At the park with friends

We discovered a really nice park with play structures not too far from where we live. We met our friends Leslie and her 4 boys, and Kim and her 3 children a few times there. The children bonded quickly (it helps that they all speak English : )). 

So far we've had mostly nice weather which is a little unusual I think, but I'm not complaining!

One week-end early in October we drove to Valence to visit my sister and her family. It's only about an hour south and it's a really pretty town. The main park is very pleasant and we had a fun time watching animals and playing with the equipment until a massive rain fall forced us out.

Grandma's surprise birthday party

My Mom had a birthday this month. Coraline (my little sister who now lives in Germany) decided to surprise her with a visit. Her friend Nicky was coming from Utah to spend fall break with her in Germany, but she was in the loop. She'd barely landed in Frankfurt that they were renting a car and driving 8 hours to Revel!

Maman nearly had a heart attack when she saw both of them at the door!

We had planned a nice dinner with curried shrimp, smoked salmon, green beans, pommes noisettes, cheese platter and a Trianon cake.

Dinner was followed with a balloon sword fight enjoyed by the older ones as much as the younger.

And since a surprise can hide another one, on Saturday morning Rachel and Emmanuelle (2 of my other sisters) showed up at the house while my Mom was out shopping with Nicky and Coraline. When she came home she was greeted by a happy crowd on the balcony. 

Sweet Mommy was all emotional about it.

And again we bursted our stomachs with a magnificent Thousand Layer cake...

It was a really fun week-end celebrating the best Mom in the world. The best gift of the week-end was receiving news from Mago, our sister in law in Illinois. She had had breast cancer surgery 3 weeks before and the results of her MRI showed no remaining cancer cells. For sure that deserves another grand party! 

Visit to the Choranche caves

Our friend from church, Leslie, invited us to the Choranche caves (an hour south of Grenoble) for a trip organized by the city of St Martin d'Heres. The boys were in the middle of a prehistorical phase then, they loved to read about dinosaurs and cave men.

William and Josh enjoyed riding the giant bus there. 

We had a picnic at the site.

Leslie and one of her 4 sons (Adam) shared lunch with us

We saw prehistorical remains (70 000 years old animal remains, and tools) from the region. The boys were a little disappointed we didn't see cave men!

and learned how the cave was formed

the cave is filled with amazingly long and thin needle-like stalactites. They grow about 10cm every 100years. The longest one in the cave is about 300cm. 

The cave was never inhabited, the temperature inside is constant ~10C winter and summer. We expected to see bats but the cave is pretty much empty of life (which is why it is so well preserved).

The cave is used by the CNRS for various research including the preservation of these really old amphibious salamanders called Protee. They are not native from these caves but were brought here from Slovenia. They're one of the oldest species alive on the planet. Apparently they already existed in the Dinosaur era. 

Josh's starlet moves

and again

and William's skepticism

 

After the visit the boys had a snack and we took the bus back to St Martin d'Heres. The view on the Vercors mountain was absolutely beautiful. 

We ended the day playing at the playground near Leslie's apartment.

September 2013

A busy month filled with new beginnings, new friends and new accomplishments. The boys are well adjusted and happy and I don't think they realize what they just went through. I knew it would be so, I knew it would take a few months for them to speak French, make friends, get adjusted to a new school schedule, different teaching methods etc... but I still panicked a little when the struggles came. I expected the boys would need 2 or 3 months minimum to pick up the language, and yet I panicked when they couldn't speak after 2 weeks. I knew William would have issues with separation at school but I still had to hold back my tears when it happened. It took about a month for them to feel comfortable at school, memorize their friends names and start saying sentences in French. When you think of it, it's amazingly fast, I'm so proud of them, but in the thick of it, it just felt like we'd never get through it. All I can say is Thank God for answering my countless prayers for them, and thank my parents, friends and family members who have made life so fun for the boys. 

Tuesday Sept 3rd: 1st day of class for Josh. He was very enthusiastic

Posing at school, near the play area, still enthusiastic

1st minutes of class: playing with dinosaurs. Anxiety picking in.

Wednesday Sept 4th 2013: First day of class for William, very enthusiastic, until the drop off.

Sept 4th

The boys go to school 4 days a week, 3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon with a 2hr break for lunch. William is in Petite Section (1st year of preschool), Josh in Grande Section (Kindergarten). 

We walk to school when the weather is nice (about a quarter mile). The boys love to look for snails. We adopted 4 of them and kept them for about 3-4 weeks. We released them when the boys stopped taking care of them, Josh was sad, he was pretty attached to his pet snails, but he understood they were not happy in a box. 

One of our first week-ends here, we attended a picnic organized by the stake near Villefranche. We reconnected with a lot of old friends and met a few new friends.

Josh playing with an old friend (they knew each other as babies : ))

Ring around the roses 

Climbing trees with a new friend (American boy living in Lyon)

And racing of course

And at home:

Rainbow flip flops by William

froggy shoes by Josh

A week-end with their cousin Aurea

playing with the marble game Gramma Jarman gave them a while back

it took 2 adults 2 hours to build it but it was worth it!

Eating a fruit tart in Domene

Playing on the square in Domene

Horses we walk by on the way to school

and my favorite aisle at the grocery store!