Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!!! (for you Americans, at least; France doesn’t observe this day until June 7).  Today Rebecca had a bit of a relaxing day… we started with our traditional pancakes for breakfast, made by Mr. Z and me (Daddie).  Zander made earrings and a necklace for Mommie, Callie gave her a necklace she had made as well as one of her dolls, and Griffin made her a picture.  After breakfast we all played a bit of badminton out in our back yard,  followed by a drive out to La Grâce-Dieu (a town named for the monastery there), to have lunch near a beautiful waterfall.  The kids loved this location and played in the water together for over 90 minutes, arranging rocks to slow down the stream, and using moss to plug the holes in the dam.  At first Griffin was scared to cross the stream by himself, so his siblings gave him a hand.  Still, each of them had a turn falling into the water or onto the rocks at least once. In the end they were very happy with the result of their labors, as pictured in the middle, below.

After our river fun, we picked lilacs and then headed to the movies… our first cinema adventure with the kids here in France—we watched Monsters and Aliens, and I have to say that it was pretty amazing to be able to understand the show—I feel like it’s good evidence that Rebecca and I are picking up the language.  The kids don’t seem to be phased at all—they seem to understand.  The popcorn at the theater was horrible though—pre-popped candy corn, instead of the fresh, hot buttery stuff I was craving…