As some of you know, we are a franco-kiwi family and while we are not spending as much time in New-Zealand as we do in France, we’ve always made a point of teaching Mila to be a freewi and to embrace both nationalities and cultures. She was doing the Haka at the age of 3 and the same way I taught her how to make crèpes (pancakes), Steve taught her how to make pikelets which she made yesterday and again this morning and they are delicious!!
So glad it’s Friday! It has been a good but busy week with a quick trip to London & Kent, then back in France to prepare this house for our guests and finish off the floor in this one. Tonight, we are off to sleep in my dad’s old boat for our annual “back to basis” week.
This morning while driving to school, Mila and I heard that a 13 years old boy was taking exams for the baccalauréat (A level). Mila: “WOW, what is he going to do after? Work?” Me: “He is too young, he will probably go to University” Mila: “WHAT!!! There is another school to go to after high school? How many schools do we have to go to!!?” Yep! It’s only the beginning :-) She wears things from Elias & Grace which has a great Summer Sale on. Sofa cover is from Bemz. Read my post “How to update your old sofa without buying a new one” here.
I know the year is not finished but I thought it would be nice to take time to reflect on the past months and encourage our brains to focus on the good things for the year to come. Negative things happened, they always do…to everyone and the quicker we accept this, the quicker we can move on and be ready for the next things in our lives. Here are some of the things I’m glad to have learnt this year…. Sometimes, we fell off the health wagon but other times we succeed in giving up coke zero and smoking for good and that’s where our focus should be #nurtureyourachievements That a little ball of fur will bring you love and joy like you never expected it #LOuthebunny That it is possible to lose your mum in Ikea for over two hours and while searching for her, bumping 3 times into someone you only know from Instagram #gofigure Sometimes you find your mantra in the most “intellectual” movie :-) Mine is “Never give up, never surrounder” from Galaxy Quest Like childbirth, you never quite forget …
I love this photo of Steve and Mila taken in Waihi Beach (New-Zealand) during our last holidays.It is totally out of focus yet it is one of my favourite photos. There is so much happiness in it and these two love each other very very much… Funny…when Steve and I were dating a century ago, it wasn’t always a walk in the park. He wasn’t sure he would be a good father (I knew he would be) yet he has turned out to be the most wonderful and amazing dad to Mila.He is incredibly hands on and do lots of things with her at weekends. He is always there to support her (and me), to encourage her to try things, to be adventurous, to expand her world and not let fear driving her choices. He is a fantastic cook. He will make her porridge or scrambled eggs to die for before she goes to school.My dad was great too but we’ve lost the close connection we had…Nothing specific to blame, just Life…health issues, losing his …
I think in our family, we are pretty good at telling each other how much we love or piss off each other but Elodie, François and I wanted to say thank you to the wonderful mum you are and for all the things that made a different to our lives and to the people we are now. My mum et moi à la plage, Lac de Maguide, August 1973. Elodie was born the year after Thank you for being a working mother and bringing up Elodie and I to be independent, self-sufficient women.Thank you for being strong. I know we used to fight a lot when I was a teenager but years later, when I realised that you became a mum at 21 and again at 26 and I had Mila at the age of 35, well.. it really put things into perspective for me…Thank you for being a lioness when we all needed you and for giving us the benefit of the doubt on some occasions.Thank you for being (as François put it…) the …
I didn’t think I would be posting before Tuesday’s post but here we go with a sore throat that keeps me awake and not much to do without waking up the rest of the family. Thanks God, I had packed some wonderful things from Neals Yard Remedies Still…what a wonderful day we had on the slopes…. Amazing snow and scenery (it felt like we were in The White Company‘s winter catalogue), very few people, to the point that sometimes it felt like we had the slopes to ourselves and two little girls having a laugh, encouraging each other and having a ball. They have two different personalities, two different styles on the skis. Mila will go as fast as she can, fall a thousands time, get up straight away and carry on. Lily will go at her own pace very diligently, fall twice, cries for a while but they will both arrive at the same time. The thing I love the most about those any holidays we spend en famille is seeing how these two love each …
In a few hours, we will be on our way to Paris to pick up Elodie and Lily and then off to the slopes in Andorra. I can’t tell you how excited I am.We started going to Andorra when Elodie was living in Barcelona and loved it so much that we keep returning. Arinsal is a fantastic station for family with young kids (the girls were 5 & 6 when we took them the first time), the snow has mostly been great and the weather pretty good too. You can find more info about ski rental here.The previous years, we flew to Toulouse, rented a car and stayed in a nice hotel so meals were sorted for us at breakfast and diner time. This year, we have decided to drive down and rent a flat so I’ve packed enough gluten-free pasta, bread and flour to last me for a week. The kiwi has packed Gin & tonic… Banana cake recipe, courtoisy of my sister-in-law Lynda from New-Zealand | Since we will be staying in a lovely flat, I’ve packed …
