had some clearing moment and sun spots so we made the best of it. A few photos of some jam-packed 2 days. We got to see a lot of people! Missing are photos of Marie-Laure who dined with us on Saturday - I'm still figuring out my new camera (poorly figuring it out, that is!), so bear with me. Thomas and I returned to Nice Monday and have been working a lot but enjoying our freedom thanks to Andrée & Guy.