Sunday, June 21, 2009

Random Pictures of R

I have so many pictures from the last month, it's going to take me awhile to post them. I'm trying an experiment, writing about one kid at a time. This one is R. Eight & a half years old. Now, since he's no longer a 2nd grader, it's official. He's a third grader. Wow.

In this picture, he is at the "treehouse" he and his brother discovered in the forest nearby. They have been working together on "improvements." Except J complains that all R does is watch while he does all the work. As much is getting done, I'm not too worried about who's "job" it is.


On a trip to Versailles to look at the fountains, it was a beautiful day. There are lots of expanses of green grass where people picnicked and frolicked. Here, R is working on his cartwheel. Still could use some work.


The entire second grade (about 35 kids) went on an extended field trip to "Circus Camp." They all got to learn all the different things - trapeze, juggling, tight-"rope"-walking, ball-walking, hoops, clowning, etc. Then, they chose their
two favorites to perform for the parents. He chose ball-walking and clowning. They had great costumes and tremendous support from the staff.

Here he is telling his joke about "Burpee the Flea." He was the only kid to perform solo (she's holding the microphone for him). I'll post the video when T gets it out from the entire circus performance.


He was awesome! Her he is afterwards, with makeup still on. With me, his proud mama.


It's fun to be his mom. (Even though he often drives me crazy). So what else is new?

I'll try to make a post like this for each kid over the next week or two.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

School's out

Well, for the big guys, anyway. Today was the last day of school. Lots of people are leaving permanently, or moving on to other assignments.

It's interesting. I have made a home/community within the school and the expat population here. One thing that didn't occur to me as I did this, is... people leave. There's no getting around it. It is a constantly revolving door here.

So, today I had to say goodbye to new friends. I like the idea of keeping in touch. But I'm not sure how well it will work out. Hopefully this blog will be one of the ways in which I do it.

Which is, I guess why I started it in the first place. So, even if I don't post regularly, it's still more than I would be doing if I were trying to keep in touch by emailing or calling my friends.

I may or may not get around to posting last month's pictures. I'm not that great at doing the "backlog" stuff. But, as my writing coach pointed out, I need to remember the purpose of writing. Which, here, is to stay connected.

I'll be visiting the states soon - Colorado from July 25 - Aug 1, and Texas Aug 2 - 11. Let me know if we can get together.

Since the older boys are out of school now, most (but not all) of my school-related activities are done. I am looking forward to exploring a little of Paris with big kids. I'll (try to remember to) keep you posted. :)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Oh, Hi there...

It's not that I haven't had anything to write about. It's not even that I've been so busy I don't have time to write. It's not that I don't care.

Come to think of it, I don't really know why I haven't posted in almost a month. Hmmm. Let's see if I can recap what's been happening in the past 30 days...

In order of what I remember...

1. Birthday party for J;
2. Birthday party for A;
3. Planning birthday party for me;
4. Day-trip to Chartres - the labyrinth was OPEN!
5. Tour through the Les Halles district of Paris;
6. Planning all above activities;
7. Jazzercise;
8. Physical Therapy for sore knee;
9. Osteopath for sore knee;
10. Planning trip to USA (July 24 - Aug 14);
11. Signing kids up for summer camps on two continents;
12. Discovering originally-planned summer camp no longer exists;
13. Finding new camps for same time period;
14. Day trip to Versailles with boys;
15. Tour of Monmartre;
16. Sending two older boys on two different extended field trips;
17. Two-day trip to Epernay (Champagne region), with accompanying winery tours;
18. Watching R be a clown (and gymnast) in the circus;
19. Lying in the middle of a field of rapseed grass;

More, but I have a request to play/teach backgammon. I'll post pictures from the month soon.