Lilly's dans le jardin

June 7, 2008

Lilly's from our yard.

We are starting to get such wonderful surprises popping up everywhere.

For the rest of my life when I see fresh flowers it will remind me of France, I know we have beautiful flowers in Utah, but there is something to all the floral shops lining the streets with buckets of fresh flowers and all the people at market with their baskets loaded with beautiful fresh flowers.

Oliver Twist

June 6, 2008

Jesse's class put on a small production of Oliver Twist. Their music teacher wrote all the music and taught them all of the songs. She did a terrific job, they children really knew the songs well and sang out so we could hear every word.
All the music was accompanied by an acoustic guitar.

Jesse played the part of a village woman.

The production was held in a small building behind the school where the little children eat canteen. (Bad lighting) It was standing room only when the show started-it was as if everyone in our small village came out to see the show.

Jesse & Emmannuel

L'oiseau noir-The black bird

June 4, 2008

I'm not sure how this keeps happening, it's no wonder he wants to be a zoologist - he's a natural, but this is the 4th bird Dallas has caught. Logan spotted him in the bushes and Dallas did the rescuing. What a team.
We sure are going to miss the backyard-you never know what might happen next in this wonderland.

Nutella

June 4, 2008

Nutella-You can't live in France and not love Nutella, they put it on everything.

We have definitely eaten our share of the creamy brown stuff while we have been here.

Tonight after dinner I gave each of the children a ziploc bag filled with Nutella to try their hand at a little plate decorating. It was very fun and they came up with some great designs.

Once the decorating was done we piled crepes and ice-cream onto the plates and had ourselves a little dessert.
Our favorite is Nutella with bananas, but we were out of bananas tonight.

We're glad they sell this in bulk at Costco so we can always have a big jar at our fingertips.

Le chef Xavier

May 31, 2008

Xavier was kind enough to treat us to a morning in his cuisine. The lesson consisted of Pâte à Génoise, La crème mousseline and Baguette.
From the time Xavier was 14 his father owned a boulangerie, Xavier invited him to come and join the party and show us how a pro makes all these wonderful French treats.

I asked him when he had to start his day in order to make all the delicious pastries the French expect to see gracing the windows on their way to work in the morning. He told us he started at 3:00a.m. everyday!
It was fun to watch the two of them stirring it up, you could tell they had worked together for some time. Xavier felt like this cake needed a little color so he flicked his wrist and gave it an "American" flare-sprinkles.
He made it look so easy-rolling the dough two at a time, one in each hand-a little tricky.
I am anxious to practice all these new techniques so I can produce some real French bread.
The two Tracy's joined the force to help whip up this great looking cake.

It's not everyday you find a friend who will wear a goofy white hat and a twinner apron with you.

Brocante-Flea Market

June 1, 2008

It is not permitted to have a garage sale in France, or any sale for that matter without a permit, so twice a year, once in September and once in June, they organize the Brocante where people can bring their junk to try to pawn it off to the highest bidder. You know the saying, "One man's junk, is another man's treasure" we decided to go see what the people in France considered a treasure. I guess the kids will be coming home with new guts. Dallas found a scooter at the Brocante and thought that would be a fun "treasure" to own his last month here. The man wanted 5 euro, but after digging to the depths of my bag and pockets all we could come up with was 2.50. I put it in Dallas' hand and told him if he could get it for that-he could have it. I watched Dallas with all the courage in the world confront the burly, tattooed man with his 2.50, a little bargaining (all in French) and pretty soon Dallas was the new proud owner-Way to go Dall!

Bon Anniversaire Lilly

May 30, 2008 "OK guys it's my birthday, so just do exactly what I say and I promise you will both have a great time!"

Lilly turned 5 and we had a grand celebration all day long at Disneyland with these three princesses.

Sophie, Mia and Lilly

Luckily as were we walking out the door Spencer (Janet's 14 year old son) had the thought to have Janet grab some princess clothes for the girls. She told him that we didn't want to have to drag them around all day- he said, "Mom they are 4 year old little girls, you've got to take them."

Needless to say they wore them all day long and loved every minute of it.

Thanks Spencer!

We did have to wait in a line to see Minnie, but we were so glad we did! It was worth every second. Minnie was so friendly and cute with the girls, they were all in heaven. We spent our entire day in Fantasyland. It was one of those trips that was just for the girls. We rode all the rides they wanted to, including Snow White at least 25 times. We were fortunate to not have huge crowds to fight with so the girls really felt like it was truly their day.

After getting our fill of the rides we went to a "Tea Party" with several of the characters. We were not sure who would be there so each one that arrived was a big surprise.

It was magical for the girls to get up close with their large fury friends.

A special part of our day happened at the Tea Party. There were several special needs children there and each character made certain that they met each one of them. We were sitting next to a woman named Judy and an 18 year old girl named Ellie. From what I could tell she does not have any real control over her limbs and needs constant care but Ellie's entire body got so excited when each character came to her table it was an experience just to watch her.

Judy told us that Ellie loves Disneyland so much but she cannot go on any of the rides except "It's a small world" and so this is how she has her fun at Disneyland.

Judy is not her biological mother or any relation, just the woman who has cared for her since the age of three when Ellie's mother died. She is a woman of true charity. She was kind and gentle and very delightful to talk to, you could tell she really loved Ellie.

What's Disneyland without a little pink hair on a stick.

Janet told me that when she was a little girl her mom took her and he nephew to the circus and he kept asking "Grandma can we please have a stick with blue hair on it?"

That's exactly what it looks like, and I bet you won't ever be able to eat cotton candy again without thinking of Marge Simpson.

(My new favorite cotton candy story) Thanks Lilly for such a great birthday party, Sophie and I had a fabulous time.