Joyeux Anniversaire Elise

My lady celebrated her 3rd Birthday on Monday! My lady is getting so big! After she went to school, (I know? Can you believe she had to go to school on her Birthday?), we went to the lake to watch the ducks and visit "the bear". (Elise thinks a bear lives in the waterfall/pond thing at the park...)

It was a fabulous day and after the Celia's nap we took her new pink bike out for a ride. She's very excited about her Happy Birthday Bike and is slowly learning to control and glide on it. It's very fun.

On Tuesday I tried to order my lady a birthday cake for our celebration on Saturday. I didn't have much success and decided that either my french was really bad or that ordering a cake from a boulangerie just wasn't appropriate. So that night I asked my french teacher for help and got the right words down, (BTW, I was very close! It wasn't the french...)!

He told me ordering a cake from a boulangerie is a totally normal thing to do, so armed with my perfect sentences and a few practice rounds with Ludovic, I successfully ordered a cake today! So, Joyeux Anniversaire Elise!

Leaves, Trees, and a Bird

Elise, Celia, and I are loving the change in seasons. There are piles and piles of leaves to jump and play in all over campus! Although the campus workers are working hard to consolidate the leaves into nice, neat piles, we don't feel bad about jumping in them! (Read a blog from the past...the workers love to blow leaves and dirt into our apartment when we leave the windows open! Revenge is a beautiful thing!)

It's so fabulous to walk around town and see all the beautiful trees. There are so many great colors and I'm loving the weather. I'd be totally happy to stay in fall for the rest of the winter! It's not allowed to get any colder!

Anyways...we had a great break in the weather this weekend! It's warm with clear skies and perfect for flying kites and playing at the park. Although our kite only lasted a few flights, (very tough wind in which the wind won the kite! It swept the kite away and it is now resting peacefully on the roof of La Maison de Mexico!) Well, it was fun while it lasted! ;)

Today we got to meet Katy's Dad! We played at the park, drank some delicious chocolat chaud, and got some fabulous treats from the States via David Thompson. Elise and Celia snacked on some Oreo cookies before coming home to a peanut butter sandwich! Brian and I are really excited to use our new chapsticks! And Mrs. Thompson threw in some very special additional treats for the ladies: stickers and holiday decorations; very nice surprises considering we did not pack a single holiday item.

Oh, and the Bird: Brian and I went to see Andrew Bird on Friday night at the Casino de Paris. Fabulous venue and it was an amazing concert! Bird sounded amazing and was so on. He was incredible to watch and I loved the show! I loved being out, I love our new, fabulous babysitter, and it was so cool to just be in Paris, hearing a great show, and then walking the streets on a very pleasant evening with Brian. We even stayed out for a beer and played a little longer after the show was over. What a treat!

The rest of our day will either take us to a Trampoline Park or keep us close to home and to fix up Elise's Birthday surprise and go for a ride! She is so excited about her Happy Birthday Bike! Hope all is well!

The Maternelle

So I was having a conversation with my mom this afternoon and she asked me if I wondered what the teachers and staff at the Ecole Maternelle de Elise think about me. We both work in schools and of course have fabulous stories to share about the crazy parents we work with, so it was an interesting point brought up by my mother that inspired me to write a new blog entry. Here we go...

First, a little background. It is a huge faux pas to were your exercise gear in public. For example, many of the soccer ladies will take the metro to soccer practice on Sundays and wear their normal clothes, jeans, pants, nice tops. Once they reach the field, the change into their shorts and T-shirts and once it's over, will change back. You cannot seriously expect to ride the metro in your T-shirt and exercise shorts! How embarrassing! The best part of it all is you can be stinky and sweaty in jeans and a nice top and acceptable, but totally unacceptable in T-shirt and shorts smelling like roses! Ah, Paris! :)

Now that you have the background, you will appreciate that my school day ritual has been to walk Elise to school and then go for a run before heading back home to Celia and Brian. Thus, I show up to school with my daughter in my exercise gear and iPod. I'm sure they are very impressed with me! What am I thinking? Exercise pants and shirt! I can't be serious!

But it gets better...on the 5th of November, the kids returned to school after the Toussaint Holiday Break. Now, if you remember correctly, Elise had an extra week of school off because her class was canceled due to her teachers' illness. Thus, we did not receive any announcements before heading off on holiday. The one big announcement we missed was that there would be a school wide puppet show the morning of November 5 in which each student must contribute 4 Euros to participate. Even though Elise didn't pay her 4 Euros, she still got to watch, however I was told to bring in the Euros as soon as possible. So, I went on my run, collected all the change in the house to make 4 Euros (1, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent denominations....a HUGE envelope of change! ;) and returned to pick up Elise with payment in full!

The next day my envelope was sitting on the teachers desk and returned to me during the drop off. They will only accept 1 and 2 Euro coins for the payment. In other words, take your inappropriate workout outfit and trashy envelope of change, and come back when you can be more presentable!

I'm proud to say that I'm one of those crazy parents that I used to spend hours complaining about and making fun of with my colleagues. It feels great to be on the other side! :)

Halloween and Free Musee Dimanche

"I hate these ears...give me candy!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

"Mommy, why is he going like this?" Elise Fischer

We had a great Halloween Weekend here in Paris! Our MESSAGE party at the parc was a huge success and The German Vera and I planned a great party. (Do you love it? Halloween in Paris Party, planned with German! How American of me!!!)

We had about 35 kids that got to Trick or Treat from bench to bench in the Square Violet. I'm so glad we did it! Elise and Celia really got into it too. Although neither one of them caught on to the idea that you go for a collection of candy and eat it at the end. They would collect one piece, eat it, and then look for another bench to hit up for candy. It was great.

Elise dressed as a beautiful princess (thanks to Jamila's beautiful gift way back when...it came in very handy as a Halloween Costume. As you can imagine, they are hard to come by in Paris!) and Celia was a very cute puppy dog. She refused to wear her hood ears but was still adorable in her costume.

On Sunday we took adavantage of the Free Sunday Museum Day and went to the Musee Rodin. There is a fabulous garden there full of Rodin Statues, including the famous Thinker. The ladies had a great time running around in the rain and checking out the statues. It's a great museum for the little people. We have decided we need to go back and check out the works displayed on the inside and learn all about Rodin's process when we are not muddy, wet, and very dirty!

Hope you all had a great weekend!