Posting this just because I like it.

This singer actually died a few years ago but I love this song and how she sings it.



Shana Tova everyone! Happy 5759.

My new glasses

They're really light and comfortable. Also expensive but Daniel says they'll be reimbursed. My first time getting glasses in France.

Talia took this;


You can barely see them and I can barely feel them.

Here are the free sunglasses that came with them;



On a totally different subject, Barbara sent me a link to this blog I thought I would share. While I respect McCain, he's made a very poor choice of V.P.

http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/

The European Fair or "Foire Européenne"

http://www.foireurop.com/index.php

This is where we were this weekend.

I decided to park and take the tram in. I wasn't alone. It was full. I tried anyway. It was completely barred...then someone ran out and called "four cars only!" Well, we lucked out.









We went back to Sécurité Routière (French highway patrol) where my kids got a bunch more stuff and participated in the drawing by answering some questions. They also tried out this sound booth;





I ended up getting them some chocolate and each a tiny glass animal from the Russian stand. I couldn't talk them into any of the Peruvian sweaters.

There were cows;





and sheep;





and strange pigeons with curly wings;



and feathery feet;



and fluffy ones;



and even stranger ones with what Ronnie described as "brains on their beaks"



Talia decided that the white one was "cute anyway" even though it had brains on its beak;



and chicks, that Davina was glued to for ages;



But the bunny petting was the highlight. This one was huge, about three times the size of a normal rabbit;



Of course Davina had to pet every single bunny before leaving;









Pony rides!











Then we went for ice cream and visited the seeing eye dog (her name was Vodka) and made our way home.

Davina's first ice skating lesson

Actually I have all three in ice skating. Ronnie did it with school and Talia tried with me once. It was her first lesson too and both girls did great. Ronnie will go on Monday.

Davina has a white vest and black gloves (borrowed because I forgot).

Trying to get these photos on this blog!

I'm trying to get all the photos on these posts "Under Constrution" below so I haven't gotten around to writing new ones. I finished a couple of them already. I'm still working on our California trip, let alone Israel...

The kids did well with the start of the school year. Davina is in both Ronnie and Talia's old classroom with Talia's old teacher for French. The German teacher seems nice and the class is all the same grade, not mixed. A much better start than last year!

Talia is in a mixed class. She is in CE1 and CE2 mixed. This is 2nd and 3rd grade combined. Ronnie was too and by coincidence, their German teachers for the year were German exchange teachers, so "real" German speakers as opposed to Alsatian or just French who speak German well...

The difference is that with Ronnie, the class was pretty evenly split. With Talia, I believe there are only 6 CE1's out of 26 kids (this was the conclusion that we figured out-me and a mom whose son was in the other bilingual class so together we tried to figure out the students). We knew from the names that they had selected the best students from CP (1st grade) to be in that class. It's no secret as another mom mentioned this (I was hoping, naively that no one would notice).

I had sweet revenge though. Ronnie has Talia's teacher from Davina's year in preschool. Weird huh? He has gone up about two grades each year. This was the teacher who declared Talia to be slow. I was joking with him outside the school "Just pretend he is not related to Talia at all. They're so different..."

He wanted to know how she was doing and I mentioned that she was in the mixed class. "Oh, that's because she's a good German speaker". Ha. Okay, he didn't retract the "slow" comment but he knows, and I know, who those kids are who went into the mixed class. For the record, he was her French teacher, not her German but he speaks German.

Meanwhile, I'm swamped with the lists. You have to buy all sorts of palavah for French public schools. I always buy notebooks either the wrong size, the wrong color, the cover that is the wrong size, color, the squares are not big enough/too big, not enough/too many pages and here's a new one, the outside cover isn't stiff enough. See, French parents know this stuff automatically and I'm all "I didn't know it was for the cahier de laision...." Ugh...

On the net, I've discovered Facebook. I've re-hooked up with all sorts of buddies from every aspect of my colorful life. I have fellow parents from the school, a high school chum, a friend I met on my Antarctica trip, San Jose State International Center people, other California friends, United Airlines (the Paris base has a group), friends in England, even Daniel's relatives... Scary! Their lives are also pretty colorful. I guess that happens with age...