Bon Appetit!

 (this is a long one, beware!)

I made it through the weekend, and actually quite enjoyed myself!  In case you don't remember, this was my weekend on "mommy duty" while Val and Nico were in Normandy celebrating their anniversary.  Grand-pere was in town to take care of the kids, so my job was to cook all meals and occupy the kids if need be so grandpa could nap.  Friday began when I picked the kids up from school at 4:30 and took them to the creperie as I promised I would earlier that week.  My friend Amanda was tagging along because her "au family" was out of town and we happened to be hanging out before then.  While picking them up, we ran into my other au pair friend, Maggie (from Georgia!).  Her kids go to Lucien's school, and as we discovered Friday, are good friends!  We spent probably 30-40 minutes hanging out outside the school while the kids played and the three of us talked, I actually felt like a mom, it was weird.  After this we went to our favorite creperie by the canal, ordered a nutella crepe and a chocolate muffin, and sat by the canal to enjoy the goûter.  Lucien got ahold of my camera and the inner photographer in him came out, so I now have a full memory card of fingers, feet, zoom x12 faces, etc.  We came home, played a bit, and then Val had bought the makings of another hamburger night, something Grand-pere has never eaten!!  (well, home-made at least)...here are some pictures of our Friday!

Snuggling up for a picture by the canal

Lucien and Alice with Maggie's kids

Alice and her nutella crepe

Lucien and his chocolate muffin

Friends and family, meet Amanda!

Saturday rolled around and my first duty was to make lunch for the fam.  I decided to make steamed salmon, rice, and green beans, which I think is mine and the kids favorite meal ever.  It's amazing how much fish these kids eat, and LOVE!  Grand-pere, in his very very broken English/Franglais (French/English combo), told me that at home he never ever cooks.  He is divorced and lives alone in a big house in the country in the province of Lorraine.  He said he generally has a couple fried eggs for lunch and either pasta or a microwave meal for dinner, so being treated to a home-cooked meal was extra special for him.  I ended up hanging out with the kids for a bit because Grand-pere was very tired, so we played games while he took a nap.  I also used this time to get dinner ready so that I wouldn't have to do it later.  I made from scratch some delicious chili and cornbread and everyone ate it up!  I was scared as to how it would turn out because it is very difficult to bake over here with baking powder and baking soda not really existing, or at least in different forms...The chili I was nervous about because I didn't want it to be too spicy, but that's what gives it the flavor!  It ended up being the perfect combination and Lucien and Grand-pere LOVED it, Alice liked it, but it was a bit spicy for her.  The cornbread turned out great, but being the good little French kids that they are, chose baguette instead...they don't like any form of bread other than baguette and brioche!  What I liked the most is that we actually finished the entire pot of chili, mainly because Grand-pere was going back for 3rds and 4ths, and continuously talking about it the rest of the weekend!  I really enjoyed talking to him because he knows so much about France that you just don't learn in school or by living here.  You have to be born and raised here and have stories passed down through generations to hear some of the things he was telling me.  Even with the large communication barrier, we somehow managed to get by with him speaking the little English he knew, me speaking even less French, and using big hand gestures or rephrasing things a billion times so the other understands it, but we made it work!  I think (or hope at least) that he also enjoyed my company!  He made it a point to say many times "you come visit my village, stay in my home with your friends, I have big garden and many rooms", so I think I may have to take him up on this sometime, and cook him a big pot of chili and some cornbread to thank him!  When it came time to put the kids to bed that night, they were completely wired from spending all day in the house, so I promised them that we would get outside the next day.

Sunday the day started with a home-made quiche for lunch.  This time it was spinach instead of leeks...good, but the leek one was better!  We also had some noodle soup as an appetizer, which was a nice homey touch on such a cold day!  After lunch, we prepared to head to the park, but just as we suited up, it began raining, and hard.  So I let them watch TV as I prayed for the rain to stop, luckily, 45 mins later, it did, so we were on our way.  We played a big game of hide and go seek, had some fun on a little spinning chair (they spun so fast they turned green, whereas I spun around once and was nauseous..I'm getting old!)  We also jump roped and scootered around the perimeter of the park before deciding we should head home and prepare dinner.  We made it easy that night and just had my favorite pasta that I have come up with.  Gluten free spaghetti noodles with olive oil and balsamic, chopped tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, so yummy!  I promised the kids earlier that day that we could watch a "special" movie on my computer that night.  I say special because all the movies they own they have seen 10+ times, so on my computer we get to download movies they have never seen before.  I thought Home Alone would be a good choice for them to get into the holiday spirit, but 5 mins in Alice was so scared that we had to turn it off...oops!  Instead, we watched The Great Mouse Detective, which was a go-to movie when I was a kid, and always reminds me of my best friend Katie Scoville!  They LOVED it, and when we happened to talk to my mom and dad on skype today, Alice told them she wants that DVD for Christmas! Here are some pictures of our day in the park!

I love being surrounded by these old, gorgeous buildings, no matter where we are!

Alice just loves to cheese it up for the camera!

Today was the longest day yet, as I was actually scheduled to work from 11-5 (which ended up being 7).  We made a couple of home-made pizzas for lunch, which the kids said they prefer over their favorite pizza parlor here, 2 more points for me!  Then we went to the vegetable shop around the corner to pick out pumpkins, because today was pumpkin carving day!!  The kids have been looking forward to this all week, and today was the perfect day for it.  It was wonderfully sunny, although still freezing, so we took out the scooters again and made it into a long walk as well.  Pumpkins here are very different than I am used to.  They are much much smaller, therefore quite difficult to carve, but we managed pretty well.  We came home and dug in, figuratively...when I told the kids they had to scoop out the guts, they were thoroughly disgusted and refused to put their hands in...what kind of kids DON'T want to get dirty?!  So Grand-pere and I ended up gutting the pumpkins.  The kids got to draw their own faces on the pumpkins, and then after I cut them, they got to pop out all the pieces.  They had a lot of fun doing it, but because the pumpkins were so small, all the features were too, so the candles inside didn't have enough oxygen to stay lit...bummer.  At least they are pretty to look at!  After this we went on a mad cleaning spree to get the house in tip top shape for mommy and daddy's arrival, which took a longgg time.  Then I let them watch another movie on my computer, this time we chose the Prince of Egypt, because it was raining again.  While they watched this, I decided to salvage the pumpkin seeds and clean and roast them to eat, so yummy!  Finally mom and dad came home around 6:30, so I was finally free to just rest in peace!  Val made a wonderful lamb feast for Grand-pere and I tonight to thank us for this weekend, and having never eaten lamb before, it was amazing!  Now I am curled up in bed, writing to you all, and passing out early...haha, it's 11:50 pm as I type this...early is relative now...  Here are some pumpkin carving pictures!

Lucien with his pumpkin

Alice hard at work

Those pumpkins were so difficult!

None of us were quite ready for this picture...and neither were our pumpkins :(

This week is a pretty easy one for me, woo hoo!  I have tomorrow off, so I am continuing my hunt for a long winter coat!  Val and Nico told me tonight that it is expected to be the coldest winter Paris has seen in 20 years...that WOULD be my luck!  They are expecting lots of snow, and come February, they say the entire canal will be frozen over!  I think I need to not worry so much about breaking the bank and just consider the jacket an investment to ward of hypothermia because winter here lasts till April!  I leave for Brussels on Friday, so if I don't have much of an exciting week then expect to hear from me again next Monday with many stories and pictures of my long-awaited weekend getaway!

Love you all!