Malo laughs

A first post for 2013

We've had a busy last couple of months, so here are some photos we've been taking but haven't posted. Every year, a local charity has a Santa come to the neighborhood for a few weekends. It's always the same guy, and we've got several years' worth of photos with him. He told us this year it'd be his last year...

After seeing Santa, the kids went on a short horseback ride, what else?

  And on a flying boat ride

 Malo piloted

 He refused to budge from the flying boat and went for 3 rides, while his sister tried other things.

 Malo loves to wear our shoes, and his dad's shoes in particular. 

 Wearing shoes is serious business.

Princess Lucie

 Lucie has a good friend in her class who's mom is the art director for a series of French children's magazines. The mom likes to use "real kids" in the magazine and she was going to use photos of her daughter in an upcoming edition. Lucie's friend asked if Lucie could be in the photos with her too. We all said yes, why not. It was just for fun. Lucie was paid in candy and cookies during the shoot and we got these nice photos of her too.

 Princess Lucie...

Toussaint Vacation on the Côte Sauvage

 It rained a lot on our vacation and Malo had a horrible cold. One afternoon, Greg and Lucie went to the Côte Sauvage to see the giant waves. They discovered a beach covered in sea foam.

 It looks like the moon or as Lucie explained, egg whites.

 It looks like Lucie and Greg are standing in the water but they are no where near the edge. There's just lots of foam.

 Beautiful breaking waves.

 Striking a pose with her shovel.

 Trying to clean-up the beach.

 A perfect rainbow!

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.