A weekend with friends....

Our friend Alice and her family were in town for the weekend. We celebrated with Florence's homemade paella (yes it tasted as amazing as it looks) good wine and lots of laughs.

Me, Alice and Florence

Sebastian and company awaiting their spaghetti.....

Alice

Me, Alice and Carih enjoying a couple of hours together

Farewell....

Here it is....our little Austin Metro at the junk yard. All crunched up. Oh the memories, oh the bumpy rides, oh the headaches. We'll miss you.

Annick's surprise party

S U R P R I S E ! ! !

It was H O T and S U N N Y ! ! !

Our gracious hostess Francoise

And last but not least Annick's fan club. (I think she was surprised!)

Farmer Bobo.....

Sebastian and Annick spent a few days on a dairy farm last week. Long time friends of Annick, Josette and Etienne, were great and gave the two city folks the full tour. Put them to work. Milking, rounding up the cows, Sebastian even got to harvest some hay in the tractor. (I didn't post the video since it's just a shot of the tractor going up and down the field, but let me tell you, Sebastian was beside himself with exitement.)

Here's Sebastian with the calf that was born the night before. Yes, they even got to witness the birth of a calf. How's that for the full farm experience.

Making sure everything is going as planned....

Herding them in.....

So what you ask am I going to do with a dozen or so of squash the size of bowling balls? I'm not sure...you can only give so many away. Good thing I love this variety and see lots of soup in our future. Of course they still have a month or so to go in the garden so I still have a bit of time to figure it out.

A perfect day at the beach

So of course I posted these in reverse order...so you'll have to use your imagination. The day started innocently enough. Let's go to the beach. It was a bit chilly at our apt. and since we are always cold at the beach (yes even in August) I hadn't really thought we'd go in the water. So no sun screen, no swim trunks, no towel. But we did end up seeing a clown perform, a parade of boats and Sebastian getting not only free snacks but also free sun burn. Ahh...we really know how to plan ahead.

The clown was pretty funny as you can tell by the smile Sebastian has on his face.

Our make shift clothes line....because although I failed to pack a towel, I packed plenty of clothes and we happen to have a blanket in the car.

Beautiful clear blue sky.

The parade of decorated boats....

No, I cannot take credit for building this, but it was so great I'd thought I'd share. You never know when you'll need a lifeboat made out of of sand.

Getting buried alive

The before he's went in the water shots. Clean as a whistle.

Sebastian and Annick

Goofing around at the park.....

What's up with my beehive hairdo?

Birthday Fun

Popping the cork and sharing a delicious mango cake that Stephane made for his Mom's birthday.. Happy Birthday Nana!