Some (more) Vacances adventures

So, on Saturday afternoon, with a newly mobile Griffin, we decided to go for a bike ride. 

We did the fairly short ride over past the cemetery and to a local park.  Zander took this photo of me riding around with Callie.  He said.  “Mom, I like it when you ride your bike, you look so cute!”  Then Callie chimed in with “Yeah, you look like a teenager or something!” 

I’m not sure if that’s a compliment, but I thanked them anyway.  I continue to try to appreciate the fun of biking but it is still very hard for me and mostly unpleasant.  I wonder if I am just being stubborn.

Griffin, newly mobile, is very scared going down hills and keeps dragging his feet instead of using his brakes.  Daddie was next to him to make sure all was well.

Once we got to the park, we ate a picnic lunch and then the kids played around.  Soon enough daredevil bike antics began on the part of all the boys, including Griffin.  Griffin also plays amusing supporting roles in Zander’s and Daddie’s videos.  Check it out!

  

Bodies still intact, we stopped at the cemetery on the way home.  It was beautiful and peaceful as usual.  The kids were particularly fascinated by the grave for a child we passed and also by the war memorials.  We even saw a plot for a family named Besancon – with one of the dead listed as André Besancon – strange, right?  I think I like cemeteries since we always can find something intriguing and new when we take the time to walk slowly and look.

Seeing so many soldiers dead, all I could think was of what a waste of life.  I really don’t like war.  I guess no one does, but when will we figure out a way to stop all this killing?  Behind the memorials was a lovely shady area full of my favorite wildflower, as blogged about before, dandelions. They are particularly healthy this year and I think the French don’t mind them as much as we do since I see yellow fields all over the place.  I took the opportunity to make Callie a crown – doesn’t she look gorgeous?

On Sunday we headed over to the park at Malcombe on the basis of a rumor that there was to be a boomerang competition there.  We didn’t see any signs of boomerangs but we did have a wonderful time just wandering over the wildflowers that covered the hillsides.  We even picked a bouquet or two to bring back home.

Of course, we also did homework every morning.  Zander and Callie are both improving with their reading and I am hopeful that Zander is turning some sort of corner.  He seems more and more interested in reading and seems to be making great progress.  We went grocery shopping together and cooked together. Here you can see a bin full of discount Finkbrau beer – with a name like that, I can’t imagine why it didn’t sell well.  Of course, art projects were another welcome vacances activity.  They made an incredible clay village which they tell you all about in the video. Another day we made a great marble run with thoughtfully saved paper towel rolls.   This project was hard since the magnets I bought at the craft store just weren’t strong enough to hold up the rolls and the glue they were backed with wasn’t sticky enough to stay on the paper.  We persevered and ended up with a mostly working system (that had all fallen apart by the morning!)

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a morning I took them to the pool.  True to his word, Griffin (5 years old) is not afraid any more.  He jumped in the water with total enthusiasm, face in and ‘swam’ quite a bit. He kept at it for a good half an hour or so until he just got too cold.  These are exciting times, folks.  My littlest one is really growing up.  All in all, it was a fun vacances – even if we didn’t make it to any exotic locations!