Saint David's Day

St. David's Day is celebrated on the 1st of March. St. David of course being the patron saint of Wales. If you wish to know more about St. David you can either google him or do as I did and ask Quinn. To celebrate the children are allowed to forgo their uniforms for the day and Dress in some kind of costume that has something to do with Wales.

In the weeks building up to this, Ava was convinced that she wanted to go to school dressed as a dragon; however, after much persuasion and a lack of mask (my fault), she settled on dressing as a daffodil. Quinn broke out his new Wales Rugby shirt and went as a rugby player -- as did half the boys in his class (the other half went as Wales' football team).

The school was split into 4 different "houses," reminiscent of Harry Potter. Red, yellow, blue and our kids house, green. Wisely, they made sure that siblings were in the same houses (thank you!). On the day itself, the kids entered into various competitions to gain points for their house. Categories included: costume, baking, writing, art, models, and talent. Ava jumped in with both feet, per usual. She tried out for the talent (but was not chosen), made a model, wrote a written piece, dressed in the aforementioned daffodil costume, and decided to bake.

Quinn, who is of course older and a little more subtle in his enthusiasm, contributed a fine drawing of a dragon head and went in costume.

When I asked Ava what she wanted to bake her immediate response was "Welsh Cakes!" Welsh cakes are a bit like a scones except sweeter and grilled instead of baked (and they're also not French). They are delicious! I tried to think of other things to offer but Ava's mind was made up. I could just imagine causing another international incident (we don't talk of the first one) after I ruined a national treasure. I found a recipe online and it actually did not look too difficult, but I was still wary.

The night before St. David's Day I gathered ingredients and a very excited Ava, who insisted that these be made by her. And I have to say she did 95% of the work, I did the cooking just for my own sanity.

The next twist was that she wanted to make the Welsh cakes "American" by splitting them and putting peanut butter inside. Unlike in the U.S., peanut butter is not a staple here. In fact, it is not really enjoyed by many all! Considering that Quinn was eating them as fast as we could make them I was surprised we had any to send in at all. In the end we did make them "American" and, to Ava's delight, her teacher had 2.

I have to say that the kids really got into it and enjoyed their St. David's Day. Oh, and green house won!

A day out with the Kinmans

Ava has become good friends with a girl in her class named Lauren whom she has invited over after school for "tea" and to play. Lauren is a nice, polite, friendly girl and they get along quite well. Coincidently, Lauren's dad, Mike has been to the US once, twenty years ago to of all places Midland, Michigan (where Aaron grew up). We got to chatting one day at pick-up and Mike was telling us that there were many nice places nearby to have a picnic and explore. Helen (the mom) soon called to take Ava out for the day on a picnic and like a good American I casually invited our entire family.

They came to our place at 10am and we headed out for a great day out doors; however, the Welsh weather had something else in store. With impending rain we decided to modify our plans a bit and take a detour to "Coconuts," an indoor play area, for a coffee and to wait out the rain. The kids had a ball running, jumping, and climbing. And the grown-ups had a nice visit.

We soon headed for a lovely little park where we walked around the lake and had lunch. The kids played and we dodged yet another temporary downpour by hiding inside of one of the play structures!

Next, we headed to Barry Island, which is no longer an island. We walked on the beach ...

watched the kids tear about ...

and followed the path out to the end of the bluff:

It was quite windy and a bit chilly, but that did not seem to bother our children in the least.

All in all, it was a lovely day and we have found great new friends in the Kinmans.

Paris: Part deux

Day 2 started with a simple breakfast again and a short subway ride to the Louvre.

Unfortunately, it was raining but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. We timed our visit just right because we only waited in line about 10 minutes before entering. We made our way through the museum more quickly than others would but we managed to see quite a lot. Quinn really enjoyed the section of Egyptian antiquities and Ava desperately wanted to see and take pix of the Mona Lisa. We also strolled through many of the other galleries taking in sculpture and other wondrous works of art. We had a snack at the Louvre cafe, which was surprisingly good and then headed to the gift shop where we looked in vain for a Mona Lisa umbrella. We decided to take our souvenir shopping outside where it was cooler and a bit cheaper. Ava found a lovely umbrella with a impressionist-like picture of the Eiffel tower on it. she was thrilled.

Off to the subway again to an area of the city called Montmartre, that was suggested to us by some ladies whom we had breakfast with that morning. While on the subway, an unfortunate incident occurred. Our subway car stopped for one reason or another and then lurched back into action tossing all of us a bit. Quinn was standing holding onto the pole when a 300 lb. Frenchman (with a large suitcase), standing near him lost his balance and unexpectedly smacked him in the face. Aaron caught/tackled the man so he didn't crack his head on anything, but needless to say Quinn was pretty shocked, scared, and a bit injured. His head also fell off, as you can see in the next picture.

Montmartre is located just north of Paris proper and is what I imagined Paris to look like. Small, twisty, alley-like reads with little cafes and artists with easels out in the streets. It is also build on a VERY large hill with many, many steps. Those of you in Hamilton think the Colgate hill is steep! We decided that today was going to be easy going souvenir day so we did a lot of window and regular shopping. We found lots of fun things. We also decided that we had to find a crepe stand and get some. We found a lovely cafe where they made your crepe out front so we could watch (a requirement of Ava) and had a few (2) tables in the back. Quinn decided on Nutella crepes, Aaron and I chose the same but with the addition of bananas, and Ava got caramel. Paired with an outstanding cappuccino, we were in heaven.

We took the Finnucular (a cable car-like elevator) up to the top of the hill and scouted our way around to find the Salvador Dali museum. It was actually a lot of fun walking around this area in the rain with the cobble stone streets and the views were beautiful. Had the weather been nice we may have had our portrait done by one of the street artists but none of us were in quite the right frame of mind for that. We found the Dali museum and very much enjoyed all of the artworks on display there. The kids and I had pictures taken of ourselves in a Dali painting and Ava enquired about purchasing some of the lesser works in the "for sale gallery". The salesman was very nice and quoted her some prices and we told her she could buy something or go to college. Smart girl chose education. But she did end up using some of her birthday money to buy a wood mounted print of what she calls "the floating rose" (it's real name is meditative rose):

We travelled back to the center of Paris via subway and scouted around for dinner. We tried to remember the name of the first restaurant we went to or even how to get there, but with no avail. So we settled on a bistro that served mainly sandwiches that was close to the hostel.

After dinner headed back to our room to unwind and let the kids play. Apparently, Karate was the game of choice. After some very exhausting kicks and punches we settled down for reading and rest.

The next morning consisted of trying to cram all our purchases into our carry-ons and getting ready to go. Eating breakfast, grabbing the subway with 2 tired kids and getting to the airport on time. Bye Paris, it was lovely!