Birthdays, School

Pascale went back to school this week. I thought I would be anxious for her to start, but it was actually kind of nice having her home, and not having to drag her out of the house in the morning. It does not help that it's always cold and raining in the morning when I walk her to school, and I don't even want to drag myself out of the house, let alone 2 kids. It was also Bernie's birthday this week. He's suitably traumatized about being another year older, but he'll get used to it.

We went to the fabled London Whole Foods today! It is a 3-story extravaganza of fancy food and slick presentation. They have a lot of the products that they sell at WF in the States, including a nice selection of California wines, which are not readily available here. We stocked up on some of our favorites. One thing that we were looking for that they do not have is Annie's organic Macaroni and Cheese. It was a little disappointing, because that's one of very few things that I use regularly that you can't buy here. I'll have to stock up when we go back to the US in the summer.

I read the book "We Need To Talk About Kevin" last week. I'm under the impression that it's supposed to be literary fiction, but it was truly the most horrifying book I've ever read. It might as well have been written by Stephen King. It was a total nail-biting roller coaster ride of a book. The narrator is the mother of a teenager who killed several of his classmates, Columbine-style. I'd recommend it if you can handle the content.

Pascale and Josephine worked on their building skills:


I dragged them to the playground as soon as it stopped raining:


They have started assigning HOMEWORK at Pascale's school! They are perhaps a little too academic in the early years here. This is what a 3-year-old's homework looks like:


Pascale did some amazing artwork, including some flowers and a snowman:


Pascale and Josephine picked out pajamas for Bernie for his birthday, but of course they had to try them on themselves before they allowed Bernie near them:


Bernie worked from home on Friday, and Josephine was extremely helpful:


Here's our birthday celebration: