3rd day is the charm

Here we are, finally at the end of the long weekend.  I know all of you faithful readers are sick of me posting 4 or 5 posts at once but it seems I only have time to catch up on the weekends with my posts – and also that André (my editor—so blame him for spelling, grammar, or readability mistakes) only has a chance to read them about once per week!

Here are a few tidbits from last week I forgot to mention:  First off, there are lots of NON-wildflowers springing up around here – most notably tulips. I got a great shot of these which bloom right near our house. I am half wishing we could be back in Holland right now to see fields full of them.  Secondly, here is a shot of the special, wheat laden Easter treat that was given to Griffin by his teacher at school on Friday.  How can they NOT see how cruel this is?  Here are some cookies kid! Miam, Miam! (Yum, Yum in French) Remember, don’t eat any. Joyeux Pacques! There, sarcasm over, now I can move on.

Spent the day hanging out at home with hours on the computer looking for a smoke free affordable car (preferably one that also is diesel and has a moon roof to satisfy André and Zander, respectively).  I found quite a few prospects, most of which André vetoed, but ended up with 3 potential winners.  Of course, only one could meet us today so we headed out, fingers crossed.  The owners were located right near Fort Griffon – a good sign, right?  Well, I guess so, since it turned out to be a much better car (in my opinion) and at the same price.  It is larger, more comfortable, much much cleaner, has fewer dents, the tires look good, radio, cd player and clock work (they didn’t in the other one), it started more easily and has a more powerful engine, it comes with a tow hook and snow tires and has been with the same owner and his dad since it was bought new so we have all the service records.  It is also diesel (requirement for André) but, due to the larger size, it is not as fuel efficient as the other car, we can only go about 593 miles on a tank instead of like 700 – but still – that’s a lot of miles.  On the negative side, there is no moon roof (Zander is crushed), it is older and it has more kilometers (like 280000) and it is not a Volkswagen (our brand of choice).  It is actually a Peugeot – which is a French brand.  I think it is cool to drive a French brand when we will live here in France.  Did I mention it was cleaner??  We can just hop in and drive off – no coffee bombing necessary - hooray! They are expecting twins and already have a 2 year old so fitting 3 baby seats in the back would be impossible.  I am lucky Z and C are now just in boosters – much easier to squeeze.  Anyway, we will seal the deal tomorrow night. The other folks were mad.  I feel bad we told them yes when we ended up changing our minds (OK, let’s be honest, I twisted André’s arm into looking more), but I know it will be a better car for us.  I hope we can take it to lots of fun places. The kids celebrated by climbing up the portcullis like gate barring entry into Fort Griffon.   I celebrated by looking for a new wildflower – and I found one growing at the edge of the parking lot. I think it is L’Anémone Fausse Renoncule.  Catchy, right? I was trying to find the nickname for this and couldn’t but did find out from wikipedia it is poisonous – 200 mg can kill an animal of 10kg  - watch out!  In other flower news, one of André’s coworkers has solved the mystery of the tall purple flower (thanks Julien) – it is actually called “Cardamine des prés” or, more popularly, Meadow Cress or Horse Cress and I believe this since I can verify it online!  See website http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-kwid=0000+0000+1107+0624&one=T  The question remains, soooooooooo then what is a St. Georges???? 

Here are a couple shots of the car.  As you can see, it is very plain and boring looking – not like us at all.  I wonder what we will name it?  Any ideas out there?  Well, it’s a 1993 Peugeot 405, one of the last cars exported to the US from France.  This one is a diesel and should get around 40 miles per gallon, or 900km per tank – that means two round trips from Philly to Seaford on one tank of gas – woohooo!

We went home and had our Easter dinner, a day late since yesterday we were out so much! Menu was: pear-apple sauce (deliciously created by Zander), deviled eggs, sautéed violet leaves (tastes like spinach), rolls with butter from the French butter dish and homemade jam and a leg of lamb.  The kids decided they hate lamb (even though they have loved it the past 10 times they’ve had it) so now I have a giant chunk of leftover lamb and no one to eat it!  The best part, of course, was the Cookie Cake – cookies sent by Grammie.  (Griffin had Jello jigglers) I was hoping the cake looked like an Easter egg, but the kids guessed it was a road.  So, I guess I’ve not caught up with the master cookie cake maker just yet!  Here are the dessert smiles.

 

It’s been a fun weekend.  I can’t wait to have wheels, we have so many more adventures we are looking forward to once we can take day trips.  I feel sad, though, to have missed having Easter with my family.  I really miss them so much. Callie was crying and crying for Grammie tonight. Only 2 and 1/2 months to go.