Happy Mother's Day! #toallthemums #Traffilightcelebrations

The size of our love #smallpackagebigthings

OK, so I can't be bothered to turn this around properly, but what it says that this particular item of clothing will fit a child at 9-12 months of age, as long as they are 80cm tall and weigh 11.5kg. 

Even my tallest, heaviest baby (Small Fry) only topped the scales at 9.2 kg and 77cm at 12 months. Little crevette is really bringing up the rear: 71cm and 8.6 kg according to my rough estimates (at home) at 14.5 months.

Speaking of 14.5 months, high time this little one walked:

I just love that tutu.

Working for the weekend #afteraweekofwork #catchingup

Basically, it's been a slow week of blogging because it's been a fast week of doing lots of other things...like not being here, which involved a surprising amount of work.

In theory it should have been quite simple: a Eurostar trip to London and back the next.

But then the French customs officials started striking and my train was cancelled. I did actually really, really want to get to London (for once) to see my budding niece/nephew, see my team, see my good friend, and also see my boss who was paying for the whole thing.

Within about an hour of my train being cancelled all the flights were also fully booked and I do draw the line at taking the ferry. But I suddenly had the brainwave of travelling to Brussels and getting the Eurostar from there, which worked, and turned out to be quite a popular route as about half my Thalys from Paris to Brussels followed me over to the Channel Terminal.

And it was a totally great trip, both professionally and personally, and my 3 little shrimp did perfectly well without me. It was lovely arriving in the park on a sunny Friday evening and watching them until they spotted me and came racing across.

Crevette made up for not seeing me by trying to see more of me, usually starting at 5.30am, so when I did eventually get up at the weekend I found her learning the guitar from her dad.

And then we caught up with other good friends (while the kids shared any lice they might have).

And mummy missed her baby very much and had a lot of fun playing with her when she got back.

Paris Fashion Week #athomewednesday

A day at the Palais de la découverte #Poisonexpo

A choco choco #where'smysecondlayer?

 So these are my wonderful birthday chocolates.

Any you know how I LOVE chocolates.

But wouldn't you TOTALLY say those are finger holes? PERFECTLY made for LIFTING up this layer and getting to the whole layer waiting below??

Right?

Nada. Absolutely nada.

One layer only. And if I'd known that I would probably have eaten them a little slower. But look at the depth of the box and the finger holes..! Even El Puma got a bit of a fright when he found out he'd paid ALL THAT MONEY for just ONE layer!!!

Worth it though.

Carnival #herdressupchoice

Our house #inthemiddleofourstreet #Nantes

Week 2 of the school holidays was spent in Nantes, where we helped strip Mamie's house back to...well the floorboards and wallpaper really. Doors came off, hinges, skirting, everything came off the walls, all furniture was moved out (or stocked in the garage), bathrooms gutted (showers broken, mirrors removed, pipes sealed) and yes, even the kitchen sink is now gone.

If a house is a home, then it was quite sad to see it looking so bare and strange, especially when it had been associated with one person for so long.

But now I am so old and wise, I can tell you that life goes on, and this house too can have a new lease of life and become - with a bit of work - a beautiful home again.

So much potential under one roof, in this case, the attic. A 4m high space would fit at least 4 rooms up here

The past (the old chimney), present and the future

After lifting the carpets we found some hidden treasures such as these old tiles

A great loss to the house and garden will be this amazing magnolia, which needs to come down because its roots are starting to push the foundations. It's a shame it was ever positioned there but I guess it's hard to picture things 20-30 years down the line.

The back of the house from the bottom of the garden

Before:

After:

As the house can no longer be lived in, Janine and Michel kindly let us stay with them for the 5 days. The kiddies had a great time and little crevette is now a great stander-upper all by herself.

And to top off a great week, we welcomed the beautiful little Amelie (lovely French name!) into the wider clan. Congrats guys!

I'm still standing #liftitallhigher

Celebrate Good Times #Kool&theGang

To the tune of "oh such a perfect day...I'm glad I spent it with you". The rest of the lyrics are pretty rubbish so just hum that bit...

A good start to the day #candlesandbabies

This is not *strictly* in the right order, but who cares, cos I got flowers.

Surprise birthday muffins and sing song at the Natural History Museum with some of my favourite people

People are still more fun than (stuffed) animals.

The orchids were open! (for a price)

the natural shot

the 'make an effort shot'

And later on in the week in Nantes:

Thanks Moon!

Nope, not turning 60. 

Turns out there's a lot to celebrate :) And on this day especially, Happy Birthday Tante Margret!

Thank you everyone for making the celebrations so special! - for gifts, flowers, chocs, cards, presents, calls, messages and time together!!

A Song Of Thanksgiving #40

The Mile High Club #skiing #stjeand'arves2019

As for the previous 4 years, we returned to the region of St Jean d'Arves for our annual ski holiday with Moon and Abuelo, but this time we also took along Oma and my lovely niece, Toots.

And it couldn't have been more different than last year.

That's some climate change: a 40 degree difference compared to this week last year, when we were facing temperatures of -18 degrees. This year it was b-o-i-l-i-n-g hot. I mean so hot that I, even I, ended up skiing with only one thermal top under my jacket (no tights, second thermal, fleece top or woolly scarf needed). I kept the buff with me, but that was mostly to make sure I didn't end up with a sore throat, and I used it just as much for sun protection as anything else. Honestly, I was sweating down my fingers into my gloves.

Glorious conditions.

Well, glorious while you were near the summit at around 2200m. There, the snow was fantastic, the views incredible, the sun bearable. But back down in the ski station at around 1600m, man, well...

What also helped is that Small Fry and Toots were in the same class together and both skied well enough for El Puma and I to take them back up the mountain after their 2-hour class for another 2-hour stretch until our ski pass ran out of time. They loved it, we loved it, and we all loved the drink we totally deserved afterwards. 

Fingerling was also a star. She has now finished all the kindergarten levels and will next year take to the proper slopes.

And another big difference this year was the chalet. OK, it was an uphill slog in 15 degree heat in thermals after carrying our skis up the hill in the other direction in our ski boots first to leave them in the locker, but it was big, it was bright and it was very, very comfortable. Great views too. 

Perhaps it was the amazing sun and snow conditions, perhaps it was just my year, but I really feel like I improved my skiing this week and found my confidence and groove again after my decision to stop snowboarding 3 years ago. Last year I did virtually nothing and the year or so before that when I started skiing again I didn't enjoy it so much. Och, maybe it's just having a good teacher:

But there was no way I could find any energy to go sledging in the afternoon. The kids had a great time though:

And then here's a load more photos of what we got up to:

In the family area at Gare de Lyon. They are well set up for the thousands of Parisian children heading to the slopes in the winter break.

 

And the hugely successful ski week finished off on a high note of, er, success, with all the kids gaining their levels:

And on the final day it snowed. Just as we were leaving. It's what the pistes needed, but I bet they don't get quite the sun levels we did...

And just for young Joey who apparently loves the TGV: 

PS. You can tell it's the Parisians on holiday: check out their city yoyo in the snow (guffaw guffaw)