Rain, Rain, Go Away…

This morning we showed Mamau our favorite crepe place, Notre Dame, and Luxembourg Gardens.  Unfortunately the weather was rainy and we got quite wet.  It makes it a little harder to enjoy the sights when your shoulders are hunched and your head wants to face the pavement to avoid the rain.

But rain makes a good excuse for more coffee and hot chocolate, and for a rousing game of “Pantomime."  This version has little pictures that need to be acted out (rather than words) and it was fun for everyone. 

Jack limited his normal gregarious vibe to a very small space.  He would shyly draw the item in the air, or act out one small action.  A wrong answer received closed eyes, pursed lips, and a quick shake of the head.  Then his eyes would pop open and he would wait for the next answer.  His actions were amazingly good for a 5-year old!

Owen was energized and loved the game, but he was a little too  accurate in his actions for his own liking.  We would yell out the correct answer and he would continue  acting for a minute or so before smiling and announcing, “Oh yeah, you guys got it when you said, ____.”

Poor Mamau has to do elaborate scenes for 5 minutes at a time because I thought it was much funnier to play dumb while the boys worked hard to get the answers. 

The best one was when she was working on the word, “umbrella.”  Little sprinkling fingers coming down to show rain, then the obvious actions of opening an umbrella, then putting her hands in a big arc of the shape of the umbrella.   The kids were yelling, “a mountain! a mountain!”  back to the rain fingers for Mamau  “oh, it’s snowing!!!  You are sledding on a mountain!”  -Forget that we had spent the day in the rain, my poor Seattleite children – they have seen an umbrella, but not actually used it for protecting themselves from rain… and while the apartment came with two umbrellas, I didn’t think to bring them with me on any of our outings…

Tomorrow is Bastille Day.  We are supposed to go to the military parade in the morning and watch the fireworks at night.  Hope we don’t’ get rained out!