May : an early start to Summer

Sometime in May we had a picnic with 2 of our missionaries. It was a gorgeous days.

                                                                                              

Somehow Josh ended up with a flower crown on his head, and his cousin Auréa arm wrestling with one of the sisters...  #NotTryingToMakeaPoint #ThatsJustHowItIs

 An animated game of Uno :

Around the same time we went for dinner at the restaurant with Grand-Papa, Grand-Maman and Emmanuelle's family. Grand-Papa's feeding technique hasn't changed in 30 years...

(yes plucking the nose forces the mouth to open, but the wiggles that follow kinda counteract the effort)

And Josh’s class started going to the pool once a week. 

On the bus with his best buddies - or "potes" 

group hug

Trading snacks

Walking to school in their new raincoats, the boys "discover" they have radio transmitters on their arm. Ensues a fascinating robot conversation, but then suddenly the radio transmitter transforms into a magic speed button that makes you run super fast...

At the end of the month we took advantage of a long week-end for the feast of the ascension to go visit Em, Don and Sam in Lonay.

The weather was so gorgeous we were even able to take the boys to the beach! They had a blast.

At a park near the Lake in Lonay in the morning :

 The beach in the afternoon :

In the evening we planned on attending the celebration of a local farm taking their cows up the Alps. Hundreds of cows wearing bells and flower collars around their necks parade up their grazing fields in the alps - it is supposed to be an amazing show. Sadly the instructions given by the tourism office were very approximate and we arrived in the village hours early and under a crazy rain shower. That threw off our plans for a picnic and we gave up on waiting 2 hours under the rain with our tired kids.

We drove a few miles to another village and passed a really cool looking mansion. It hadn’t rained so much there so we were able to have our picnic afterall.

Maybe we’ll get to watch the cows come down the mountain after Summer if we plan well.

We left on Saturday morning and stopped in Annecy on the way back. It is one of my favorite cities and I wanted to show it to the boys.

 

 Malabar ice cream (none for me thank you!)

 Annecy’s most iconic spot

 Feeding the little bird their ice cream cone

 Strollling around the art exhibitions is one of my favorite activities in Annecy

 The boys played with these bubble wands forever

Street performers, crowds of happy people strolling on the streets, bike paths, gorgeous scenery, slackliners, hippies, art galeries, playgrounds... reminds me of another place I love.

Looks like the boys loved it too.

Goog thing Sunday is a day of rest :