Halloween in Paris

The French don't celebrate Halloween. It was sort of done when we first moved here, but now almost nothing. So the Anglophone community in Paris found its own way to celebrate. Since we live all over the city, you can't organize trick-or-treating at houses. Instead, some  people found a French school in the 19th who was willing to rent their gym and outdoor space on a Sunday morning. The parents each brought a bag or two of candy and the kids all came in costume. Moms and dads scattered around the outside of the school, holding balloons and big bowls of candy. The little ones went from parent to parent saying "trick-or-treat" and filling their bags with candy.

Candy at 10:30am? Lucie says, yes!

 Lucie was a cat and Malo was a dog.

 Here is Lucie eating candy (or sweeties as they taught her to say) with two Irish friends, bat girl and scooby doo.

 More candy please...

 Trick-or-treat!

 Woof!!

 Now you're going to share some of that candy with your mom when you get home, right?

Lucie's super Hero Birthday Party

The Sunday after Lucie's birthday, we had a party for her with her school friends. There were ten 5-6 year olds, plus Malo and his cousin, ten month old Solange. Everyone wore super hero capes.

We had cake.

 Lucie's friends sang to her and she blew out her candle.

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Greg and Theirry trying to get cake to all the kids.

 Malo was thrilled by all the kids, candy, and cake, but sometimes he needed to get above the chaos.

 Everyone colored their own super hero mask.

 At one point, many of the super heroes turned into princesses.

 We had a homemade pinata. Everyone pulled a string, the bottom came off, and the candy and toys fell out.

 There were presents. Everyone wanted Lucie to open their present first.

 Rather than pin-the-tail on the donkey, the super heroes played put the face on the monster.

Lucie Turns Five

Lucie turned five on October 3. She woke up at 6am and blew out her birthday candle.

 

Ate a big piece of cake for breakfast.

 

She opened her presents and immediately tried out her new roller skates. 

  

Later in the morning, she went to ballet class. After the class, her best friend Julie came over to watch a movie, play, and have lunch. 

After lunch, Lucie had sculpture class, opened more presents, and Skyped with everyone in her family. It was a busy and good birthday.

Jojo la Terreur

Here is how Malo (or as he has been affectionately called by his grandfather and now his sister, Jojo la Terreur) gets into his highchair.

He climbs on a stool and climbs across the table...

 

Then climbs into the chair attached to the table.

 What? Don't all one and a half year olds do this?

Needless to say at nineteen months Malo no longer has a highchair. To discourage him from climbing and standing on the kitchen table, he now happily sits on a stool like everyone else.

 Here's Malo getting into his lounge chair. This chair is supposed to hold a kid up until 15 kilos, but I don't think they expected the kid to get into the chair and jump so hard that he bounces the chair across the room.

We've also had to hide this chair, but here's a last photo of Malo reclining in his chair.

Cousins on the beach

On our last day of summer vacation, we overlapped at the house with Greg's first cousin Marie, her husband, and two kids. The four cousins had a great time swimming and playing on the beach together.

 It rained a little during the day and there was a double rainbow over the beach.

 Followed by more "rain" in the garden.

Malo asks, do we really have to go back to Paris?

  

See the sun is setting. It is time to go home...

It's not summer anymore, but we're behind on the updates

Dadouh's been complaining that she doesn't get much press here. So here are a few photos of her. This one with her sister Armelle.

Having a drink on the terrace...

On to the kids, which is why anyone come here in the first place...
Malo likes to sit and play by himself. It's bliss for his parents.

He likes to try to blow at the BBQ...

And he's cute...

He gives the best hugs, tied with Lucie.

Michele enjoying drinks on the terrace. We had a few very nice days, and took advantage of Pakkah and Dadouh's generosity by coming back for apéritif after giving the kids a bath and some dinner. The kids then had seconds and thirds of saucisson and olives, and all was well.

If you look closely, you will see that Malo's cheeks are filled with saucisson...

Lucie, flexing some muscle on the beach.

And she really is strong...

Swimming with great-uncle Olivier, in water definitely too deep to stand in... check out the previous photo to see the size difference between those two.

Malo's ready for takeoff.

Sometimes vacation can be truly exhausting...

A random photo from that windy day.

This summer, we also got a visit from Pierre, Pakkah's older brother who lives in Canada. In this picture, he's doing his best Popeye impersonation.