Mix' Art 2013 and Gaby

Gaby's school is participating in a national competition called "Mix'Art this year.

Gaby and her friend Marjolaine, chose the theme "Fight Against Discriminations", and guess what...

Their art work was chosen to represent the school and it's won 1st prize in this category for our Academy which is Versailles. Now, we have to wait and see if they are chosen for the national prize, which would be fantastic.  If not, just getting this far is just amazing, the girls have really worked hard and we are really proud of Gabrielle.

9 Years Old

Marie-Kate turned nine yesterday. Our little girl is growing up so fast.

Her papa took the day off, so she could come home for lunch, where they shared a delicious cheese and onion omelette.

 She opened one present in advance, "Sims Supernatural" for her PC.  
We have three girls who are crazy for Sims...  She had a couple of books (not enough), a scarf making kit from her grandparents in Brittany, clothes and some money from Grannie in the UK (ear-marked for books), and lots of pony accessories and new boots, johhpurs et cetera...

Marie-Kate is a sweet girl, very sensitive, thoughtful, who if crossed can become "very" hot tempered and very loud.  She loves school, reading comic books and manga's, playing Sims and hanging out with Gaby and Alexis.
Her favourite meal is breakfast, although her favourite food is probably cheese, she is gourmand and hates fast food.

Happy Birthday Marie-Kate!

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.

Alexis the Journalist

 It's Alexis' last year in primary school, next year he will join Gaby at college.  Alexis had a great teacher last year and this year Mr L has turned out to be equally as good. In the last 18 months, Alexis has grown to be extremely competitive and his school results are fantastic, he is very proud to still be holding on to a 20 of average in Geography. 
Overall for the last term, he had a almost 20 of average for all subjects.

Alexis' class have been writing again in the school newspaper,  the class had to write about the short movies they had watched.  Alexis' is above, he finished his article by saying that, since watching them, he has he sees the world through a different eye now. He later told us that this was just him using  journalistic license.

Here's another article Alexis wrote, this time about Biodiversity (the other one, was written by Jeremy, Alexis' best friend.

Back...Catching up from Easter

I'm really trying to juggle family, work, the house and very occasionally a blog post, but it's not easy.  Alain came back from Congo weeks ago and was supposed to leave weeks ago to Angola.  He's still waiting though, as he has a visa issue, that should be resolved next week.  If he leaves too late, it would mean that we'd have to cancel our long weekend in Amsterdam, four night on a canal boat:(

For the first time, this Easter, only Gaby, Alexis and Marie-Kate hunted for Easter eggs, Oliver and Charlotte chose their comfortable beds and 15 euros each.

 The weather was good and the eggs were fairly easy to fine as our garden was still in mode "winter".

This year, Gaby remembered no to put her big Easter egg on top of her radiator, and got to devour this one in record time.

13

Gaby turned thirteen on Friday.  

Friday, I had to supervise our office move and her papa was and still is in Congo, so this year wasn't quite like the others before. However Gaby, mature as ever has taken it all in her stride and we have had an excellent weekend.  Friday we ate her favorite food, Chinese.

Saturday we spent a lot of time in the garden as the weather was quite exceptional (unlike today).

 She never had a cake till today, so it had to be good, and as she's crazy for Ben and Jerry's ice-cream, we made a Baked Alaska

 Alexis and Marie-Kate decorated it and it looked and tasted great.

Gaby hasn't had all of her birthday presents yet, we are waiting for her papa to return (sometime) but she did get to open her beautiful charm bracelet...that incidentally now to scared to wear just in-case she were to lose it.

Alexis' 11th birthday

Eleven.  Easy-going, intelligent, sensitive, loyal, shy, competitive, business boy, and owner of many odd socks, as well as being a Harry Potter specialist.  

He is now in his last year of primary school, next year he will join Gabrielle who will then be in 3eme (last year of college).  Time really does fly and my children are growing up so fast.
Alexis had three different cakes for his birthday, this one was his favourite, A no bake Rocky Road cake (Hairy Biker's recipe)  and it was so good.

 Here are a couple of the presents Alexis received this year from us.  Above a water colour bought in Brittany, painted by an Irish painter who lived in Brittany.  Gaby had another of his works for her birthday...If I can make my way through her mess, I'll take a photo.

We found, probably the best present ever, for Alexis' 11th birthday, an ice hockey table, the problem is that Alexis has perfected his game since he received it and no-one is able to beat him...  His friends all want one for their birthdays now...Looks like we've started a new trend.