Three Years Old!

For Lucie's birthday, we had four little girlfriends of Lucie's over with their parents. It was a fairy party. All the girls had tutus and magic wands.
They ate cupcakes and candy.
We sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl in both French and English.
There was drawing.

And we ended the day at the park with bubbles and swings.

First day of school

Lucie started attending the local maternelle in the beginning of Sept. (Free public education begins at 3 years old in France.) She goes from 8:30am to 11:30am two days a week and 8:30am to 4:30pm two days a week. There's no school on Wednesdays. So far, she's been loving it.

On the morning of her very first day, she was a little unsure, but mostly because she now had to get up at 7am, rather than her usual 9am.
But as we got to the school, she became happier. It probably helped that she took Monkey George with her.
In the schoolyard...
With Julie... Julie and Lucie's birthdays are 2 weeks apart and they have spent almost every weekday together since they were 5 months old. They are in the same class together, which has definitely made starting school easier for both of them.

Visiting Paris

While Greg was in Kenya for ten days, Vanessa and her daughter came down from Antwerp to keep Lucie and me company over the weekend. It was Evelina's first trip to Paris and we tried to make the most of it.
Playing in the Tuilleries...

Picnicking on the Champ de Mars

These photos make me laugh. I was trying to take a photo of Vanessa and her daughter with the Eiffel Tower but a little someone couldn't resist getting into the picture!
Here she comes...
And now there are three...
Pony rides for the girls or in Lucie's case, a donkey ride...

Gabor and Marianna's wedding in Budapest

We flew to Budapest for a weekend in July to attend Gabor and Marianna's wedding. Greg and then I met Gabor when we lived in NYC. We hadn't seen him in a while and Lucie had never met Gabor. Our first evening in Budapest, we went over to see the house Gabor and Marianna are renovating. We ate pizza in the backyard and Lucie was THRILLED to discover this tiny house that the previous owners had built for their children.
The morning before the wedding, we took advantage of the warm weather and local bathes, which in this care were really elaborate swimming pools.

In the afternoon, we went to the Buda Castle for the wedding.
The lovely couple!
Then is was off to the reception... Gabor and Marianna had hired babysitters to occupy the children. They were marvelous! As you can see from the facepaint and balloon, Lucie had a blast at the reception.

Lucie also fell madly, madly in love with Gabor.
On our last day since we didn't get back to our hotel room until 1am, we took it easy in a nearby park.
Somehow, we completely forgot to bring a stroller with us. There was a lot of transporting Lucie on our shoulders that last day. Note too that she still hadn't left go of the balloon from the reception.

Last days of summer vacation

Here are finally a few photos from the last few days of our summer vacation...

Say cheese... got to love the vintage Fisher Price camera!

Lucie LOVES kites and is remarkably good at flying them.

Lunch with her grandfather.
Anniversary party for Greg's Aunt and Uncle

Vacation pictures

Lucie's vacation in Bretagne was full and fun, if not always in the sun, at least in the water. She and Papa went looking for shrimp in the tidal pools.

Somewhat miraculously, they caught some.
Lucie also tried on her father's shoes.
She's a very lively child who seems to have boundless energy, as a 2 year old is wont to have.

Lucie and her friend Charles played in the water, even if it wasn't very warm.

Summertime Blues

Things are rough these days, what with the financial crisis and all. We've have to ask Lucie to pull her own weight and to get a job shoveling rocks.

When her paycheck's late, she's stuck with eating seaweed.

(disclaimer: no cute toddlers were injured or traumatized in the making of this post)