Portugal wins !

Lily: "I'm not sure what happened exactly but we were all happily enjoying ourselves in uncle Paul-Antoine's living room, Alice and I playing with toys on the ground and the others watching something on the television, when suddenly they all yelled and bolted out of the house to go invade the streets on their bicycles! Gabriela was on her new yellow bicycle, wearing a funny flag fixed onto her new helmet... I stayed put, thinking my game looked like more fun than theirs."

Argentina wins !

"Lily is dancing, Lily is a dancer" says Lily every day these days... This particular performance is given for the admiring eyes of aunt Paula and mommy Rachel, while Paul-Antoine and Gabriela are hitting a soccer ball with their heads and daddy is cooking supper on the turkish grill... all in celebration of Argentina's 2-1 victory over Mexico (or maybe in celebration of happy family gatherings).

Summer solstice

"Fun season" is with us again... are you ready for take off? Alice is, anyway, and the big girls are planning an all-nighter in their sleeping bags and in Alex's parents' tent in the back yard. Oh what glee!

School's out! (part 2)

Lily: "Fofo is hosting a supper + all-night-camping-in-a-tent in our backyard garden to celebrate with her best friends the end of their second year of high school, and Alice and I are right in there, not missing a beat. Who says I can't take part in a teenage conversation in French — as a matter of fact, I'm leading it !"

School's out !

Alice: "My big sister Gabriela is showing daddy the new dress she and her mommy made for her graduation ball and I'm making sure everything is spanking clean and perfect, right down to the shine on her shoes!"

Just watch me

A look of determination in her eyes, Alice thinks: "My two older sisters walked at 10 months, my hypercautious third sister Lily walked at a whopping 14 months... I'm only 8 1/2 months old and standing strong already. Just watch me!"

Alice upright

From squatting up and down everywhere she can to standing up aided and unaided, our little Alice is fast aquiring the upright posture of a soon-to-be-walking baby... [Alice seen here in our backyard and at a picnic during the Bal en blanc organized at Lily's daycare.]

Lily's tea parties

"Let's have a tea party", proposes Lily almost every other day. She then whips out her finest plastic china out of the transparent backpack she received for Christmas, and sets the table for many guests, most notably mommy (and sometimes daddy when he's not washing the real dishes or taking pictures like right now). "Would you like some milk in your juice lemonade, mommy?" asks Lily on this one.

p.s. Lily's English has improved immensely since her trip to Meo and Doco's house. To the point where her mastery of the tricky English prepositions is now leaving her dad confounded. She says things like "Lily is serving up some supper"... what's the use of that "up" word, I wonder - I've never used that phrase, yet I sense she's got it right! :-)

p.p.s. the person in pink is just a GC (gate crasher), she's not yet on Lily's official guest list...

Mommy's garden

This is me, Alice, playing with my super high-tech cellphone. It's got great features: it's saliva-resistant and the antenna can handle any amount of pulling and pushing. But let's forget the cellphone, this is all about the GARDEN. This is a wonderful place my mom has created in our backyard where Lily and I can play for hours. To give you an idea of how much space we have to play with, look at this aerial shot my father took from the third floor balcony! Isn't it nice? all this green lawn to roll around in...
and thank you again, Doco, for believing in our lawn and grooming it so well last year... it is really happy now. Just like me 95% of the time. [the other 5% is when my big sister Lily grabs toys away from me, but I don't stay sad for very long... maybe we're talking more like 1% really].

La Fête de Mai

After a very nice day at Taïtaï and Papi's place celebrating Papi's 75th birthday, we accompanied Louis, Louise, Raphaël and Charlotte to the annual May Fair at their Waldorf school. A very hot and sunny and festive affair it was! Lots of games, shows, craftsmen, healthy food and spring rituals, like this dance around the May Pole.