Carneval at Massillon

Last Thursday, the children had "Carneval" at school. They were allowed to dress up and have a parade for the parents. The kids had a great time dancing and playing in the courtyard. Sugar and nutella crepes were served for snacks. Here in France, crepes, beignets and bugnes are traditionally eaten during this time of year, Lent season. Most schools held parades on Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. Our school, Ecole Massillon, decided to wait until mid-Lent to have its celebration because the weather is usually better. And it certainly was!

John was Superman and Lauren was a USA cheerleader. The event is mostly for the primary school children, but the secondary kids couldn't resist the party! Maya and Daniele were there to participate and do a little electric slide, macarana and chicken dancing!!! I love to dance, so I had a great time too!

Pictures from Italy, Winter break 2009

Preston has the opportunity to do a lot more traveling than he used to when we lived in South Carolina. In early February, he was in Italy for one week. It also happened to be the first week of winter break for the children, so we decided to join him on Wednesday and make a long weekend out of it. The children and I drove from Clermont to Cuneo, Italy, about 6 hours away . The first 45 minutes were great...then we ran into snow...then John threw up. Here I am in the middle on now where France, 5 hrs from my destination and John is car sick and it's snowing!

We pulled over at the next rest stop, cleaned John up and continued the rest of our journey. Fortunately, the snow stopped and John slept. We drove through the Alps and Italy without any more problems. The rest of the weekend was spent sight seeing, relaxing, eating great food, burning Preston's fingers ("Only in Italy") and enjoying my family. It happened to be Valentine's Day weekend, so many of the museums were free or reduced price. We were able to go to the Egyptian Museum (the 2nd largest in the world after Cairo) and the National Museum of Cinema. The Egyptian museum was excellent! The presentation of the beautiful artistry and skill of the Egyptians was superb. The children were excited because they were able to see things that they had read about. We also enjoyed the National Museum of Cinema because it showcased the history of film making, from moving pictures to the present technology.

Here are some pics from our trip. Daniele took some of the color shots and all of the black and whites. She really took some beautiful pictures.