Birthday wishes, goose and fishes

Hello. As mom has said in the past blog, our entries are slowing because of school. "What's that Smell?" is also getting some competition... wait for it... waaait for it........ The SCHOOL BLOG! Thats right, my teacher decided to put up a blog on which all the students can write. I informed her I was already an expert blogger, but now I am working for not 1, but 2 blogs. I will tell you a little bit of each thing(or will try to) that has happened since the last blog. First, I am so, so, so, so angry at my mom for leaving out my birthday on the blog, but I guess as dad said, it wasn't a really important day for her, it meant a lot to dad, but for mom, it was like," Ow. My stomach, somethings in it, oh its Lili" (ha, ha). My birthday was a very happy day(despite the fact that in school we had to do some hard geography), but after school, I was greeted by mom, who was carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. At home, Noa really wanted me to see my cake, but I refused, I wanted it to be a surprise. I'm not going to explain everything, but I will put a pic of me on my b-day. Moving on. On Sunday, we went to Versailles, another thing that my dear, dear observant mother forgot to mention. It was beautiful, with the musical fountains, I loved it, and I think Noa did, too, though she claimed she didn't. We saw Marie Antoinette's village, it was very pretty. There were fish in a river in M.A's village, and that swan/goose is trying to peck the food out of their mouths. I don't want the blog to be to long, so I'm going to skip ahead, I actually might skip back, but... whatever. I'm going to skip back for a moment, rewind. We are at the scene of my b-day. I GOT AN IPAD! A 100$ GIFT CARD(to itunes) AND A BOOT SHOPPING TRIP, WITH A MOCHA FRAPACHINO INCLUDED!!!! Now, rewind even more, Aunt Jody has just arrived. Ayton is so cute, he says hot dog, challah (though he pronounces it "hawa"), and some other things, but I think the thing he says the most is "more". Now, we fast forward to today. I am thinking about the party I'm going to have on Sat. with my friends. Right now, I might have to vacuum (hey, even if mom's neck doesn't hurt, she can't completely stop enjoying the luxury of having me do household work). So until next blog!!

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

Did you miss us?

As you all predicted, the blog entries are slowing down now that school is really underway. Lili is making a lot of progress and over the weekend she was shocked to learn that she actually understood what a little girl next to her has said while we were out. She has a lot of homework but she is motivated to get it done and is looking forward to really being able to break the french code! Noa claims she still doesn't understand anything. Says she has no idea what is going on in class but doesn't complain about going to school. She loves her english class (as do all the native english speakers), her teacher is a little whacky (which is a nice change of pace from the very strict french model). Both of the girls have many friends, which is really helping them keep a float. Ethan is working a lot trying to get his students enrolled in classes and settled with their host families. There have been some minor issues to deal with but Ethan explained to his students, in plain english, that he will not be the director with the easy going reputation but he will be the director that has no problem sending kids home, fast. We can only hope that once they get busy with school, they will have less time for whining (and wine-ing!). I am still working on the apartment furnishings and getting used to life in the big city...without my big car, big house and big washing machine (did I mention we have no dryer?, not that I'm complaining...). Jody, Kourosh and Ayton we here for a visit last week. I have obviously totally forgotten what it's like to have a toddler. I carefully explained to the girls that they needed to put all their small toys away, however, I neglected to move the open bag of nails, 2 screw drivers and hammer that were just sitting in the corner of the living room. Dog food was also an issue. As were all of our glasses and plates that sit on a low shelf due to the fact that I still have no cupboards in the kitchen. Eating out was also somewhat trying because most restaurants don't have high chairs. Despite all that, we had a great time with them. I'll leave you with that and save the purchasing of a phone plan ordeal til the next time!

School News

HI! I'm sorry it's been so long, so much has been happening, especially with school! I like my teacher, she's nice, and so are my English teacher, gym teacher, and art teacher. We had our first homework yesterday. For French we had to read something and understand the meaning, and memorize how to spell something(in French, of course). For English, we did spelling. So far, school is pretty easy, even if mostly everything is in French. The only thing I really hate, is the fact that every Thursday, we have to go to the swimming pool, most likely for swimming lessons. Other than that, it's pretty OK. Mom told you that we got roller blades, they're so much fun! We got bad news about the table we were going to order, it's not coming till December! Well, we weren't going to wait the long, so today we had to go looking for one. Surprisingly(more or less, cause we were desperate), we found one! It's glass, and it's black. I really like it! The only other news is that Aunt Jody, Kourosh, and Ayton are coming in one week(YAY), and so is my birthday! Wish me luck at school!

Lili(an) Belle in PARIS!

The Return of The Father

Sounds serious, doesn't it? Ethan has finally rejoined us in Paris. The last 2 weeks have not been easy without him. If it was only me and the kids, things would have been fine but with my injured neck, 2 children and a badly behaving canine, things were not running smoothly. Poor Lili was like Cinderella, "Lili, could you load the dish washer? Lili, could you take Chloe out? Lili, could you hang the laundry? Lili, could you cook diner? Lili, could you go get Mommy a petit bottle of wine to wash down the pain killers? Life improved greatly after meeting some new friends and a session with my new osteopath. But everyone is very excited that daddy is finally home! Daddy is also very happy to be home, although he had to bid farewell to his new friends in Bordeaux, all of whom own eatery establishments, but were very welcoming to the lonely foreigner. The girls sort of started school on friday. Noa had a half day and Lili had a whopping 2 hours! But they both seemed to enjoy it, liked their teachers and everything was translated. I think that is just for the first day but I didn't mention that to them, why rain on their parade? Today we upgraded from scooters and got roller blades (with helmets and pads) and they seemed to like that. Also, sorry there haven't been any pictures lately but the little camera is not functioning properly and I have to go get it fixed. This week should be interesting, I'll keep you posted!