Apple PIcking with Aunts and Uncles and Cousin

This past weekend, Team Besancon Boston, and Team Besancon DC came out to the country and we did not much of anything! It was great!

On Saturday, we went out to Milburn Farms to go apple picking. The weather was GORGEOUS - 70's and sunny - we had an awesome time picking sweet gala apples and crunchy empire macintosh! So delicious.

Here's Michael with his prize, albeit a little blown-out, but you get the idea that it's an apple right?

Picking some with Uncle Bill's help:
SUCCESS!
Folded up with his stylin' aunts:
And enjoying his delights in the field:
Afterwards, we bought some farm fresh vegetables (YUMM!), ate some very fried apple cider donuts, and explored the farm. Michael spent a great deal of time with their well stocked sandpit (YESSS!!! We miss the sandpit from Paris!) and saw their goats. They had these great ramps for them to play on way up high:
And Uncle B spent some time making Q-ball laugh. He is so much fun at this age. So smiley and great fun:
Uncle Bill grew a mustache, 2 trees got chopped down, my furniture in my bedroom got rearranged by 3 strong brothers, John showed us his vocal stylings in Singstar on PS2, Kelli got some SUPER cute shoes for Quinn at Gap at a fantastic price when us girls went shopping, a game of Risk got started, AK cracked us up with her Speed Scrabble skills (is YAR a word?), and Brian worked the grill for meals for us.

It was a gorgeous weekend in the country. Not many pics as we did much of NOTHING!

Sunday, we went to church, and hung around, took naps, us girls shopped and we celebrated Bill's birthday with an apple crisp with our farm picked apples! He was a good sport to come out to the country for his birthday!

On Monday, we went for a hike at a little trail down the road from our place. The boys threw HUGE rocks into the stream and we enjoyed some time in nature. Drove to 2 restaurants for lunch which were closed, stopped to get pizza, and went home to finish lunch there.

Everyone's gone now and it's awfully quiet. Back to normal life!

Photographing in Direct Sun Observations.

Stop reading here if not interested in photography. It is gonna get boring.

I learned some lessons about shooting in direct sun. None of which I have had a chance to duplicate so I am not sure if they are steadfast. Getting slightly better at it! No better way to learn then to get out and do it. All pics are SOOC. The key is to get the sun at the right angle with respect to the subject. You need the sun (which is overhead)...but just slightly BEHIND the subject. So you get a little bit of a halo effect and while the face is a bit underexposed...it can be bumped up a tiny bit on PS.
Also interesting, was NOT including the sky in the picture. I had some where I just had Michael and the sunny bushes, and those came out with a cool greenish yellowish look that I like (you might not)

The shot is far from perfect...but in bright sun it 1)does not have severe blowouts and 2)does not severely underexpose the shaded areas and 3) involve squinty people staring at the sun. SO to me, it's a pretty successful picture for direct sun. And that glare to the right is a leaf in the way.

Another tricky thing? In some situations, overexposing worked out better. Example:

And in other situations, underexposing worked out better. Example:

So bottom line? Direct sun must be shot in manual - and most of the time - overexposing a little or underexposing a little helps, depending on the angle of the light. Direct sun - makes it necessary to see which angle the light is coming from and finding at what angle (behind/side/front/back) is best for the subject to be lit. Sometimes, turn the subject around until you find the place that helps the camera not blowout areas. Also useful, to have a light reflector.

Best thing? GET-THEE-TO-THE-SHADED AREA!

SO while I didn't get any super awesome pics from the trip, I did learn a whole heck-of-a-lot. And I was still pretty happy with a good handful of my pictures. Not sure if you guys like it (ahem...KIM! hee), but it is what I have come up with for now. If you have some good tips, feel free to put them in comments!

First day of American Preschool

Our Little Buddy is so far from being little anymore. We have, on our hands, a full grown boy. And that boy started American Preschool today!

Michael was R-E-A-D-Y. All the kids were lined up to go to school, and when they opened that door - WATCH OUT. It was like the storming of the Bastille. The kids were SO-EXCITED. All of the ones I saw. It was incredible! What a blessing! Our last preschool, there was always SOMEONE crying, which I suspect is normal!

So us moms are standing there - hanging out - going - "So...I guess that's it." - no fits to worry about - no crying to make us sad. Did I mention how much I LOVE Michael's preschool?

I got there a little early and saw them come back all in a line from the playground, holding this cool line thing to keep them all together. Michael came out with the HUGEST smile on his face and he was so excited to show his folder with a little certificate, snack schedule calendar, and a crayon drawing of his school.

Then he got REALLY excited because they gave him a book of daily kids devotionals called, "Jesus Loves All of Me." When we got home, we pulled out our lawn chairs, sat in the driveway, and went through some of it. He seemed disappointed that the readings were not exactly related to the pictures of pumpkins/dogs/etc he saw in there. :)

Michael's take? Here's what I got after asking a ton of questions:

Mom: What was your favorite thing about preschool?

Michael: I don't know.

Mom: Did you make any friends?

Michael: Yes! Luke!

Mom: Did you talk to him a lot?

Michael: No.

Mom: Well, did he talk to you a lot?

Michael: No.

Mom: Well, how do you know he is your friend?

Mom: Did they read you a story today?

Michael: Yes! It was about dinosaurs who do not like school. But they are the right size for school.

Michael: I had a snack today that was like a circle!

Mom: Did you like the playground?

Michael: Yes.

Mom: Was there a lot to do?

Michael: No.

Michael: They had 2 slides there!

This is what I have so far. He told me something about Luke having to get the cat down. Have no idea what that was about.

Off to order books through Scholastic! School has officially commenced! Wonder how the next session will go??? When he realizes it's a regular thing?

Onto Level 2!

Michael made it to the next level of his swim class! So excited! He passed level 1 after 2 times (10 weeks total of classes). After nearly 2.5 months of classes, he can:

1) Splash
2) Enter the pool by himself
3) Blow bubbles in the water
4) Submerge his head for 5 seconds
5) Do 5 bobs (go under completely and come up, repeat)
6) Walk/bounce in the water
7) Supported back float
8) Supported front float.

He has started to kick with the noodle (with some assistance). He can dip his head underwater and retrieve a ring (in 2' end of the pool). He loves to jump from the edge of the pool into his Daddy's arms.

Doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I am super proud because it's not like he ever grew up around water much less a pool ( Paris = sea of concrete). He loves his lessons and his teacher. It's awesome!

Master Bedroom - CHECK

Been wondering what I am going to do when I finally decorate my master bedroom. Found some fabric inspiration. So when it comes time (maybe years from now...fabric should be on sale then right?), here is where I am going and no one can stop me:

(Picture courtesy of The Designer Insider blog)

Off to cut Brian's hair now. It has officially reached "helmet" status. Cutting hair makes me sweat. I am an easy sweat-er. Glad I am wearing my dry fit stuff.

Love,
P

P.S. Will be posting some master bedroom room pictures that are inspiring me! This is for my journal of a blog...obviously. One day, I'll go back to blogging for real.

Lovey Dovey

I just have to post that Michael was exceptionally lovey dovey with me yesterday! It was so nice! He woke me up with kisses all over my face and said, "I love you Mommy!" And all.day.long it was like this!

He would play and then run and sit in my lap and give me hugs/kisses and tell me how much he loved me. I wonder what I did?

Either way, I totally enjoyed it. As he grows older, I see him being so much more independent. I have to grab him while he's running around and pretend to chase him to get my hugs and kisses. He is busy playing, learning, and enjoying life. I am happy to watch it all unfold in front of me!

So I enjoyed my day in the sun. It was awesome.

No News is better than Bad News

Do you want to know where I am? I am in front of my new computer. ALL THE TIME. It is SO fast. And the monitor actually works. Incredible.

Been very busy doing the work for my business. Can't wait to show you the website when it's done. I'm about 60% of the way there. Gotta register it with the state tax office next. Then business cards! Gotta be ready to hit the ground running when school/MOPS starts.

Once I get PS CS5 and my old pictures on this computer. WATCH OUT.

Love,

P

Quick Drop In

Yes, I've been MIA! We've been busy makin' memories and taking pictures of them. So here's just a quick recap. I need to photoshop/crop these pictures (-do my thang-) with them but here's a start! All pics SOOC (straight out of camera).

Grammy came to visit for 2 weeks and brought enough activities for 4! First up, gigantic bubbles:
SUPER fun. Definitely put down the camera for a little while to participate. Then decided to get some pics of Grammy with Michael:

Then, on a hot and humid Saturday, July 24th, we wandered over to the Longwood Gardens for their fireworks show. It was amazing. Totally worth the money, which I thought was a bit overpriced when I was buying the tickets...but it was incredible. Here are my favorite 3 fireworks shots:

See that little circle/dot in the left bottom of the sky? That's the MOON.

My all time favorite pic of the night:

Love the way the sky is illuminated red with the people silhouetted and the next firework there in the sky. Just something you don't see everyday!

Grammy took michael to Washington D.C on Mon-Wed and gave us a break at home! I painted my dining room! Pics to follow of their fun visit to DC coming up later!

Following Friday, we all hopped on planes and met in Boston for a family reunion! Team Besancon Boston showed us a great time and were great models:

Need to bump up the curves a bit on that one...but I just love John and Kelli's face there.

Here we are on a bridge in bright sun in the Boston Common! It was a G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S day - highs in the upper 70's, lots of sun - just great fun!

Uncle Bill wanted to inspire fear in us for the Family Olympics by showing us how flexible he was with Aunt AK:

We coordinated our outfits for our family shoot. And here's our one example of the kind of shoes we wore for the shoot:

And proud Grandpa-B
While wandering around Boston Common, I see Brian and Uncle Bill trying to do this with Michael:

Not so sure THAT is a great idea!

And the real star of the show? Q-ball, of course:

Those baby blues are to die for! Need to do some cropping/photoshoping to make it LESS obvious he is in his stroller seat...but Quinn is as adorable for the camera as he is in real life. Perfect-est Nephew E-V-E-R. You can't be in this family without knowing how to work the camera.

Gonna go back and do this in B&W...but I can't resist posting it because every little person should know this kind of love in their lives:

On Sunday, we did Family Olympics. I have no pictures because I was busy doing more of the above with the kids for their families and for my portfolio! :)

Off to download pictures from all the other cameras. Can't wait to see what John/Kelli's friend Stephen did with his Canon 5d Mark ii. -Drool-

OH! And I'll be posting a smugmug album within the next week. Too many pictures that were cute to put in a blog post. Then, I might be able to get back to May 2010 on Smugmug too! Here's to hoping my computer cooperates.

Love,
P

Irritating.

So today, Michael was telling me about how much he didn't like his crab bisque.

It went something like this:

"Mommy...this crab bisque is really difficult. And I don't like to eat it. It's freakin' me out. And I ask for juice and you give me milk. And it makes me really irritated."

OK-THEN.

So we're dying laughing because he's saying this thing all-matter-of-factly...like anyone who is anyone would understand why I would be irritating to my son.

And then THE MOM tells me that he went on the same tirade in the car after they picked her up from the airport.

I'm going to have to have a talk to him about telling people directly when you have a problem with them and not talking about them behind their back first.

We have been having a great time with Brian's mom since she arrived. Today, we made gigantic bubbles (pics to follow...of course) and went to this awesome "teacher toy shop."

Brian's mom gave us a great date night! We did it low-key and like 13 yr olds. It was awesome. We arrived at the mall at 8:50pm. I went to PB to look at curtains. Brian went to BR and in 5 minutes...purchased 2 things. INCREDIBLE to be a boy and shop.

Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had dessert! Had a great time watching people (a family of four who did not talk to each other the whole meal and the dad played on his blackberry the whole time...and a "chet" couple). Our waitor was exactly like Steve Carrell in The 40 yr old Virgin.

Back to the Irritating Theme.

Curtain Cost - Piano Room - $1247.
Living Room - $850
Total - $2097

CHOKE. GASP. SPUTTER. RUN TO PIER1 AND BE TOTALLY HAPPY WITH THOSE CURTAINS.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!??! I THINK IT DESERVES CAPITAL LETTERS.

VERY HIGH on the unintentional comedy list

Check out the list of events for a local county fair:
http://www.cecilcountyfair.org/schedule.aspx

My favorites:

• Masters of the Chainsaw
• Big Tomato Contest
• Youth Dairy Goat Show
• Lawn Tractor and Small Engine Event
• Pig Fitting and Showing
• 4-H Bicycle Safety Exam
• AG showcase pig roast
• Pygmy Goat exhibition show following the 4H small and large pets auction

This is just a few. I know for sure I missed some. I think I am going to read through the list again to laugh.

Hope you enjoy!
P

Talk me off the ledge...or not

Before I get to it...just had to share our version of slip 'n slide:

This was the $5 slip 'n slide at Target. I didn't want to buy the $12 one that came with an inflatable boogie board. Looks like saving $7 and not splurging for the "upgraded" slip 'n slide worked out.

OK. Brace yourself. I have been thinking and thinking and thinking about curtains for...OH...I don't know...2 months. Trying to decide what to do in my piano room.

AND THIS IS THE MADNESS I AM CONSIDERING RIGHT HERE. Tree fabric on the left for curtains. Blue teal-ish velvet on the right for color of the walls and accent color:


It is as my curtain maker lady calls, "something very different. You won't see this anywhere else."

BUT. Is that a GOOD THING? Hmmm...will I want to look at it for a long time?!?! Or is it a phase?

Here is the scale of the tree print and the window it will cover with the lighting in the room. I am going to paint the walls either a neutral beige or the blue that is in the velvet. This is ok because this grayish teal/blue is also the accent color in my living room so it will kind of tie it all together. The black and white of the fabric goes with my black piano:

As you can see, the print scale is not HUGE compared to the space.

Here is the inset window. We are going to mount a box pleated valence...but NOT in the inset of the window. But actually on the walls closest to us so it frames the window. And then have 2 working panels that will pull together and close the whole window, which I need to keep the light off of the piano in the room.

Our plan is to make that whole wall a "focal" wall with the fabric and put a window seat in that inset.
Here is an example of the box pleated valence. Inside the folds, we'll have a plain black fabric to provide some "rest" for the eyes. On either side of the folds, she's going to put a plain black button on the bottom. Also for rest and contrast. So we'll have this valence spanning the width of the window and 1 panel hanging on each side (but within the width of the valence of course)
Honest opinions please. I do realize...it's kind of crazy and modern. SO I need some honest answers....

Will it be too crazy compared to my living room? You can see the room from my living room, which is way traditional:

What I like about this fabric - the tree pattern echos the forest our house is in, it is modern and graphic and different.

What I worry about - will I like it in 3 yrs? Will it be too busy? Will it look out of place in my uber traditional house? will it work with my baby grand piano?


SO. I need help. Here are the questions I want answered:

1. Is this tree fabric too crazy?
2. If I go with this fabric, should I paint the walls a neutral cream or a neutral grayish/tealish/blue?
3. SHOULD I COME DOWN FROM my modern ledge and just stick to the traditional decorating frame of my house....or should I try to inject the bit of "modern" that I like in my piano room?
4. Is this ugly and I don't know?

I have the weekend to think this over. Please help me!

Thank you,

P

Invasion

"A" and Michael have been "calling on each other" to use the old school words. It is adorable. Now A's older brother "E" is coming round too. I think I'm going to have to leave my door unlocked so the kids and come and go as they please! I am thinking of installing a revolving door....

Michael stayed over at A's house for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs trumps my pork tenderloin ANY day. Even for me! :)

Then after dinner, we found 3 kids playing in our house. It was awesome. I love America. We could NEVER have done this in Paris. There were no other kids in our building! And while we did have another family friend in our apt block...they were French and beat up on Michael and they didn't understand each other. So I am so happy for my little boy to have friends to play with him who are from a great family. And so close by. And knowledgable about ticks and tick removal. :)

My Michael

Michael has discovered he likes to sing.

It is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. For a variety of reasons.

1. He has his father's singing genes. Which as you know...
2. He has expressed ZERO interest in singing up until this last week. NONE. All other kids singing ABCs...Michael...mute.
3. So imagine our surprise when he busts out with almost his entire Chick-fil-A Veggie Tales CD by memory.
4. Then apparently U2's Mysterious Ways is also in his repertoire.
5. But this is not to say that he is perfect. Quite the contrary. It is extraordinarily funny to see which words he remembers and what he does when they sing too fast for him.
6. Best part? Michael LOVES it and he thinks he is GOOD at it. THAT is very funny too but I am so excited he loves to do it that I am never going to tell him otherwise. Judge me if you want. I don't care.
7. Car rides are never quiet anymore. Not that they were ever THAT quiet. But now, they are filled with Michael's singing. Which is the best and brings smiles to our faces every time.

I will post a video someday. It is funny enough that we are going to go find our video camera and replace the battery that we couldn't replace while we were in France!

And today...something happened that I remember from my childhood...and it happened to Michael. Your neighbor comes over and asks if you can come over and play.

So as you've read before, Michael's newest friend, "A," came over today and asked if Michael could come over and play. Well, yes.

And I watched him hurry and go and have fun. Brian and I got 15-30 minutes of free time. And then I couldn't hear their voices outside so I started to freak out because we do live near woods and a creek...so i started to worry. But he was with "A" who is 6.5 and her older brother "E" who is 10...so it should be ok? RIGHT? Brian told me to chill out.

Luckily...it was near bedtime anyways so I sent B out to get michael...he was just playing inside at A's house.

Gosh...talk about having to let go and not be so overprotective. Now I see why it was so hard for my parents. I just didn't expect to have to do it so soon!

Charlottesville - July 4th!

On Friday, July 2nd, we threw a weekend's worth of worldly goods into the back of our SUV and drove to Charlottesville, VA to meet this super sweet gal:
She was surrounded by this entourage:

And we had a F-A-H-B-U-L-O-U-S time. Seriously. A weekend just full of laughs and we loved every minute of it!

On the way, we stopped in DC at Fairfax center to have Chipotle with Uncle Bill. Mmmm!! I was trying to see if Michael noticed that Aunt AK was missing so I asked Michael, "Hey...is Uncle Bill missing someone? Who is usually with Uncle Bill who is not here now?"

Michael thought.

And said, "GRANDPA! Grandpa is usually with Uncle Bill."

Not quite. But probably correct...I think Grandpa is usually around when we see Uncle Bill!

We arrived late Friday night in Charlottesville, had a good chat, and went to bed to prepare for our Saturday!

Woke up, checked out the Charlottesville City Market downtown (they are big about eat fresh/eat local), and strolled a bit through their little downtown area. SO cute! Had lunch at Revolutionary Soup and then headed out to see Monticello.

Michael and Charlie played all in Jefferson's gardens, which were gorgeous!

Then, we took the family tour of Monticello, which was great! Highly recommend that! Monticello is incredible because the architecture was just so beautiful! Inside and out. And it was neat to see his inventions incorporated into his home. And also a whole wall full of Indian headresses and tomahawks. SWEET.

Michael slept through the whole thing but woke up in time to do this for our family picture: NICE SON. All the chairs and trucks were setting up for the citizen naturalization ceremony they do on the 4th of July.

Brian wanted to strike a pose on the lawn. Again, CLASSY: At least you can say he looks strong!

And because I just like this picture:
Afterwards, we had barbeque with some biting flies eating us alive and went home for an early evening! Then Amy and I ran off to watch Eclipse and left all the kids with the boys! I can't say we regretted it but we were absolutely thankful that they let us do that!

Sunday, we went to their, as Andy calls it, "Rock Band Church." And it certainly was! Michael went to the class they have for children during church and I sat there thinking, "Now tell me why Catholics don't do this?!??!! This is great!" We can pay attention in church and Michael is happy too!

After church, we drove out to Blue Mountain Brewery where we enjoyed some beers, bar food, and gorgeous mountain views!

Went home and almost the whole house went down for a 3-4 hour nap. Sweet. MY kind of vacation!

All this in preparation for seeing the fireworks after 9pm!! Here's our little blanket spread. Can you see who just came back from Europe and doesn't really have lawn chairs?? We got some pizzas, had some watermelon, and had a fantastic picnic!! It was so fun to let the boys run around and so American to get to watch fireworks on July 4th. It was Michael's first time! And there was this older girl who was about 9 years old who basically distracted the boys from antagonizing each other and in turn babysat our kids!! It was fantastic!

Michael LOVED the fireworks and Charlie kept coming back to tell us that, "The fireworks look like they are coming right down on you but they don't!" And then Michael came and got me and said, "Do you want to come sit with me and this nice girl?" Well, of course! And then I started to get nostalgic because one day, he'll actually ask me this and the girl will be his girlfriend.

Here's a fireworks picture. Because I want to:
And I leave you with this picture, which is my favorite of the weekend. My favorites are rarely ever anyone else's favorite. But I love it because it is so American Summer to me:We left Monday morning and were so thankful for a great weekend with wonderful friends who helped make this 4th of July such a great one!

Love,
P

Eclipse

Sooo....I'm a big fan of the Twilight series. Had a great time with Amy this weekend as we saw the poorly acted Eclipse! It was a fantastic time and such a guilty pleasure. It's like the book you read under the covers with a flashlight because you don't want anyone to know that you read it.

I know it's not the pinacle of literature or not some kind of romantic vampire smut...but it's a captivating story! It's romantic, fast paced, and incredible that someone conjured up this whole world. So maybe you're not a Twilight fan...but maybe you are a Narnia fan...or a Harry Potter fan...it's the same kind of deal. A book written for young adults about a fantasy world. So there's no need to hate on the Twilight fans!

Anyways, I ran upon this blog...and this woman makes her case, "confession," for loving Twilight. And except for her adoration of Robert Pattinson...it kind of sums up what I think about the whole ordeal too! Thought the other Twilight readers I had would enjoy it so here it is:
http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2010/06/confession.html

P.S. Post about our awesome weekend in Charlottesville next once I go through the pictures! Best 4th of July ever!

La Nina + Our neighborhood = Frequent power outages

I'm not sure if this is going to be a pattern or not...but we get kind of severe weather out here. We won't count the 1.5 feet of snow back in February. We'll give that the benefit of the doubt.

But since we have moved into our house at the end of March...we have gotten some bad storms. The first one ripped up 3 trees. There were 2 in between there that were a bit scary. We've got those big trees and they wave A LOT when there is a bad storm.

And then TODAY! Around 3:30pm I started turning the lights on around our house because I just noticed it got really dark. Like 8:30pm kind of dark. At 3:30. So I looked out the window and I saw my big maple trees waving like palm trees. Went around the house, turned off all said lights. Ran down to the basement, shut the door behind me, and went to get my Michael.

3:45pm - Electricity OUT.

9:05pm - Electricity back.

We've lived here for nearly 3 months and we've had our power go out at least 3 times. We're off to get a generator!!!

We were lucky (this time...). On Brian's way home from work (after the storms), he saw a huge (HUGE) tree hung up on a power line. A couple of our neighbors used to have backyards. They now have some kind of leaf/broken tree limb foliage there instead of a yard. TONS of uprooted trees...especially young ones.

To quote my senior citizen of a chemical engineering prof in school:
"Mother Nature...She's a B*&^*CH!"

Park

Last Thursday, I took Michael to a big park by Brian's work. I saw this little kid running around really cute...and thought to myself, "Reminds me of Michael at the Alhambra. He must have been a bit over a year and a half old." Talked to the mom and sure enough, the kid was! But this memory made me reflect on what memories live in my parenting heart long after the fact.

Life passes so quickly when you raise a little someone. All the moments blend together and get all fuzzy, even with the blogging! But there are some memories that stand out amongst the rest. They feel like you just made them the other day...not like something awhile back ago.

Here are some of mine. I welcome all my parents out there to post any that you have too! I'd love to hear of them.

• The first time Michael ran a long way into my outstretched arms and gave me the biggest and best hug ever. We were in Sevilla on the way to the cathedral and that was where he did it.


• Michael eating paella right out of the huge wok in the middle of the table with his spoon.


• Michael dancing along to a flamenco show we watched.


• His running around like a crazy kid in the Alhambra.
  
  Lots of Spanish memories so far...I'm sure I have other ones.
  


• How sad and scared I felt when Michael was a baby and we were getting a CAT scan on his brain due to his bulging fontanelle. I just remember thinking, "I'm not ready to let him go. He's just a baby and we've only begun to love him. He hasn't even lived his life yet." Dramatic. I know. It's me.


• Seeing him wrapped up like a little mummy for the above CAT scan.


• Of course, crawling in my lap and telling me we would always be friends and that he loved me. That'll be top of the list for a while.


• Him ripping out the rope railing post at Stonehenge and telling me he was just "trying to get to the big rocks."

But one of the memories that always shocks me the most is one of our last ones in Paris. We locked up our apt one last time and were running up Avenue des Gobelins to catch our bus back to the hotel.

Right next to Canon des Gobelins (one of our fav local cafes)...Michael, who was running ahead of us, turns around and says, "Mommy! Hurry Mommy! Let's Go!"

And I burst into tears...right there...on the corner...in the street...with the snow falling around me. Because this was something we did A LOT. Run up our street to catch the bus, Michael ahead of me, telling at me to hurry or we'll miss the bus. And this was the last time it would ever ever happen. Last time up our street. Last time in our neighborhood in Paris. Last time next to our fav cafe in the area. Leaving Michael's childhood behind. Because THIS was Michael's life as he knew it and we were leaving it. And all of my memories of his little life were there. And we were leaving it.

Brian stared at me and laughed. And told me to pull it together. THIS is my life partner. :)

Fruit pickin'

The Saturday Brian left for SF (June 5), we went fruit pickin' at a farm! We got some great strawberries, cherries, and raspberries. So fun. I loved this wire carton holder they gave us. So rustic:
The rolls of hay were so cute...should have taken some pictures with them!

Michael a'pickin'

Father and son digging around together:

And this place has a giant strawberry slide. Yes, it is true:

What farm picture would be complete without a good butt picture? Here's brian in the raspberry bush:

And here's my cutie...wish I had gotten more of the barn and less of that blue truck there but oh well. Michael's face makes up for it:

It was great fun! For cherry picking, they let you try a cherry off the tree first to find a good one...then you pick all the cherries off of the good trees you find. DELICIOUS! And the price of the produce was no more than what you would pay for at the store. And it's freshly picked and ripens naturally.

So I get a lot of my vegetables from my farming co-op! This week was a bounty with garlic snaps, snap peas, cabbage, green onions, cherries, squash, and SPRING MIX SALAD! I am so excited about getting fresh spring mix salad. The pre-packaged ones taste so chemically to me so I am pumped.

And now, we buy most of our fruits from the farms that we pick ourselves. I am lovin' this country life. Next is to chk the farmers markets near us!

Stay tuned for more adventures! We've got one planned for Father's Day...shhh...it's a surprise for B. And then next week, we have some more adventures. And July 4th will be more adventures.

Love,
P

P.S. Today, Brian watched the soccer game while I did chores. We went bowling! I did terrible. Like I never took it twice in college terrible. Bumpers didn't even help. Then we went to HOme Depot. Michael saw his first movie in the theaters, Toy Story 3, I made some gorgeous flower arrangements with the oriental lillies and hydrangeas growing in my garden, Brian chopped up some trees with his saw on a stick, and now Brian and Michael are about to make pizza while I make vegetables.

12:15am

12:15am

P: Why are we still up doing nothing on the internet.
B: I don't know.

There were dozens of fireflies in our yard tonight. What a gorgeous feeling to stand in the peace and quiet of our yard and watch it. It was mesmerizing.

Then I saw a slideshow a friend of mine did on her last day in Paris with French music. And I teared up a bit. What amazing life experiences we have had. What an adventure Brian has taken me on!

It felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R ago that we were in Paris. But it was only 5 months ago. And I'm already ready to go back for vacation to visit my favorite food places and see my old friends.

Latest Obsession

Now that we have moved into the house...I have a series of obsessions. Most of which we can't afford as we pay for things like...I don't know...3 trees being uprooted in a storm. Just an example.

Here's one of them. This patio furniture. The sofa/loveseat both glide back and forth. It's super comfortable. How do I know? We saw the last set of these on sale at our home depot by us...marked down over 50% off...and we didn't get it. It was night, late, and the store was about to close. We couldn't see it in the daylight and wasn't sure if there were things wrong with it. Plus, it was a high pressure situation. Now, I wish we had gotten it!
Oh well.

Longwood Gardens...AGAIN!

While B was in San Fran last week, I took Michael to the Longwood Gardens on Tuesday, June 8th. We dropped the car off to get it's 60K service, got our terrible suzuki rental, and headed to the Longwood Gardens to take advantage of the weather.

Michael was hilarious. He wanted me to take a picture of him. Then he wanted to take a picture of me. So we did this with the iphone. And here are the results:

Lovely gorgeous flowering arches with Michael:
Ok, so it didn't start with Michael and the iphone until after this. I liked these flowers. Need to bump up the exposure in photoshop a bit but don't care to because it was taken from my phone anyways:

Then, we found this gorgeous flowering garden we hadn't seen yet:

Don't ask me why I decided to pose like a retard for Michael:

Michael really liked this fountain and asked for a picture with it:

Then, my turn. I really liked the composition of the one Michael took. The pathway stones were an interesting pattern that I didn't notice before:

Then, we did our normal walkthrough of the children's garden where Michael got super wet! Good thing I had a change of clothes! I ran into a field trip of 2nd graders from the school I want to send Michael to from K-? grades. Chatted up with some of the chaperoning parents and got some great feedback of the principal, Kindergarten teacher, and involvement of the parents/parish/etc. So I'm feeling really great about it! And the kids were very well behaved on the field trip so that made me feel good too.

After this, we stuck around to see the 5 minute fountain display at noon:

As you can see, we were pretty far away and it still looked huge!

More strolling after this and we found this nice gazebo:

Had a great time as always! Michael asked for pizza afterwards so we went and did that. Can you see we just did whatever while Brian was gone?!?! :) Afterwards, Target/Trader Joe's and then home.

I think this is a bargain for this seat if it includes Michael with it:

Met my neighbor 2 doors down...they are another mixed couple (Chinese guy, American mom)! So it was great to hear about the chinatown in Philly. Turns out she teaches 7th or 8th grade at the school I want to send Michael to eventually!! She loves it there, her kids go there and they are super sweet! So yea God for sending me some confirmation, direction, and hope for Michael's schooling.

Michael met a girl. We'll call her A. She is about 3 years older than him and lives 2 doors down (the family I just was talking about right up there). They have taken a liking to one another and ask about each other.

So I asked Michael,

"hey, Michael, do you like hanging out with A?"
"Yes! She is really fast. And she is nice to me."

"That's great! Do you think she likes you?"
"Yes, she likes me because I am funny."

LOL. SO true. Made me think of all the times Michael does his silly Michael stuff like throwing himself on the ground and running around in circles...and inevitably...there is some girl around that thinks he is funny. Well, I married his dad because he is funny...so I guess it's a great way to win a girl right?

We piddled around a lot of the week. We always hang out at the mall if I have to get Brian from the airport because it's only 30 minutes from there instead of nearly an hour from our place. Less car time.

So we were at Anthropologie just piddling around. I turn around and say, "Michael, where are you?" And I see this:

HILRAIOUS. Of course, I had to get my pic taken too. With a book about Paris bistros:

Michael's always great when I'm shopping. He went around trying out all the couches/chairs. Then, he found this display of towel hooks that were letters. So he brought them to me one by one and told me, "Hey Mom! A letter R!" "Hey Mom, A Letter T!" It was adorable.

Next up...farm pics and a giant strawberry slide. But I need to go get my camera to get the pics and that's 2 floors above the computer. SIGH.