Visitor

This is the first visitor of this type we've seen! Fortunately for him (or her?), Gala didn't see him (or her?).

A friend told me they eat slugs, so we won't be chasing it away!

Speedaments and Rabuges

At 6, Noah is starting to get out of that "cute sayings" phase, but he came up with a couple recently:

Noah: Mommy, are you at the speedament?
Me: Uh... the what? How do you spell that?
Noah: S-P-dament.

Sadly, he's since learned to properly articulate "speed limit."


And a "rabuge" is his term (in French) for "when a thief has been in the store." The actual French word, cambriolage, is not nearly as nice, is it? 

Last Swim Meet of the Year

Benjamin participated in his final swim meet of the season this weekend.

It was up north in St Quentin, which meant that we drove about an hour and fifteen minutes each way and spent about 2 1/2 hours there so he could spend a grand total of 2 1/2 minutes racing.

He swam the 100m freestyle and was part of a freestyle relay race also.

He came in 3rd in the 100m freestyle race, which he swam against kids 1-2 years older than him. This was his first time to get a medal in a "real" meet (as opposed to the intra-club meet, where there are so few kids per age group, that everyone ends up with a medal).

He was very proud of himself!

Club Swim Meet

Benjamin and Noah had their intra-club swim meet yesterday.

Noah swam the 25m backstroke, and came in second in his heat. He would have come in first, beating both older boys, except that he stopped to see who was cheering him on! He was alone in his age group, so he came in first, anyway, since they give medals by age.

Benjamin swam the 100m medley and I think he was a little intimidated since he swam with all older boys, including a teenager, but he came in second in his age group.

Noah's team won the relay race at the end, and they gave him the trophy for the summer.

A Rare Sight

Somehow the two of them managed to work together to bake a cake. Proof that miracles do still happen in the world today! Their recipe wasn't quite as successful as usual - the end result had a nice taste, but was rather lacking in sugar and was pretty dry.

Still, it did all get eaten, and the main point is of course that they worked together!

In the "Where Do Tornadoes Go to Sleep" series...

We have this specimen, noted in northern France. When tornadoes are finally spent, we let them fall where they may.

Because where else would a boy sleep

but surrounded by his trucks and tractors? Mattresses are overrated when you're 6.

Our Little Chef is Also...

...working on his knife skills. We think he has a ways to go... but the apple is definitely dead.