This is Sybille.

 This is Sybille, a very dirty Jack, and her birthday presents.

 Sybille, Jack, the birthday presents...and Tassia!

 Sybille, Jack, the birthday presents....well, OK, I guess you've understood.  Sybille turned 5 today.  She also marked this week by starting school.  After much thought, Thomas and I decided to go ahead and enroll Sybille in second-year preschool, instead of waiting until September when she would actually be in kindergarten.  (Of couse, the average French child her age has already been in school for a year and a half by now.)  She was very enthusiastic, but this week has still been kind of rough.  Notably because we all came down with the stomach flu last weekend and, although on the mend, at no point this week have all the girls been at school at the same time.  Anyway, here is Sybille sporting one of her birthday presents.

At what point does our catering to her penguin obsession become ridiculous?  For Christmas, she received a playm0bil penguin family, a hand-croched stuffed penguin, and a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Two weeks later, for her birthday, we added the penguin "costume."  Sunday, her official birthday cake will be shaped like...guess what?

Here she is with (from left to right) Enormous Penguin, Pailletta, Captain Cook (until recently known as Toutes les couleurs), and the paper mache penguin who, as far as I know, does not have a name.  Missing from the picture is Salade and a whole host of small, plastic penguins.
 

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas!

Fr0zen Gala

 The girls' school has a Christmas gala every year, basically a dance show that the school spends a month or so getting ready for.  Usually, the gala also involves a lot of costume changes (too many, since all those costume changes involve finding what's necessary for ALL THOSE COSTUMES!)  But, this year, they chose the movie Fr0zen as a theme, which meant, basically, only one costume for everybody!  Yay!  So, here you can admire Elsa's sparkly train and hair.

 Anna in her cute dress:

 Elsa II who, although not actually dancing in the show, couldn't be forgotten.

 And, perhaps most importantly, Anna's hair, of which I was pretty proud.

Thanksgiving

It's too early, you say.  Yes, it's not yet the holiday.  But there's no reason why I can't be thankful today.  To give some background:  I spent a good part of the late afternoon combing hair for lice.  By the time the process was finished, I realized my throat was sore from yelling at the girls so much.  At which point Thomas (without a hint of sarcasm, honest!) pointed out that I'm the one going around telling everyone to be thankful.  So, was I?  It's true.  I've been thinking a lot about being thankful over the last few months.  So, although I probably failed the thankful test during the combing process, here is why I can still be thankful.

1.  If I was spending so much time combing, it's because I have 3 little girls.  I haven't forgotten the point in our lives where we weren't sure we'd have any children.  We have not one, not two, but three miraculous gifts from God.

2.  If they have lice, it's because they have hair.  It doesn't take much browsing on the internet to know that if a post or an article or a comment is accompanied by a picture of a child with no hair, it's probably not a happy one.  Our children are in good health, and their hair is part of the proof!

3.  They do have gorgeous hair.  Three colors, three textures, but gorgeous, gorgeous, and gorgeous.

4.  I live in a country where there's good medical care and pharmacies where one can purchase (not-always-effective) lice treatment and special combs.  

5.  Gotta be thankful for the comb!

6.  They're alive.  There are over a hundred families in Paris that can't say that about their loved ones tonight.  Then also, part of the combing took place in front of a

7.  roaring fire in our

8.  beautiful house.  And, when I realized that the combing was taking longer than expected (2 hours for baths and de-licing seemed reasonable at the time), my

9. amazing husband offered to go and get

10.  frozen pizzas and ice cream.

There you have it.  I may not be thankful for all things, but I can learn to be thankful in all things. 

Vacation and La Rochelle

It's been vacation time here for the last 2 weeks.  We needed a break, and we have had a very enjoyable one.  Here are some of our fun times:

 Tassia's not very happy about getting eaten by a giant ant.

 She was very creative at the beach, however.  This is some of her artwork from close up.  Below is the entire work from a bit farther away.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts?

Alina's 9...I mean, 8!

Hello, it's been a long time since I've posted anything...  Here are some pictures of Alina's latest birthday.  She's now 9, but, shhhhh, don't tell her.  Actually, since her favorite number is 8, she has insisted that she will never be 9, but will remain 8 for the rest of her life.  She was VERY upset when she received a birthday card saying "Happy 9th birthday."  Very upset.

 Everyone needs their crown and jewels when they drink hot chocolate, right?

And we spent all morning putting together the ranch of her dreams!

Forest Frolic