Ready in time...

A little surprise for when the girls get home tonight.
I spend the better part of this morning crafting this advent calendar.
The only thing left is finding the right spot to hang it.
Can't believe we're starting to count-down this weekend already...

Wishing you a great weekend!

xo, P.

Curls for Summer...

It's just a fact of life, I guess. People with straight hair wanting curls at some point in their lives or the other way around.
I remember myself with poodle hair, back in the early eighties. Totally ridiculous - my brother still makes fun of it whenever he gets a chance. And at the end of the eighties or was it the early nineties, I did it again and tried a wavy hairstyle. That wasn't a big success either - the curls lasted exactly one day and after that my hair looked totally miserable. A short hairstyle (which I kept for years because I liked it) was the only solution. Lesson learned, however, no perms nor curls for me anymore - thank you very much!

Luckily, my girls are perfectly happy with their hair (for now).
Which doesn't mean they don't like to play around with wigs and curlers once in a while...
M. needed some dress-up stuff for summer camp and a wig it is! As to little H.: as soon as she realized it would take for ever for the curls to set and saw the other kids playing outside, she asked me to take the curlers out... So, no 'after' pictures for this one!

How about you? Any bad hairstyles you regret or have particularly fond memories of?

Spring Break :: 't Zwin

 

You probably guessed it but we were (well, actually still are) on Spring break. Despite the bad weather I took the girls to the Belgian coast last week. It rained and rained and rained some more but we did have a great time and even got a teensy bit of sun in between showers.
One of the highlights of our week was our trip to 't Zwin in Knokke-Zoute, a beautiful nature park and breeding spot for stork and many other birds. We saw and heard quite a few stork - simply amazing. And the one in the picture treated us to a defile as if on a catwalk, walking slowly and elegantly not the least bit shy. All, while I was taking pictures in real paparazzo style, trying not to disturb the bird but getting as many shots as possible. Wonderful!
After our visit to 't Zwin (and after taking off our muddy boots and clothes and me performing a silly dance with one foot still half way in a boot and the other one wearing a sneaker in an attempt to catch a plastic bag which flew from our car trunc - I got it! ) we went to Marie Siska for pancakes and some more fun at the playground.

A perfect afternoon despite the rain - you can't tell from the pictures, but as soon as we bought our entry tickets it started pouring - p o u r i n g! - for a minute we thought about going back to the car and simply leaving. And are we glad we didn't...!

Ears... and tears

Yves Velter, Sussurro, 2011, Watou



Little H. had her ears pierced today. I still remember how bad I felt when we finally agreed on big girl M. having her ears pierced. What kind of a mom was I to let someone make holes in her perfect little earlobes! But I also remember how happy she'd been and how she would keep on looking in the mirror, feeling big, proud, happy.



Big girl M. was seven, back then - little H. just turned 8 last month. So telling her she was still too young for it no longer worked. She'd been asking about it, on and off, for quite a while, but we managed to keep it off - until now, that is. Since she seemed really serious about it this time, we decided to just go ahead - just get it over with - before school and sports activities - swimming! - start again.



So, today was the big day. And all went well



- eventually!



For a moment it looked like she'd go home with just one ear pierced, and a tiny black dot on the other, totally in shock as she was about how painful it was. I sort of expected that to happen, my own experience as a kid in mind, but had given her the benefit of the doubt. I had my ears done at age 11 at a fair, and the store keeper saw his sales figures plummet considerably that afternoon, thanks to all the noise I made. Unmistakeably, little H. takes after her mom...  It took us a lot of effort, pep talk and even more to convince her to do the other ear as well, the poor little thing. And she did - eventually.

And as it goes, half an hour later she just felt big and proud and happy with her little lady bug earrings... She forgot about the tears: she had her ears pierced! (No) big deal!

A week in pictures...

We got back last Sunday from a short trip in the Lot department, or le Quercy as they also call this part of France. We went back to the same region as last year because we loved it so much back then and that feeling hasn't changed. It's a beautiful region - quaint, lush, a bit dramatic, too, on a cloudy day (and we had more than a few of those, unfortunately). This year, we stayed at the lovely Domaine Lapèze in Montcuq, a 200 year old farm turned into gite and run by Caroline and Knud Kristoffersen where we had a very nice, little cottage at our disposal. The view from the domaine, which is located on a hill, was simply stunning, with its sunflower fields, plum orchards, vineyards, and little winding roads, the Montcuq tower... The girls fell in love with the owners' two dogs, three horses, and two cats living on the premises, and the - very loud at some times - donkey a bit further down the road. The weather wasn't great - the sun was a no-show until the second part of the week - but we've enjoyed every minute of our little break...
Our week in pictures...


the stunning view from our cottage







I fell in love with these delicate queen anne's lace (thanks, Ana!) - did you see the cute little red heart?!


apples for the horses...


This young lady turned 8 during our stay!





The girls' creativity at its best - they made a very nice summer garland with plenty of summer goodness found around the yard...



... we called him the asthmatic donkey because of the weird noise he made - the girls were convinced he felt lonely which made them sad so they would bring him carrots and apples too


Montcuq market on Sunday morning





Undoubtedly, the most adventurous part of our stay - it took us forever to get to the Accro-Liane site in Figeac (thanks to our ever-outperforming GPS), but it sure was worth the long ride...

Gone

M. left on  a school trip this morning, with her class.
We slipped a couple of goodies in her bag. Little H. wrote 5 letters, one for each day and made her a lovely beaded bracelet (which she hid in the Wednesday envelope) and I assembled a pair of earrings, matching the party dress we bought for the "boum" on the last evening of camp...(Don't you like that fabric?!)

I'm sure they'll have lots of fun and they'll come home all grown up again...

See you on Friday, Sweetie! Have a great time!

PS: I'm glad I'm able to post again after Blogger had the hiccups all weekend - I haven't recovered all of your comments on the previous post yet, but according to Blogger they too should re-appear soon.