Some more cute photos just for the heck of it!

The girls actually wanted to "do matchy-matchy". I got these sweaters, which look nice with the dresses we bought last summer at Mothercare in Bath with Jo Colliver. I snapped these quickly on our way to school. I was going to take just the girls when Ronnie wanted to be in the photo too.






Ronnie is such a sweet older brother. Here are some pictures of him with Davina in the garden.

German park last Wednesday

I took the kids to the park last Wednesday in Kehl, just over the border. I brought their swim suits to play in the fountain but it was under repair! Bummer as I checked that it worked Monday. Oh well. So I took them to the park.

Too bad this one's not clear but there were so cute, I grabbed my camera in a hurry. Too much of a hurry!

Ronnie's first soccer match

He finally got to play! It was the last match of the season but he was thrilled. He looked so cute in the get-up.











I found out the hard way that the video feature on my camera doesn't work too well with the zoom.




One little quirk was that there was a "Ryan" on each side. Ryan is a Celtic name but here in France, you find "Ryanne", an Arabic name so I think we had one of each.
What was worse was that our Ryanne is the star player and the goalie was Ryan on the other team. Two key positions!

My ears were ringing with "Ryan! Ryanne!" before even the end of the match!!

Talia likes her new "keenie"

Since Davina can't say "bikini", we've all now reduced it to "keenie". I bought a cheapy one for Talia on vacation since she was screaming that Davina had a "keenie" and she didn't. I grabbed one in a grocery store in a hideous color, with plastified flowers, which of course she loved. When the flowers started peeling off, it was time to buy a new one. This wasn't so easy as Talia now wears size 8. Took me ages to find one that didn't have tiny triangles and gaps places five year olds don't need to show even more skin.

Talia approves of the one I finally found. The added joy of the fact they match a pair of sandals she already has;

Cute photos for the heck of it

Cinderella asleep on the chair;





Doggie slippers

In her new carseat! Thank you Laura for dragging this back from the U.S. Davina can stay in this 5 point harness until she hits 65lbs. (much safer than a booster, which she is actually to young for anyway).





Older two on the boat crossing the Rhine (Davina was asleep in the car). We were coming back from Spain via Baden-Baden. I could have simply taken the bridge but thought the boat might be more fun for them. It was...







Did I post the hoolah pictues? Thank you Denise for sending these;

Just because I didn't have enough going on...

I got my first speeding ticket! I was "flashed" on a freeway onramp. Now, I have a little trouble with this. I mean, obviously I was in the process of slowing down. There was a yield and right turn in just a few hundred feet. Okay, I wasn't at 70km at the sign...

No warning. It just arrived in the mail.

I can see getting ticketed for doing 50km in a 30 zone but a freeway offramp? I mean, is that really going to cut down speeding in general? Easy way to nab people. I mean, 43 year old housewives are really the menaces on the road, right? Between school and soccar, we're really burning the rubber! Forget putting up a speed trap at 2am on the autoroute. Let's put one somewhere that people are slowing down anyway. Not really going to make the streets safer, if you see what I mean!

So I think I'll lose two points out of 12. I'll only have 10. The problem is...I think they nabbed me again at the same spot! I just get to wait for the letter...

Lots happening....

Well not right now. My friend Judy is here for a wedding this weekend. They stayed with us. I'm trying to talk her into moving back...not as crazy as it sounds!

Here are Talia and Ronnie with hers'; Lucie 10 and Vincent 8.


How cute (and helpful) it was when Lucie read to the girls!








She makes balloons on her days off to make a little extra cash. It's fun and she enjoys it so she brought her stuff and offered to do it for Talia's class.





Clemance got a monkey.


Amel got an elephant (but hard to see the trunk from this angle).


Kenza wanted a white mouse.


Kenza, Paul and Emanuelle showing off their mice.
Emanuelle just moved here from Hong Kong. Her mom is German and her dad French. Talia was thrilled to have another English speaker in the class, making it three (Eric being totally American). Emanuelle attended a French-English school there.



It actually ended kind of badly. The kids were making a lot of noise and the teacher kept telling them to be quiet. Even after recess, they wouldn't quiet down. She threated to keep them from taking their balloons home and when they didn't calm down, she had to make good on her promise.

Judy and I were a little upset but weren't really in a position to say anything.

She had the aid take the balloons down to the basement to keep them cool and they were given out on Friday. Most were still in good shape.

Talia as a Japanese geisha?

Okay, I don't think she was strictly a "geisha". I think we can say "Japanese lady".

Notice the balloon stuck to the stroller behind her. Wherever could that have come from??

For the End of Year show, Talia's preschool did it on the theme "Trip Around the World". They had Africa, Mexico, America, Alsace, Somoa (I think), India, Arabia and Talia's class was Japan.

They learned a song and I overhear one of the parents saying "my kid goes to a French-German school and comes home singing in Japanese???"

Here's all the fun;














See if you can spot the guy in the Chinese jacket. The German mom just arrived from Hong Kong pointed it out to me. The French always mix them up. I noticed that the chopsticks were Chinese too, the ones in their hair. Oh well!



It was held at the "Palais des Fêtes", which means actually "party building". As you can imagine, the local residents aren't amused living near it. Previously, this event had been held at the school itself with disasterous results. No one could see. French schools don't have proper stages like you find in the U.S. Also, unlike the U.S., there was no air conditioning and it was hot and crowded.

They opened the balcony, which they had hoped not to use because of the risk of any of the kids falling. There was absolutely no room and it was a big hall but filled to the gills. They requested that only adults go up there and for the most part, that was repected (or at most, the older siblings and tiny babies who didn't go anywhere). I stayed below with Davina and Daniel went upstairs with Ronnie. It was good as we had different angles of the same event.

As we have not figured out how to download the videos on his (he's hopeless and I'm not exactly a techy-and it's all in French!) I couldn't post any of Daniel's handiwork here.