Half term

It is half term here, so the children have two whole weeks of holiday. Charlotte came home too, with a car full of laundry and a cat. I am been washing ever since. 

For the first time since I can remember, perhaps it is the first time, the four of them actually played a game till the end, and that without anyone throwing a fit or cheating,  they did however complain when I tried to take a photo, still got one though.

Children's bathroom

 Ok we have been busy, and  procrastinating when it come to the children's bathroom, but seven month's later, we have made some progress. a new sink, and new cupboards, new shower and bath ( a real bath that delighted all) later, this room is slowly taking shape.

We work slowly, but it is so much better, especially when you look at what it looked liked before.

 More photos to come...eventually. Here's one photo before.

And before, the old sink, which was giant and took up so much place.

Catching up with Christmas 2012

For the first time ever, I worked on Christmas Eve.  I was the only one through at work and things were really quiet, so I finished early.  When I arrived home, the children had already written out  menus for everyone

All the cooking was done by Alain, Gaby, Alexis and MK.  Oliver stayed far away from any work, while Charlotte was with her boyfriend.  Alexis is really starting to like helping out in the kitchen.  Above he's preparing salmon canapés.

The girls made lots, including Devils on Horsebacks.

After many tasty aperitifs 

The table was laid

and this year we ate duck, a recipe inspired from a one of MK's cook books. Our  "Magret de Canard en Croûte de Noël" main course was yummy, served with parsnip and carrot chips.

To finish, we had a boulangerie bought Christmas Log.

To finish off, we were treated to a amazing harmonica concert by Alexis.

He's been learning harmonica since the beginning of this school year and he's really good, really, and it was a perfect ending, listening to our nearly 11 year old son, on Christmas Eve.

Sunday in Paris

 On a very cold yet beautiful Sunday, we all bundled ourselves in the car and thirty minutes later ended up here.  Yes, Sunday we played at being tourists, and boy, there were huge amounts of people who were waiting to visit the Eiffel Tower.  Luckily for us, we had bought and printed our tickets in advance, so no waiting

Before reaching the Tower we had  to dodge the many joggers that were out in force despite the near freezing conditions.  What a place to jog, personally I wouldn't like to, but I can see the attraction

After visiting the second floor, we managed to get the children to agree to go to the top, I never took any photos though, too cold.  Back down on the second floor somehow we found ourselves in a tourist trap souvenir store, 2 bracelets, 1 pencil, 1 pen, 1 keyring, 1 giant chocolate euro and a packet of Eiffel tower shaped sweets later, we left, hopped in the car and came back home to a piping hot Chili Choc Carni (Nigella Lawson recipe) made by Alain, and it was delicious.

Things have been a bit quiet

I haven't had time to update the blog recently, I also have been waiting, because do you remember the job I applied for and the interview? Well I got the job with a short one month trial period, and that period ended yesterday, so yippee, I have a CDI in a small French company (part of a much bigger International company).  
The photo above is clue to which type of business I'm working in.

What can I say, they job is great, my boss, fantastic, the others employees are nice too.

Working full-time and having a family to look after is proving not to be that difficult for Alain and I. Granted I see the children for less time on weekdays (1 hour and 45 minutes less each day) but our time together is better, there seems to be less conflict* and weekends are just great, busy, but how I love weekends at home now.

Lots have things have been happening around here, we have had Gaby's German correspondant here during the week, and guess what?  We actually started to redo the children's bathroom on the top floor...post to come this weekend

*Charlotte has been very difficult, once a week, for the last two weeks for not apparent reason, she suddenly just blows a fuse...hard for us parents.

Local(ish) Library

Marie-Kate's apple and salted *butter caramel crepe

We live in a small village outside Paris.  In the village, there's a town hall (like everyplace in France), a nursery and primary school, a 12th century church that was partially destroyed by the English in the hundred year war and a couple of parks, tennis pitches et cetera... My bugbear is that there's isn't a baker's shop, and how I love French bread...So we make it most of the time or go the nearby town that has at least  six boulangeries! That's another story though because there's a place I like to go often and always have and that's libraries. There's one here in our bakerless village and it's really great but is only open for two hours on a Wednesday and a Saturday, so I hardly get down there.  However nearby, over on the other side of the Seine there's a mediatheque and this place is amazing and beats hands down our old media library in Sanary.

My dandelion (pissenlit..love the French word for this) jam crepe

It's got everything Sanary has and more, because here there's a creperie/salad bar and tea shop all in one. It's a great incentive to get the children to read books.


Talking about books, you can borrow up to twenty five books at a time on one card....enormous.  We bought sixteen books back for everyone but Charlotte and Marie-Kate is ready to go back again this weekend.


*salted butter caramel crepes here are to die for...the dandelion one was great too but I love love love anything caramel.

Snowy Sunday

Marie Kate was in charge of the camera yesterday and took lots of photos of us fooling around in the snow.

There aren't any photos of Oliver because he was in a bad mood and stayed sulking in a corner

Alexis on the other hand enjoyed himself.

But Charlotte got pushed over by Oliver (when he moved from his corner) and she wasn't a happy bunny.

Afterwards we all had some yummy brownies (Jamie Oliver recipe).

This Old House

Marie-Kate playing with her 1970's dolls house

Ok, it has taken a little time to have a routine since the children returned to school, but I think we're organised now. Five children , four different schools, four different timetables...

1. Oliver 7.20 each day to catch school bus

2. Charlotte 7.45 to be dropped in-front of college

3. Gaby and Alexis to be at school for 8.20

4. MK to arrive in class before 8.40

All children (apart from Oliver) eat at home... first pick-up is MK at 11.20, then Gaby and Alexis at 11.30, dart home, yummy(hopefully) food in oven and Charlotte who's home for 12ish.

Back in car at 13.10, drop-off Charlotte, the G and A before 13.30 and finally MK before 13.40... now I al able to recover, until I begin again at 16.20 just up until 18.00, no until dear hubby arrived home, usually about 19.30.

That's my average day, not that I'm complaining, it's just I

don't have time to check-out my favourite blogs, well at least just up until today.

What has changed?

I've decluttered ( especially in Charlotte's and Marie-Kate's room (that makes me feel so good)

A Corner of Marie-Kate's room

I've signed all school work in advance (quite a defeat for me)

I've cleaned the house from top to bottom. Just the garden to do, but not this week.

Post-Script: Today's Wednesday, guess what? The house is still looking good, even the girls room!

Annual Turn Off Week Blog challenge...How it went here

Kapla Tower

What a great turn off week we had, ok, we were lucky, as we went to London from Thursday onwards, so that helped us turn off ...

Tower Bridge in sight!

Marie Kate, who celebrated her 5th birthday the 22nd did really well, never watched television nor did she play on the Wii. She played heaps outside, and she helped tidy up our garden ( note: she hasn't watched tv since coming back Monday lunch-time..yippee) I'd give her a straight A.

Marie-Kate opening some presents

Alexis watched a little tv in London, but it was in English and we need as much English input as possible, in really enjoyed "Horrible Histories". He probably watched in all, abot 1 hour over the whole week of tv. Before leaving for London he helped more in the kitchen, read more and had more imaginative fun. Alexis has started to read books all on his own which is a great leap forward.
Shelling peas, this is more fun than the TV!

Gabrielle watched the same amount of tv as Alexis and thats all... no wii, no dvd's. Gaby drew a lot and read A Picture of Dorian Gray and a couple of J. Wilson's books (her favourite author).

I didn't do as well as them, I didn't manage to keep to 15 minutes per day of internet, but for a good reason, I had to surf a little to organise our visit to London. I probably used the computer 1 hour per day from Monday till Wednesday. No tv, no videos. I have started to prepare our vegatable garden and I read lots of books with the children. The children have helped me cook a lot more.

A glimpse of a bit of our garden from kitchen window


Alain hasn't used the computer (work not included) and he watched on program on the tv (45 minutes). Bravo Alain. He used to be quite a tv add

Unfortunately our teenagers sucummed to temptation, Oliver couldn't stop playing with his toys (psp, ipod) and the tv, too! He deserves the worse mark of the class. he did play chess once and beat me, argghhh..

Charlotte, watched less tv, but listened to lots of music and hung out with her friends ( which is great).

Charlotte peddling hard at the Sciene Museum

It's Thursday, today, and the children and their friends have been playing outside most of the day, the weather's glorious at long last.

I'm really happy to have participated in this years Annual Turn Off Week and I think we are ready to give up the tv completely.

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