Tuesday

Celia in her "boy" coat! I never forget her pink shoes so people stop calling her "beau garcon"! (hey...it was cheap, it's warm, it's a little big, but she can still walk! :)

The ladies stretching with mommy!

So, I am sorry for being such a lame "blogger" but it has been a quite couple weeks. We have been enjoying the beautiful fall days with walks on the quad and playing in the park. I hope you all had a chance to watch Elise climb the jungle gyms on the youtube videos posted below. She is an excellent climber and even better pole lady! She can ride that thing down without any fear! I'm quite impressed!

I have also been working a bit. Can you believe that? I successfully finished round one of college recommendations. Early decision kids are out and round two will start in November. So, I have been a good lady and layed low for a couple weeks and worked on letters.

This week has been off to an interesting start: Elise's teacher is sick so I have been asked to keep her home all week! (the week before a 10 day vacation, Elise gets to spend at home! Lucky girl!)

They have no substitute teacher system here in Paris. The gov't has already cut staff so trying to bring in someone from outside the school to substitute a classroom is not an option. Thus, when the teacher is sick, they either ask you to keep your kid home or they split them up among the other classes. So Elise's 3 year old classmates were distributed among the 4's and 5 year olds. (I had a great chat with my friend Marie-France who speaks excellent English and helped me learn of the situation this morning! Her 3 year old was with the 5 year olds yesterday! He had a great time with them but was very confused!)

I could not imagine Elise doing too well in that environment. She has a hard enough time following Beatrice (the teacher) and her classmates in French, I'd hate to make her re-adjust for the week with a new group of kids. However, I don't think I had much of an option, the director of the school said to me, "No teacher, go home." She's very sweet! :)

So, Elise, Celia, and I have been hanging out all morning. Today Elise picked out a hat and gloves so that she can stay warm for our terribly cold walks to school in the morning. Tomorrow is a normal no school day (off on Wednesday's...being a primary school teacher is awesome!) and we will be back at the Eiffel Tower for Kids' Games! But the lucky lady! Her week and a half Toussaint Holiday that starts Friday just started a little earlier! I just hope she's ready to go back on Nov. 5!

We are off to Innsbruck on Thursday night to see the Whither Family! I'm so very excited to get out of the city for a while and be with some great, old friends. It has been over two years since Gina and I have been together so it will be such a fun reunion for us and our families. Gina has been in Innsbruck since the beginning of the month with students from her school. They are doing some ski training in the town Patsch. So, life is getting exciting again and I will have some good stories for you all next week!

Hope all is well!