Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday, Frédéric and his two kitchen elves made me a lovely cake. Benjamin picked out the heart-shaped pan at the store "because it will be the prettiest!" and he and Noah agreed on the frosting colors. Benjamin came up with the inscription all by himself.


And yes, it did taste as good as it looked!

End of September

Last Friday, the American lady that we met at the Pierrefonds castle when my parents were here came for lunch. She went with me to pick up the boys from school, and take Benjamin back after lunch, and we had a nice walk around the village. Noah helped Frédéric prepare the homegrown, homemade raspberry syrup to go on the cheesecake I made for dessert that day. 

After some major resistance from Benjamin to backwards somersaults at gymnastics Saturday, we broke the old, flattened baby mattress out as an improvised tumbling mat so the boys could practice their somersaults at home. (Are we crazy, or what? That's rhetorical.) I tried to get them to stand and look cute together before they started tumbling, but, well. 

Thank goodness for a faster camera than we used to have. 

Here they were all tired out from gymnastics, and were "resting." Or so they told me. 

Both boys had an all-day field trip to the forest yesterday. We're still paying for that with Noah - he is definitely not ready for all-day school yet! The highlight of the field trip for Noah seems to have been the picnic lunch and peeing in the forest. Benjamin must have listened well to the Tourist Office forest guide, because today he showed me a booklet they gave the kids, and explained it all to me. 

Frédéric was off work yesterday, so we had the whole day to ourselves! And... spent it doing yard work. Sigh. Frédéric chopped at the hedge, weeds and ivy that had overtaken the back corner of our yard, and I helped him bag it all up to take to the dump. Fourteen yard waste bags later, we are closer to done than when we started... This should make room for a nice, large vegetable garden next year. 

 Now, if we could just dismantle the garden shed, and the cinderblock shed, and put a shed where the cinderblock one is, so we could see that whole corner from the house... well, let's just say that to-do list is not likely to be the "all-done" list any time soon!

Now the school year has really begun

You know school has really begun when... the first illness hits. Frédéric & I have been fighting off the first cold of the year this week, thanks to Noah bringing it home to us from preschool. Somehow he was barely sick at all, but it has knocked us out. 

Noah loves school. He can't figure out why some of the little kids cry at school. He likes to do his "work" while Benjamin does his homework (just reading or learning poems, usually). 

He was very proud of having written "NOAH" here: 

And sports have started for both boys. We did give in on the gymnastics thing, so both do gymnastics once a week (pictures of that sooner or later, I'm sure), and Benjamin has swimming lessons once a week through school, and twice a week in the evenings. 

The whole pool experience in France is a little weird... men & boys have to wear Speedos, for one thing... for another, swim caps are strongly encouraged, though not actually required at this pool. Also, the swimming instructor is not in the pool with them, and to even go watch the kids swim, you have to wade through about six inches of water (presumably also treated with some disinfectant or other). 

Benjamin loves his swimming lessons, and is perfectly at ease in the water. 

And the most exciting of all, the work on the bridge in our village is finally done!! We can now go through the village instead of taking the long way around through the forest, which will cut several minutes off our driving time.

Proud to be an American

This afternoon, Noah was making his Transformer talk to me. In French. I asked the Transformer why he was speaking French. 

It said, "Because" (in English, hmm). 

Then I asked Noah whether he spoke English or French. 

N: I speak English and French.
Me: Really?! Both? Why?
N: Because < mumble > American.
Me: What? Who's American?
N: Me! I'm in-ter-est-ing!

Weekend Busy-ness

In all the "excitement" of back to school, I forgot to mention that we got to see friends Roby and Bernadette last Monday. They live in Guadeloupe, and rarely get to visit France, so we hadn't seen Bernadette in 6 years, and Roby in 11 1/2 years - since we were in Guadeloupe in 2000.

Friday...
We learned the new school set-up. The "maternelles" - 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and kindergartener (yes, singular) - will be with Simon, the maître, who has been Benjamin's (and Noah's) teacher up until now.

The CP and CE1 (1st and 2nd grade) will be with Laetitia, the maîtresse, who had the 2nd through 5th graders up until now.

And the CE2, CM1, and CM2 (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders) will have the new teacher. This is her first real class after a couple of years of long-term substitute teaching, so it may be an adjustment for all of them, but Laetitia, who is also the director, thought this would be better for the 5th graders who will be going to middle school next year and will do well to have some adjustments now, before having to make so many more when they get to middle school.

We are pretty happy with this arrangement, though it does seem like it will make 1st grade more of a graduation into "big kids' world," being with the 2nd graders instead of the little ones. Benjamin sort of knows his new teacher already, and we hope the transition will go smoothly for all.

Apparently they aren't "allowed" to give written homework in 1st grade in French school, so that is a relief. We'll see how true that is as the year goes on!

Saturday...
Gymnastics started for Noah. Benjamin preferred to do swimming this year, but started to regret his choice when he was at the gym, watching Noah. And I'm wavering in our "one activity per year" idea...

Our friends from church and their kids came over in the afternoon, and spent the night. It was almost 80° out, so the kids got to play in the pool "one last time" before fall.

Sunday...
We had house church with our friends after breakfast, let the kids ride bikes for a little while, then visited a couple of flea markets in the rain (drastic weather change overnight!), and showed them a few houses for sale in the area in the hopes that they'll buy a country home out our way one of these days.

Cute kids at a rainy flea market! But no one bought them, so we had to bring them home again.