Haircuts

Both Ben and Mia have had their hair cut.  My turn next for a trip to the hairdresser before I get mistaken for an old lady what with all the grey hair!

Time is really rushing past now with only 2 weeks of school left.  Last night Ben was at the Middle School Spring dance which he enjoyed a lot.  This coming Friday Mia is going to her friend Rylee´s party which is a sleepover (the first time for her!).  Then on Saturday it will be Mia´s turn to host a party for her friends at Acrochats.  

It´s going to rain....

but we managed to have lunch in the garden first!

The roses in our garden are looking lovely as you can see.  The dark pink one smells gorgeous too, just like turkish delight!

Friday

It´s Friday already!  It´s been a quick week.  Lotta is home and on the mend.  The sun is shining.  

After school today I´m taking  Ben and his friend Rodrigo to the cinema to see the new Indiana Jones film (I´ve got the tune stuck in my head - do do do do dum di dum, .....)  Then we´ll get something to eat and Rodrigo is staying overnight.

Also the satellite man is coming today, yippee.  We have been stuck with only one channel for the last few weeks, so hopefully today we´ll be spoilt for choice.  We need a bigger dish and some fine tuning to catch the signal properly.  The last satellite man didn´t manage to do the job properly but this time we have someone coming who has already fixed the same service for another Norwegian family so it IS possible...... 

Braces - again....

Today Ben got the bottom set of braces fitted on his teeth.  Now we have to return every three weeks for controls.  hey ho....

Norway´s National Day Parade

We marched around the park in Le Vesinet yesterday in fine weather.  It´s lovely to see so many Norwegians dressed in national costume the bunad.  However, it started to rain very heavily when we had all sat down in the garden of the church.  Luckily most people had brought umbrellas so we coped.  It stopped raining long enough for the speeches and for us to eat.  Then the rain started as we had our coffee.  By then we had to leave anyway to get back to school to collect Ben.  He had a great day yesterday at the Model united nations conference and is back at school today for day two full of enthusiasm.

Ben´s birthday yesterday.

I had a bit of a disaster making a lemon cheesecake for Ben´s birthday.  So I rushed off to the nearest Casino and bought a lovely fruit and cream cake instead.

Gratulerer med dagen - 17. mai

It´s Norway´s National Day today!  Ben is dressed up for something else though.  He is at school today and tomorrow attending the Middle School Model United Nations conference.  They have delegates from other International schools in Paris as well as from Mexico and Poland.  Ben is representing South Africa in the debates.

Later today we will be marching in the parade in the nearby town of Le Vesinet.  I hope it doesn´t rain like it did last year.  

Teenager

Yikes!  I´m the mum of a teenager!  It´s Ben´s 13th birthday today.  He will be spending the school day walking around Parc de Saint Cloud with the rest of the Middle school raising money for two charities in India.  The money goes to a school for handicapped children and a medical centre.

(The oldest digital picture I can find, on top of a mountain age 6, isn´t he sweet?)

Champs Elysees

Joan, Lotta and I took the train to Paris after drop off this morning.  We started at the Arc de Triomphe and worked our way down the Champs!  We had a lovely fun morning of shopping, ending at the top of Rue Rivoli at the english bookshop WH Smith.  

It´s lovely to live so near Paris with all this on our doorsteps.  The picture is taken at Concorde with the Egyptian obelisk in the background.

Oh la la

Public holiday but not for the kids!

Jarle had the day off today along with everyone else in France except our school.  Well never mind, they have had so many holidays lately that they are not exactly hard done by.

So Jarle and I drove into Paris after drop off this morning.  We parked beside the Saint Germain marche and strolled around the Latin Quarter.  I managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping by buying Silje´s birthday present.

We decided to try the famous literary cafe Les Deux Magots.  We sat outside of course as the weather is still gorgeous.  There was actually 3 vegetarian things on the menu!  I had a lovely mozzarella and tomato quiche and salad.  The waiter was friendly and nice which is not always the case in Paris.  The place is not so touristy as I thought it would be, there were plenty of French people eating there too.  

Summertime?

The lovely weather continues.  Yesterday we spent most of the day in the garden and we have eaten every dinner outside for a week.  Can´t quite believe it.  Today we drove into Paris for a short trip.  Poor mum is not feeling well so we came home and she is having a lie down.  Too much sun and fun maybe.

This afternoon Jarle and Mia went swimming (a million people there according to Mia) while we dozed in the garden then I made waffles.

VE Day

It´s a public holiday today but me and Mum managed to go shopping anyway!  We took the train to Saint Lazare and visited Galeries Lafayettes.  The photo was taken from the roof terrace.  

Kylie

Can´t get you outta my head......

The tiny Kylie opened her European tour at the Bercy stadium last night and we were there!

Jardin des Plantes

More beautiful weather.....

On Tuesday Mum and Dad and me went into Paris and visited the gardens in the 5th department. It´s situated very handily for lunch at the Mosque restaurant.  We ate couscous of course and shooed away the little sparrows who seemed intent on stealing our lunch.  We tried the traditional mint tea which was rather good but quite sweet.

Saint Germain en laye

We´ve had lovely weather the whole weekend.  We ate every meal outside on the terrace, what more can I say?  On Sunday afternoon we drove to Saint Germain to stroll around the grounds of the chateaux.  It would be a perfect place for a bike ride as the grounds are endless.....

Sunshine!!

Yesterday the weather was lovely.  Mia and I bought a nice big pink geranium for the patio and took some pictures of our beautiful wisteria.  I tried to get a picture of a big fat bumble bee on the wisteria but it didn´t comply.  In the evening we went to the Nilsson´s for a barbeque dinner on their terrace.  Can hardly believe it was warm enough to sit outside until nearly 9 in the evening.  Today is even warmer with more warm days to come.  It´s lovely.

"Firebug" on Mia.....