Our really big day...

Everything has to happen at once!

Saturday, June 28th we had;

1. The End-of-school fair with some singing. Alfonso of Gospel Kids worked with all of St. Jean to put on this performance;



2. The End-of-Year Gymnastics show with both Talia and Davina's classes. The theme was the Olympics. They were excited to partipate because we attended and watched last year, prompting them to sign up for this year so this time, they were actually in it. Talia had to dress in black and Davina in white.

Talia's instructer forgot the tape so they had to do it to other music than that which they had practiced.

Notice the Americanesque flag they gave Talia (Puerto Rico?) I really didn't mean to get that much of that bald guy with the camera...







Legs in the air;



Touch the toes! Notice someone's little brother tries to join in.



Little mix-up with the scarves;



And up in the air!



Survived that...



Davina's turn. She has on white tights (tried to talk her out of them because it was hot but she didn't care and wanted them).

Duck walk;



Finished!



Watch towards the end when Davina locates us in the crowd and starts waving;



They gave each other a hug afterwards, which got out of hand...







Davina amazingly liked her face paint. My kids usually hate having face paint but she wanted to save it to show to her friends at school...two days later but I got it off that night with a washcloth.




3. The 4th of July party which is always held the weekend before. It used to be on a Sunday, which makes much more sense but there was some problem with the staff and it was moved to Saturday a few years ago, meaning it clashes with all the other events that usually go on that weekend.

No matter. As soon as the gymnastic performance was over, we high tailed it over to the Consul General's to catch the end of it. The food was gone but the people weren't and I got to see tons of folks in the int'l community whom I don't see that often (especially now that I'm no longer on the AIA board).

I didn't take any pictures of that event.

Weekend visiting the Orangerie and Mulhouse

Daniel came home and he was tired so I took the kids to the Orangerie Park downtown. As soon as we arrived, we saw a whole swan family, including seven cute babies, three grey and four white.









We rented a boat and I rowed. Ronnie was in charge of the camera with mixed results.





Oh dear...


Please wait for the green box, which means it's in focus...


Our swans again;


















Whew! That was over and I got my camera back. We went to the top of the waterfall and looked down.







Talia had to do her gymnastics;



Don't tell her that her underware is showing;



Spoiled children got cotton candy, again!







More swan family;



Then they did the cars (after the play area) twice!;















Cooling off by the pond before going home;





The next day we drove down to Mulhouse, which is about an hour away. Daniel's cousin was organizing a sort of Jewish youth sporting event so we made an appearance and saw a few people we knew. The only pictures I took were when they were playing in the boucey castle. It was super hot.

The little boy in the white is my children's third cousin. He's six months older than Ronnie. His dad, Daniel's second cousin, was the one running things and the son is wearing the T-shirt.









We went over to Daniel's business partner/friend's house afterwards. They have such a great house. I should have taken pictures (and next time will). I thought this was a fun picture of Talia doing yet-more gymnastics.

End of year events

We're having all our last this and last that...

My German class finished the end of May. Yoga two weeks later (only because she missed a couple of weeks). Soccer is over, although there's a BBQ tomorrow evening. Today was Davina's last gymnastics and tomorrow is Talia's. The class party is Saturday, after which we have gymnastics (with lunch in between the two) and then we'll head over to the 4th of July party at the Consul General's if there's time.

At Fossé des Treize, where the kids eat lunch (although I let Talia stop when my German class was over), they had an end of year party and invited the parents. They then put on a show. Ronnie is in the back on the right and Talia is in front on the left. I had trouble getting a good spot and I am sure that the woman in the white skirt, if she finds out what I've put on Youtube, will hunt me down and shoot me if she ever sees this;

I have no idea what language this is in but it's one of the songs that Gospel Kids sing;



This is some crocodile song;

Street fair and the cleaning lady quits...

Having the cleaning lady quit wasn't the end of the world but she was already so behind...

We started having tons of absences. She was showing up late, leaving early, not giving any notice... When I said something she decided to take another day off. I did mention that the timing wasn't good. I was actually more unhappy with the time I dropped by to put groceries away. She simply wasn't there at 10am so I called. She hadn't left me a message, nothing...

The problem was that Daniel came home early and I had to take Talia back to school. She arrived while I was gone and Daniel started lecturing her. They ended up butting heads (oh so rare here in France!) and she stomped out.

Daniel was fine with that. Since she quit, she only gets paid till the day she left. If we had fired her, we would have had to pay her a months' salary. She isn't clever enough to figure this out so I'm sure Daniel provoked her and she fell in the trap. I accused him of doing so, he denies it but there's no denying that it's me who is screwed!

So now I'm having to deal with all these phone calls from the announcement Daniel put in the paper. I scheduled an interview today and the woman didn't show. Oh well. Hopefully the one on Monday will...

The fact that my phone doesn't work doesn't help. My ringer was too quiet so I stopped by France Telecom/Orange. He managed to screw it up and now it doesn't work. I went back and all he could give me was a phone number to call. So my cell is blocked completely.

On Saturday, we had the local street market they have every year.

I took the kids. They went on a ride;





They ate cotton candy;













I swear it was half Davina's size!



They kept asking for more of both...

This was on the back of a truck. Where the address to send it to Jay Leno??