First full day of school for Alice

A beautiful sunny day for the first full day of school for the three Kindergarden groups at Paul-Bruchési, Alice and Lily's school. As is the tradition, parents were invited to stay around in the schoolyard this morning for a "haie d'honneur" ritual of welcoming the new five-year-olds. Lily was there of course, with her classmates of 1ère année B.
Louise, with the funny grin and nice French accent, is a good friend from last year who is again in Lily's class this year.
All the older children are in place, two-by-two holding hands high up and ready to let the new ones come running through in the "passageway"... and here they come !! (some appear a little shy, I must say ;-)
Alice finishes her run around the yard as she passes under her proud sister's raised arms...
... and emerges at the end under her proud mother's watchful eye.

Le jardin de Taitai

La météo annonçait un weekend splendide... ensoleillé samedi et dimanche, 30 degrés - vite, on saute dans la Communauto et on va visiter Taitai et Papi ! Même Gabriela a pu venir :-)
Alice et Lily ont beaucoup joué autour du jardin de Taitai, dont la moitié est complètement occupée par les potirons, avec quelques nicotianas volontaires éparpillés ici et là.
Taitai a compté 18 potirons en tout ! De quoi garnir les maisons de ses trois fils et brus à l'Halloween prochain...
... et de quoi donner de l'inspiration à Cole pour son potager à New Denver ! ;-))

Beware: Potent bevy on the loose!

A powerful assemblage of strong-headed girls is walking down a street of New Denver, on a quest for their next adventure of the summer... From left to right: Ellen, Lily, Rowan, Molly and Alice.

Alice dans les montagnes

Alice a attaqué l'ascension de sa première véritable montagne cet été, comme une vaillante petite membre de la famille Harris qu'elle est.
La voici presque en haut mais prête à poursuivre pour rejoindre les plus vieux qui cavalent en avant...
... jusqu'à ce que son papa (et sa maman) décide qu'elle en a sans doute assez fait pour la journée.

Second annual lemonade sale

Pour un deuxième été, Gabriela a préparé une grosse quantité de limonade qu'elle va vendre au marché du vendredi à New Denver. (oups, à qui appartient le petit derrière qui émerge derrière le tronc d'arbre?)
... mais à une de nos deux fées de la limonade, bien sûr !

A futile search...

... for Lily's first lost tooth. The tooth fairy will have to do without.

A candid moment in New Denver

A moment of tranquillity in the old ranch house, stolen from the usual bustle of the multitudes... heightened by Muriel's magical harp.

A rare occurrence...

A rare moment of family unity: my four very mobile daughters all in the same place at the same time... worth a picture !

Expo à l'école de Lily

Here is Lily proudly showing the exhibition she and her classmates created in hommage of four of the best known Québécois painters: Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle... (and a fourth one that I don't remember.)
Some (larger) pieces were collaborations of all the children...
... whereas others were replicated by each pupil in his or her own fashion.
The exhibition was held in the large hall for parents to visit and for their children to walk them through.

Rachel's favourite moment

With or without company, gardening is one of my earthy Rachel's favourite activities...

A glorious idea

We decided that the sandbox wasn't getting used a whole lot and so Rachel got into planting a nice patch of herbs - to the immense future delight of the cook (me) ! :-)
Imagine: weeks and weeks worth of flat-leaf parsley, green and red basil, coriander, thyme, and rosemary. All in the friendly company of some asparagus, arugula and joyful flowers !

Peut-on enfin dire que ça y est, c'est l'été?

Une magnifique journée nous as été offerte par les dieux pour notre petite fête dans le jardin avec nos amis Pascale, Michel, Raphaël, Maya, Martin, Roza et Galilée. Les femmes étaient resplendissantes dans leurs conversations animées, les fillettes coquines dans leurs petits jeux tourbillonnants, Raphaël intarissable dans ses explorations de chaque recoin et les hommes admirables dans leur étroite supervision de tout ce beau monde!

Délicieuse escapade

Un soleil digne de l'été, un endroit paradisiaque, une cabane isolée dans les bois sans électricité ni téléphone ni eau courante, avec un étang pour se baigner à dix minutes de marche et même un sauna pour chasser le froid de la baignade... c'est le délicieux cadeau que ma belle Rachel m'a offert pour mes cinquante ans! Avec la précieuse et indispensable collaboration de Marie-Claude et Alejandro qui se sont chargés avec plaisir de garder nos chères fillettes qui ne pouvaient rêver mieux que de passer une fin de semaine chez leurs parrain et marraine...!

Un rituel sacré à renouveler à chaque saison? ;-)

Enfin, Maman en vacances!

My show in Vanves went very well. We had a sold-out house and a very enthusiastic response from the audience. The girls and Eric came and we all made it back to our minuscule hotel room on the metro afterwards. Everyone is still a little shell-shocked from the travel and the big city the tight quarters where we are staying but our holiday is beginning!!!

Bremen town musicians

Yes Ma, I have now seen the Bremen town musicians... and here they are!

'Furies' in rehearsal

Julien, our sound man, took these pictures in rehearsal before our last show in Frankfurt.

Main river Frankfurt

MD in Frankfurt

Here is part of the company in the "historical" centre of Frankfurt. These buildings are replicas of the old buildings that were bombed in the war.

With me in the picture are Annik, Maryse, Benoît, Fred and Casey (Dominic is taking the picture)

Home in Frankfurt

This is home in Frankfurt. The Mousonturm building houses our apartments as well as the theatre, the rehearsal studios and a bar/restaurant. We hardly have to go outside! Casey and I have the orange apartment. As you can see, everything that can be orange is, from the bath mats to the cutlery and from the key to the nail brush in the bathroom. These Germans have a very thurough sense of organization!

Our first show here went very well last night. We had a sold out house and we had a very enthusiastic response.