More cake photos

Here are a few more photos from Emily's birthday. Somehow we didn't get a picture of Niamh licking the frosting off the cake while decorating it.

Blowing out the candles (above)

Showing off the final product (below)

Checking out the candles (above)

Decorating the cake (below)

Making a birthday cake

The kids and I made a birthday cake for Emily today. Here are a few photos.

rainy spell

Last Wednesday was hot and sticky, and Pat worked from home in the afternoon to watch Muriel while I took the older two kids to the pool. It was lovely, but that night (at least I think it was that night, all the days blur together so I can't remember much of anything with any degree of certainty) the thunder and rain came, and stayed with us off and on through the weekend.

We did however make to to the beach for a little bit on both Saturday and Sunday during some clear patches. The pool (right next to the beach), which had been full of laughter and splahes only a few days ago, was silent.


But the kids enjoyed having the beach almost to themselves, and didn't seem to mind wearing rainboots and raincoats in the middle of July.

"Daddy's Trains"

This morning Rowan and Niamh played with "Daddy's Trains." I hadn't let the kids play with them for a while, so they were both super excited. Rowan had been counting down the days for the last week. It went fairly well. The trains on the sideings got knocked over by Rowan's knees a few times, but nothing was broken. Niamh accidently kicked one train and then dropped her blanket into the path of a freight train.

Rowan checks to make sure all wheels are on the track (above).

Rowan puts a box car back on the track (below).

Rowan opeates the train whistle (below).

More employment opportunities

Here come the golden arches.

Niamh

Eurostar

I'll need to see what I can do to boost ticket sales.

Trip to the Jura

We had a great time last weekend in the Jura visiting our friends, the Girardins. On Saturday we went to Médiévales de Saint-Ursanne. It was very cool, and can't wait to go to the next one in 2011. On Sunday we took the kids to the Préhisto-Parc, which they adored. When we left we hadn't been in the car five minutes before Rowan said "I miss Alyssa." Thanks Sandra and Alex for everything! I'm too tired to write much about it, but there are some more photos over at flickr.

Yeehaw!

Rowan and Niamh have been galloping around like horses (complete with neighs and whinnys) for a month or so now. They tried to find something stick-like in the apartment to use as a horse, but we really don't have anything that would work. So we got them some real horses.

Rainbow Over Morges

This rainbow appeared last night just as the kids were getting ready for bed. Rowan was absolutely thrilled with it--and Niamh too, but I suspect she was only excited because Rowan was. This morning he said "I want to call Bumpa and tell him about the rainbow I saw on the 7th. It was the first fainbow I've ever seen!" How did he know yesterday was the 7th? I never know what day it is unless I look at a calender.

école des Charpentiers

We received notification that Rowan will attend école des Charpentiers this fall. I think that is the school near us, but will need to do some checking. The school I'm thinking of is near Rue de Charpentiers, but not on it.

He will be in Mme Jomini's class. The notification was 3.5 pages, so I have a bit of translating to do. I'll provide an update if there is anything of interst in those 3.5 pages.

Family Potrait

Rowan made this at the jardin d'enfants earlier this month.

Closed

I wanted to check out the deporation memorial while we were in Paris, but the padlock and red tape suggested it might have been closed.

Course d'ecole

Today Pat worked from home and watched Muriel while I accompanied Rowan and Niamh on a course d'ecole (field trip) with their preschool to a nearby farm. I'm still not exactly sure how I got roped into this one, and I was a little stressed out about it, but it turned out just fine (as is usual with things I stress about). It was hot and the kids (and adults) were exhausted by the end, but they had a great time.

They each got to make a pain au sucre (basically a sweet roll):


some of the kids weren't sure about these dancing chickens:





brushing and riding a donkey:









feeding sheep:


petting rabbits and guinea pigs:




It's hard to believe that today was Rowan's last day of preschool. In two months he starts kindergarden--in Switzerland! Both of those things are a little mind boggling to me.

A Popular Article

I think I received a half dozen copies of this link, so I thought I should share.

Morges Library

Niamh is now the proud owner of a library card at the Morges library. She and Rowan both like reading Petzi books.

Time out in Paris

Paris Photos....

can be found on my flickr page.

On another note, Niamh has been enjoying cherries for lunch this week.



Somehow it doesn't look nearly as messy in the photos as it does in real life.

Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord

Our train arrived at Gare de Lyon and our apartment was close to Gare du Nord. The good news is that there is an RER line (D) that goes from one station to the other with only one intermediate stop. The best news on this part of the trip is that there were escalators that actually worked.

The photo above is me standing in line to get tickets before I realized I couldn't buy the discounted pack of tickets from this machine. I had to go to a staffed window to buy the carnets (group of 10 tickets at a slightly reduced price). The photo below is Niamh pestering a very tired to Muriel.

The photo above is the kids waiting at Gare de Lyon for me to get the tickets. Rowan needed a ticket (half price), but Muriel and Niamh are still free on the metro. The photo below is us waiting next to the track for our train. I thought it was a bit crowded, but my definition of crowded significantly on a later train ride that we had to fight our way off the train before the doors shut.

Egypt!

Rowan's favorite part of the Louvre was the Egyptian artifacts. We may need to add Egypt to our list of places to visit.

Just a few people

The Louvre was even more crowded than I remembered. We used the lower entrance and were able to walk right in, which was much nicer than standing in line out in the sun. We spent a little over two hours in the museum and the kids did fairly well. Rowan had one of his biggest tantrums ever once we got outside.

TGV!

Last Thursday was Muriel's first high speed train experience. 4 hours on the TGV to Paris. She got a bit fussy, but that might have been the heat, as it was quite warm on the train. The trip back was much better because we had the family space, which allowed her a bit more space to crawl around. The family space on the TGV isn't nearly as nice as on the CFF, but it was better than regular seating.