1/2 term break and OUR STUFF!!!!!

I should take a moment to bring everyone up to speed. It has been 13 weeks since out stuff left Seattle(12 for us) and it FINALLY came on Halloween. The month of October flew by with homework and school activities and finally we had a week of for 1/2 term break. A lovely friend of Frank's offered us his home outside of Paris to use as our home base as we explored the French countryside. It was truly beautiful. We went to several WWI and WWII sites and they were most impressive!

Our first stop was VIMY Ridge, where there is a Canadian Memorial from WWI. It was a key battle that the Canadians led to take the ridge. They have left the original trenches and tunnels intact and it is amazing to walk among them knowing that on either side were to opposing troops. At places they were 20 yds at most.

Our next stop was the beaches of Normandy where the D-Day invasion took place. We opted for Juno beach where there is another Canadian Memorial and scattered across the beaches are shelled out bunkers that held the German cannons. Again, spectacular beaches, gorgeous weather and the museum in CAEN does a fantastic job of walking you through the history .

We then needed a break and spent a day at Parc du Asterix(home of Europe's largest rollercoaster) and then a day trip in Paris.

We came home to find a HUGE truck at our house unpacking into our driveway. 20 mins later, they were gone and our house was full of boxes...most importantly..they all fit!

That was Halloween morning and we were to go to a friend's house for Halloween. Now let me say, Halloween is a weird experience here. It seems there are a lot of mixed feelings about it. Frank's co-workers complained that it was too commercial. We went out, and about 1 in 10 houses gave out candy. Others answered the door, but had nothing to give, others had only 1 or 2 pieces of candy so gave those and told the others to share(there were 8 kids in our group). One gave a 2 # coin and told the kids to share. People, either have the holiday or don't but really IT IS ALL ABOUT THE CANDY!!!!!! Am I the only one who gets that? In the end, we went back to the party where there was lots of food and treats and all were happy in the end. Whew.

We are now back to school in full swing with tests and reports. Bridget is struggling with :"the language that shall not be named" (French). She and Frank sit down most nights to get through her homework. She has been dropped in to a high level French class so she doesn't even have the basics. So I went out and got us some French 101 books and we have been making a go at it. We made her navigate/read French signs, order from the menu and event try to talk to people while we were in France. I am sure you can imagine the faces we got! The boys, on the other hand, are in beginning French and have quite the little accents.

I have spent the last few days digging out of boxes....a lot changes in 13 weeks. Mainly, all the clothes you thought would still fit your children...do not! Ah well, less to bring back :)

This week is "Fireworks Night" or "Guy Fawkes Day" or " Bonfire night". We have 2 events to go to, we will see how we do this week and will report in on this new holiday!