Things have been busy around here recently...whats new!   A couple of weeks ago we had quite a lot of snow which made the children happy. Alain managed to leave on a business trip to Kuala Lumpur just before , leaving us to have fun snow ball fighting and making some snow people/animals.   

Marie-Kate opted for a snow pony,  it looked great when she had finished (no photo).

The children are really social at the moment (unlike their parents), even Marie-Kate has invited three friends over today, which is amazing...I forgot how noisy eight year olds could be!  
We have been busy working on the children's bathroom which is still unfinished... A couple of weeks ago we went over to Pantin after successfully bidding on a new super comfy chair with footstool.  Alain loves it, the problem is, finding time to just sit down and relax with all the children around.
If I see him sitting down on it, I take a photo.

February in the Chartreuse (4th stay at La Grange)

If there's a place we love going back to each year, it has to be La Grange situated in a tiny hamlet in the Chartreuse region of French Alps. 

The gite is amazing, with space for twelve and it's just so cosy. Norman and Gabrielle, the owners, who live next door are just adorable and we just love these guys.

See the photo above, this is what Gaby did when she arrived, I think you can see that there's a girl and a dog sculpted in the snow.  She also sculpted a couple sitting on the bench, but I'll have to get some photo's off Alexis' camera as this couple was the talk of all the hamlet, giving Gaby quite a reputation.

Here's the view from the gite, we'd just arrived and the children went out and re discovered the garden and fields around about.

 The second day it snowed a little, but this was the only time it did.  Before hand, Alain and I had managed to trail down to the nearby village (St Pierre d'Entremonts) and buy some ( to die for) muffins from the local bakers (just for those it's worth going back for).  The way back was tough though, three and a half kilometers with over a three hundred meter denivelation....guess what though, we did it again a couple of days later, faster and carrying back meat for the butcher's shop too.

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).

First snow of 2012

Meteo Paris got it right, it's snowed during the early hours of this morning and it's still falling. 
Not good news for the girls though, who had hoped to go clothes shopping at La Defense this morning

I might just put on my trail shoes and go for a run (with Alain in toe...if I can get him up)

Stopped!

The snow has stopped and so have I. J'en ai marre. Fed-up.

Take a look and the photo....what a mess.

Lets be positive, only another 6m2 to go, but that will wait for tomorrow.

Tonight Gaby's making Nigel Slater's Courgette Crumble so all's well that ends well.

More.....snow.

It's snowing again and it's sticking, but I'm too busy scrapping glue of floorboards, this time in Alexis' room, which incidentally one of the biggest bedrooms in the house (over 22m2) argh, hence my silence, as I really want to finish this room, and the landing and Charlotte's room before Christmas (one can dream).

I'll post some photos tomorrow.

(Photo taken from our bedroom looking towards other neighbours house beyond).

Happy Children

It snowed enough yesterday for the children to have a snowball fight(the girls are above throwing snowballs down on Alexis) and then be so tired afterwards that they were all asleep before 8pm (let it snow more often...).

Snowy House

It's been threatening to snow all morning and much to the children's delight after lunch it began(not enough to make a snowman use yet, maybe it might even stop...).

Our house is right in the heart of the village, this is a view from the garden looking down on it. On the right is our future summer kitchen. Where the roof is lower on far left hand-side of the house, you can just make out the triangle topped shutter , well, this will be our future studio, it's actually very big (36m2), but it's the last thing on our lonnnggg list.

In our garden we have two outside caves that were used (this one the sure) to store beetroot).

The other cave is behind that wall, I find this one a little creepy.

Don't suppose we'll be dining outside for a while.

J'ai Froid

View from stairs of the little bit of the garden (there's a well behind the low stone wall)

It snowed a little during the night, only a little though, much to the children's disappointment.

It's really cold and my children who aren't used to such cold weather are now faced with having to wear hats and gloves, my my what fun I had trying to get Marie-Kate to wear them for school...boy she's so stubborn

The temperature hasn't risen above -2°c all day.