It turns out it's impossible to insult Benjamin

Exhibit A:

Me, to Benjamin: You have issues.
Benjamin: No, you say "shoes," or "a shoe." You can't say "a shoes."

In the "misheard lyrics" category today...

Benjamin made a Lego bug. He says it's not a bug, it's an alien. So I started singing the chorus of "Englishman in New York," as you do. Benjamin wanted to hear the real song. So I found it for him on YouTube.

Benjamin: English men are evil aliens.
Me: What??
Benjamin: He said it! He said, "I'm an Englishman, I'm an evil alien."

Swim meet season is in full swing

So we spend quite a few weekends poolside now. This weekend, Benjamin had a meet at Compiègne, where he improved his times in all four of his races.

Winter Came!

We weren't sure it would this year, it's been so mild up until now. But all of a sudden, the weather turned cold - and this happened.

So what happens when it snows here? Well, it's kind of like in the south in the US. We're not really used to it, and not really prepared for it. Tuesday morning, Benjamin went to school as usual, though the roads were slippery already. By noon, the prefect or someone decided to send the buses out and get the kids home. Schools didn't all bother to let the parents know, so we found out through friends whose kids had cell phones and called them. Fortunately, we were home, so Benjamin wasn't stuck in the cold for hours waiting for us to get home from work or anything.

Noah also went to school in the morning, but his teacher called mid-morning to let us know there was no school lunch since the truck didn't get through to deliver the meals. He said he was going to be absent that afternoon as planned, but hadn't heard yet whether there would be a substitute teacher or not. Later, he called to let me know the other parents said they'd just keep their kids home that afternoon, so if Noah came, he'd be on his own anyway. So Noah stayed home Tuesday afternoon, too. In the morning, he and his classmates - the half of the class who showed up - built snowmen.

Wednesday and Thursday, there were no school buses, and the middle school told us (via their website) to keep the kids home if we could, since it was also likely there would be missing teachers and they'd spend the day in study hall anyway.

So the boys made a "departure platform" for our miniature hill in the back yard so they could sled. 

And they (gasp!) worked together to start building an igloo.

I asked how they would get into the igloo if they closed up the opening. They said, "It's scaffolding!"
Of course. What was I thinking?

No word yet on whether there are school buses tomorrow or not. Noah's teacher was out this morning (an already planned absence) and we never heard whether a sub made it to school or not, so we kept him home again this morning, but will probably send him this afternoon since his teacher will be there.