Madeline Learns to Ride Her Bike

Teeny started talking about learning to rise her bike without training wheels last week. Not sure where she got the idea. We both spent time practicing with her whenever we went for our daily walk around the block. She practiced alone on the scant 5 meters of concrete sidewalk in the backyard. Not much of a chance to get momentum going there.

Mousy also stuck close by her during practice times. She did encourage Teeny but was really just a human pylon.

We were delighted today to see that she is now riding on her own. Initially she was a bit wobbly but she is getting better with every pass past the front window.

Craft time

With Grandma and Grandpa Baynes at our house the girls have had lots of time to do crafts.

First Day of School

Madeline started kindergarten yesterday at the Edmonton Suzuki school. I was happy (not surprised) to see Teeny was fine with us leaving. Heather and Mousy were totally fine. I was a little vaklempt but managed to keep the tears from spilling out. She is very excited to make new friends and meet her grade 4 reading buddy.

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Music Jam

Who knew that the backyard blocks could double as a piano?

I lov My Famill

Everyday in kindergarden Madeline has to write a sentence and draw a picture over it. She usually tells us what she wants written then we print it for her. In this case she she started the sentence on her own. She wrote "I lov My Famill" first and brought it to us as a lovely surprise.

Fromagerie

Mish Mash

I took around 1700 photos over our 5 week stay in France. Most of those were of the Tour using the multi-shot feature on my camera. Here is a mish-mash of some of our favourite pictures in no particular order.

Vizille

Sulkies

Dance Dance France

Crisis Averted

Found this son of Mothera lurking in our house the other night. I'm not usually afraid of insects but this one still has me shivering. It's body was about 5 cm long! Once I smote it it refused to let go of the fly swatter which only added to the fear factor.

Artichoke

Had an artichoke party the other night. For some reason Lydia decided to go to sleep instead of joining us so we only have pictures of Madeline enjoying an artichoke. Yes she ate a whole artichoke by herself! I think it is the perfect meal for her since she likes to eat so slowly.

Food

Throughout all the fun times we've had the underlying theme of fine French food. The girls have been good at eating most everything we give them except for some troubles with cheeses and sandwiches. They are getting better at this as we saw last night. We had a chance to enjoy the raclette we bought from the fromagerie.

Yes tucked back in behind the girls' heads is the wedge of raclette. We paired it with some red wine we got in the south of France.

Other notable meals include: Susan's chèvre omelet with red pepper sauce, my late night lamb sandwich at the Pezenas street festival, Heather learning to enjoy chèvre (goats' milk chess) and the Ravioli pizza we had and plan on having again at the jazz concert.

Yes even going to the super market has been a joy. It was lovely last nigh walking out of the supermarket with two bags of mustard potato chips, yogurt, vegetal elixir from Chartreuse, Panaché (lemonade with a hint of beer) and two bottles of rosé.

Viva La France!

Yes even as I post this am sitting and eating a snack under the free wifi of MacDonalds.

Fromagerie

We took a trip into the mountains today to seek out a fromagerie. We got our raw milk, yogurt and racelette plus a fabulous bonus. We got to watch them start the preparation of gruyere cheese. We only saw the beginning of the four month process. See the pictures of the ladies mixing the cheese and squishing it into the molds below. They told us it takes 100 liters to make 6 kilos of cheese.

I didn't get pictures of the cheese going into the presses. The wheels sit in the press for over 12 hours before they are scrubbed down with bacteria. They are continuously wiped down over the 4 months and sit a temperature controlled room before they are ready to be eaten.

Pezenas

After spending time in the mountain village of Uriage we headed south to Pezenas. While there we visited salt flats, a couple of French markets, a cave, a castle, an abbey, some vineyards and the beach (several times).

The kids were kept busy during the days and the parents had lots of fun during the evenings. My brother-in-law's aunt and uncle were both great landlords and great babysitters.

Here are some pictures. Will post more later.

Plane trip and the first day in France

We left Edmonton airport at 11:30 on the 11th of July for a month in France. We spent An exhausting yet sleepless 14 hours in the air. The girls watched lots of shows on the tiny plane tvs. Madeline quietly drew pictures with her new kit Heather had lovingly made for them.


The turbulence was so bad leaving Montreal that we weren't served supper until 9:00 Edmonton time. The girls were very well behaved despite the lack of naps and food. We did find out that Lydia HATES wearing a seatbelt for extended periods of time.


We arrived in Geneva airport had our private driver pick us up and whisk us away to Grenoble.


We have beaten the jet lag and settled in with the Watts family.

Silver clouds

Lovely day at the AGA.

Arm farts

Madeline discovers arm farts.

There is a lovely park close to our house. We call it the train park. We try to visit it as often as possible so we can get or daily dose of sand and sun.

Yucky

This is Lydia's trick about her trick. She usually tricks us by saying everything is yucky but when I turned on the video camera she tricked me.