First Day of School

Our school theme this year is “It’s Time…” 

For Owen it’s time …to tell time (he got a new Darth Vader watch with hands)  …to be on time.  …to make new friends. (he is nervous about this and really wants to become better friends with some of his classmates, especially one little boy who is really into math.

For Jack it’s time…to join the big kids at school.(And is he ever excited about this!)  …to have fun. (I am hoping I can come back to this one when he worries that other kids are “better” at him  at reading, or French, or whatever.)  There is one more for him, but it is slipping my mind –grr.

Eric brought over coffee and vanilla milks.  I made eggs  and bacon and toast and no one cried that they hated eggs.  It was beautiful!  Jack was happy with Owen’s old backpack especially when Owen said, “Look Jack, you got a new backpack – it’s cool!”

Both boys were excited to go to school.   Owen’s teacher is a man, which he thinks is great and Jack was able to visit his teacher last year, so that helped him.  I walked them to class even though we are not supposed to.  I used to hate it when parents felt that the rules didn’t apply to them, but I am frustrated that there is no meet and greet.  I want to at least look at the person and the room in which I am leaving my boys for the day! 

After school, the boys were all smiles.

Jack yelled, “It was AWESOME! AWESOME!”

Owen sat quietly in his seat for a few seconds then said, “Well, I can’t say ‘awesome’ or ‘amazing,’ but I will say, ‘great.’”

I am surprised that Jack is the one who likes school and Owen is more hesitant.  But I laugh, because their answers reflect their personality so fully.  Jack a bundle of excited energy, Owen carefully exploring the situation. 

It could have easily gone:

Jack: I am NEVER going to that dumb French school AGAIN!

Owen: I expected it to be great, but it was even better than my expectations.  I would say, “Awesome” or even, “Amazing!”  (Actually, this is almost a quote from him late in the day when he chose peppermint ice cream)

I love my boys!

After school, we headed to our little wooded hide-away…

Bags Are Packed

We leave the apartment tomorrow, and all of us are feeling a little sad.  Owen cried when he realized that it was the last night that he was going to see his friend from across the street.  Jack wanted lots of hugs and stated, “It is hard to leave.”   And it is.  It has been a good summer – full of lots of activities and excitement.  I worried recently, that it has been too busy and we haven’t relaxed enough.  Then I remembered that I spent almost every day of last summer at the pool and I worried then that the boys weren’t getting enough stimulation.  I guess I will be happy with the idea that the two summers added together are a perfect balance.

I let the boys pick what they wanted to do for their last full day.  They chose to eat crepes for breakfast, go to Parc Floral for the day, and have dinner at a restaurant that they really liked.  At the park the monkeys did the ropes course again and played at the playground.  We also played a mini golf game that had mini versions of various monuments in Paris.  It was a very good last day.

We have one night in a hotel before an early flight in the morning.  I can’t believe we are going to be home so soon!

Rentre (Back To School)

Today I took the boys clothes shopping for school.  There are two stores here that I have wanted to go in, and we were able to find a few thing.  Jack and Owen each tried on pants, with, “nah” and “I don’t like them” for several.  Then they each tried on a pair that they LOVED!  It was funny (but not surprising) to see them know exactly what they wanted.  Owen’s was a pair of skinny jeans and Jack picked a pair of dark plaid pants.

The both wanted v-neck sweaters, and Owen found a winter coat that he really liked.  He was disappointed that it didn’t have fur around the hood like the jacket he has been wearing for the last two years.  I am fine with that…

Jack found a coat that he fell in love with, but I was hesitant to buy it.  It is a sport coat/suit jacket with patches on the elbows.  I finally bought it for him when they didn’t have the correct size at the first store and he was willing to walk to another store a mile away and then wanted to wear the coat in the store even though he was dripping in sweat.  The coat isn’t really going to work in the coldest months, but Jack can wear Owen’s old fur lined one then.  

No photos.  There was no way that was happening…

Orangerie and Giverny

It is hard to appreciate artwork when you only ever see a photo of it in a book.  I have seen Monet’s “water lily” paintings many times, and I found them pretty, but my interest ended there.  When I saw some real works by Monet two years ago, I was shocked at how different and utterly beautiful the real paintings were.  I actually though I had seen the water lily paintings, and had no idea that the ones most people are referring to are massive paintings in a museum called the “Orangerie.”  There are 8 canvasses in two huge oval rooms.  Half of the canvasses are 50 feet long.

Yesterday the boys and I went to the museum to see them, and the three of us were shocked.  All of us sat in complete silence for a long time.  Finally Jack stood up, and I got up to follow him out.  But he simply went to the other side of the room and sat down again.

“I want to go to where Monet was when he painted these!” I whispered to the boys.  “Yeah.”  they both whispered back.  Even later when I explained that we would have to take an long train ride to get there, and give up our plans for the next day – the boys were in.

The town where Monet painted these was called Giverny.  The gardens were his back yard that he designed and gardened.  The y were stunning – I have never seen anything like them.

I did recognize many flowers from grandmother’s yard, and wished very much that she could be there with me.  She would have loved it so much!

The second garden is the one including the bridges, pond, and weeping willows.  The boys and I sat on a bench for quite awhile just enjoying being there.The boys definitely enjoyed the visit, but were much more interested in the “wildlife”  - all the bees on the flowers including the massive bumblebees,

snails,

And a little brown duckling that was so light it hardly weighed down the lily pads when he walked on them,Monet’s funny chickens (Jack named them something funny, but now it slips my mind…grrr)

As the gardens got crowded, the boys got antsy and Jack said, “Ok, we’ve see everything.  The water lily things and all.  Can we go now?”  A large group of 70-somethings got a kick out of this.

But when I showed the boys that I had some art supplies, they were really excited to return to the pond bench and try their hand at creating a masterpiece.

Jack experimented, but was frustrated with the discrepancy between Monet’s talent and his own.  Owen was very serious and focused and was quite pleased with his piece.

We finally left Monet’s lovely property and headed back toward the bus.  The boys started playing in this tree until I realized that the bee that kept bothering Jack was actually a large number of different bees, and there was a hive in tree…

So I found a spot in a grassy field by a brook with a small waterfall. I sat on a little blanket and read and dozed while the boys ran in the field and played spies in the edge of the nearby woods.

Later Jack ordered a cappuccino and hot chocolate for us at a little stand near the bus stop.  It was the best coffee that I have had my whole time in Paris!  The boys’ drinks were amazing too.

It was one of those unexpectedly perfect days that makes you glad you are alive.

Bowls of Hot Chocolate

We started off with a lazy morning at home, and extended it by going to my favorite café for bowls of hot chocolate and coffee and fresh baguettes with butter and homemade jams.

Owen as Pinocchio.

So happy!

We walked and scootered quite a ways (but all downhill!) through town to go to a department store that promised a good selection of toys.  They boys finished their French books, and I promised them something.  While they spent a great amount of time looking in the Lego section, they each ended up with new nai-nai guy (stuffed animal) that they were very happy about.  I was much happier buying something French that will be more of a memory than Lego.

The store we bought the toys at had a roof-top seating area that a wonderful view.   The boys showed it to their new friends.  The big building behind the boys is the opera house.  There are supposed to be beehives on the roof that we were hoping to see, but did see any…. 

Um, this is the inside of the department store!

I really wanted to fit in another activity today – We have a short time left and the boys have a long list of things they want to do before we leave.  I don’t want to cram the last week, and take away the relaxing feel that we have been here for a long time and are comfortable.  I really tried to keep our time in Paris as “we are living here for the summer” rather than, “we were on vacation".”  This has helped me to keep more relaxed with a focus on the boys rather than on the city.  And it has help the boys from expecting ice-cream and carnival rides every day.   So instead, we headed home and chilled out.

Classmate

Owen has a friend Quentin, who went to school with him last year but moved back to France just before the end of the school year. I wrote to his parents hoping that we could get the two boys together for a visit, and we were able to do it today.

While I have talked to Quentin a few times, I had not actually met his parents.  Despite this, they generously offered to have the three of us over for the afternoon and for dinner.

We took a train out to their suburb, and they picked us up and took us to their apartment.  We walked around the town to a park that used to be part of an old chateau of one of the King Louis (The 16th?  I should remember….)  Several of the pieces of armor from the museum yesterday belonged to another King Louis – and Jack asked if all the kings of France had to be named Louis!)

Anyway, we had some snacks and had a lot of fun playing different kinds of ball games, “fishing” in the pond, discovering field bugs,

and playing leapfrog (which was absolutely hilarious).

We walked back through town and the four boys had a great time playing together while the adults chatted.  They kids chatted away in French and the adults spoke in English with Quentin’s dad translating for a little bit. 

(view from their apartment)

We had a great dinner complete with several courses (including a cheese course after dinner– which I really wanted to take a photo of because it was so yummy and fun and traditional!  Don’t worry, I didn’t. 

Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of everyone together.  Other than missing that photo op, it was a wonderful day and I am very thankful and so impressed with how comfortable Quentin’s family made us feel. 

The Tune and the Lyrics

Last night we were walking home and Jack accidentally stepped on the back of Owen’s shoe and the heel slipped off of Owen’s foot.  Owen was tired and irritated as having to stop and fix it, so I tried to say something that would take the focus off the blame on Jack- and hoped the boys would follow suit.

Mama:  “Jack, look how smart Owen is using the wall to help him fix his shoe!”

Jack: “Owen is really smart! He knows lots of stuff.”

Mama: ”You’re right.  And you are smart too.”

Jack: “Yeah, I am smart. Sometimes I know something, and sometimes Owen knows it. It’s half and half.”

Owen: “Yeah, Jack’s smart too!”

Owen’s comment surprised me because he spends a lot of time correcting Jack.    Jack is a big-picture/spirit-of-the-law kind of guy, and Owen finds the details more important and wishes everyone would follow the letter-of-the law.

Owen: “Like, he knows the tune and I know the lyrics.”

That little gem sums up my boys in a way that is so beautiful and poetic.  I will treasure it.