Cross Country Skiing au Desert d'Entremonts

 Although it's just our 4th year staying at La Grange, it's our 5th year skiing here, it's a great station with a lovely family friendly atmosphere and a super café/restaurant for you've skied..or before too.  

Today Alain took Marie-Kate on the green run and I did the blue one with Alexis and Gaby  while Oliver and Charlotte did the red one

There was an exposition by a local artist in the restaurant and on the last day we bought six of his funny and sometimes cheeky sketches (the children got one each), this one is ours that's in our kitchen now. All of his work is based on an owl theme, and he plays lots with words.

Finally, mudroom finished

After fifteen months of living here  I am happy to announce that we have finished our mudroom. You'd think that a small room like this  just wouldn't make a difference to the  organization in our home, well that's what I thought, but no.  Now we have freed up the entrance, no more muddy shoes to trip over, everything  has its place, it's so much tidier too.  

I have commissioned Gaby to complete a canvas (see above) that depicts what one might find in a mudroom and when she's finished it will be placed in front of the electricity meter which is rather ugly.

The two trail shoes here were drawn by Marie-Kate, Gaby wasn't too happy when MK actually smeared some soil from a plant pot below them, but in reality it looks great.

Gaby's work a long with a mouse that she says is a rat.

This is the door to the MR that's leads off the entrance, a lick of Charlotte's locks to liven it up a little

I used chalk board paint so we could write memos down, especially for stationary shopping as the children always need stuff and tell me after I've been shopping!

I bought some sky planters for the window (see the blinds have gone), I really like these.

I made the coat rack you can see, initially I wanted to just an old pallet (I think I talked about this in another post) but in the end opted for new wooden planks, two different sizes that are screwed onto a wooden frame.  I used all of my left over Farrow and Ball paints (Charlotte's locks, Arsenic, Brinjal) and one yellow paint

And I bought some new plastic baskets for gloves, hats et cetera...

This is where the children hang their coats, unfortunately coatless today as they're all at school

There's a door behind those shelves that we never use, but rather rush and block it completely, we've insulated it and put some tongue and groove in front and then shelves.  I need to find a little mirror or something for the space above the last shelf.

Next to the shelves is cupboard where we keep all the backpacks (for now), the doors have been painted with chalk board paint too. If you turn after the plant, you'll find a welly rack and then the door for the basement.

Well that's it, our tiny 5 square meter mudroom finished and crossed off the to do list.

Time for me to rest, I'm sick with a sinus infection and am feeling very sorry for myself.  I did manage though, before becoming ill to run 8 kilometers, it was really muddy and very cold. Alain came too and I used a i phone application called Runtastic that is great and for one of my split I ran an average of 19 km per hour, this is fast for me.

Wednesday's Art

Most Wednesdays we try to do a little art, this usually ends with someone unhappy because their picture/painting hasn't worked or they didn't want to work to a theme

Today, Alexis and Marie-Kate made some cityscapes using newspaper for the buildings, and fabric for the doors and windows. Alexis had a hissy-fit over his and stormed off. The problem is, if you try and give either of them a suggestion, they just hate it and will do the opposite, then to often regret it.

Last week we worked on monuments and Gaby joined in after seeing MK's picture of l'Hotel des Invalides that she drew using a ruler, well Gaby hates rulers as it takes too much time, so this is her picture that took all but five minutes to draw (found it again this morning and just added it to the collection).

The photo at the top is one of the two doors in our kitchen, one is orange (Charlotte's locks) and the other, this one, is almost back (railings). Here, there are old and new pictures, the old ones being self portraits by Oliver and Charlotte from way back, when they were at nursery school in the UK. The biggest picture is of a Manga character drawn by MK. She only learnt to read this year and is already an avid Manga reader.

12 pages of art homework in 8 hours

Gabrielle is lazy, she always does her homework at the last minute, sometimes the morning it's due. Over the holiday's she had French homework and art. The French was finished the night before, however she only wrote it out neatly just before catching the school bus.

As for Art, she had to make a notebook on her favourite colour, which is blue.

She finished it this morning (well I did, she was to scared to bind the pages together).

She really worked hard and didn't finish till way after bedtime, but she did it all on her own, which won't be the case for everyone in her class, some parents will do anything to make sure their children have the best mark.

In Gaby's class there are 28 children and 8 of them are excellent pupils and very competitive too.

Gaby is a year or more younger than all but two of class (3 pupils including Gaby who skipped a class to go in to a higher grade) and she is the youngest for all, she's only 10...for another week

Wild Sometimes

Here we go (again), I'm going to try to keep this blog going for at least one year with the help of my wild (seldom these days) children. This blog is one of my favorites and we have started to do their projects which my children love and now I'll be able to send links once a project to completed.
We do have a television, although, it's often unplugged, the idea is that it becomes permanantly unplugged within weeks.

Coming soon

English and French book reviews by my children (aged 14, 13, 8, 7 and 4)

Days out, holidays here (France) and other countries we're lucky enough to visit!

Unplugged projects

Art and Crafts