Today was a 10/10 for everyone. Inga woke us up shortly after 7 am. 10 years old! Wow!
We got everyone ready and did our ritual reading-of-the-birth-story by Eric. (If you'd like to read her birth story or watch her birth video, hop over to my blog Stand and Deliver. The birth story is linked on the right sidebar or you can go straight to part 1 here.)
Then we opened her one present after breakfast: a microscope. The kids were all thrilled. Over the course of the morning, they looked at onion membrane & skin, scabs, human hair, and tomato skin. They figured out how to take pictures using a phone held at just the right place.
The rest of the morning was a super special treat for the whole family: a personal tour of the Grotte du Lazaret and their private archives. The directors were so grateful to Eric for all the work he put into helping with their poetry exposition. Eric, being the unassuming Canadian that he is, demurred and said, "Oh, it was no big deal, no problem at all."
After our tour of the cave, the director brought the kids to the gift shop and gave them each a bag of presents: pencil, buttons, and braided bracelets. Next we went back into their archives and we got to touch several animal remains from over 100,000 years ago: lynx jaws, panther teeth, bear pelvises, fox claws, elephant teeth. So cool! They told Inga this was the first time that children had ever been in their archives.
And then...they got out a birthday cake for Inga! Triple chocolate mousse, done just perfectly because it's France and they know how to do patisseries (very rich, not too sweet).
We walked home for lunch and then Inga helped me frost and decorate the cake. It turned out even better than expected. It was raspberry almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling and almond butter cream and ruby cocoa flowers.
We had a somber interlude in the afternoon. A few days ago, our baby dove died. It was around 4 days old. The kids have been devastated and we finally gave it a proper burial up at the chateau, along with the other egg that never hatched. Inga and Zari came up to say their goodbyes.
Eric cooked a fancy dinner for Inga: one artichoke for each of us (a treat--usually we split them!), scallops in a shallot-cream-Vermouth sauce, 3 super delicious cheeses on my homemade sourdough bread, and then birthday cake #2.
I thought I filmed us singing "Happy birthday" but I hit the wrong button. Oops!
One of the pictures shows Inga writing in her journal this evening. It took her a while to get through the day.
ps, don't you love my kids' messy hair? It takes too long to braid every day! Oh well...
The rest of the morning was a super special treat for the whole family: a personal tour of the Grotte du Lazaret and their private archives. The directors were so grateful to Eric for all the work he put into helping with their poetry exposition. Eric, being the unassuming Canadian that he is, demurred and said, "Oh, it was no big deal, no problem at all."
After our tour of the cave, the director brought the kids to the gift shop and gave them each a bag of presents: pencil, buttons, and braided bracelets. Next we went back into their archives and we got to touch several animal remains from over 100,000 years ago: lynx jaws, panther teeth, bear pelvises, fox claws, elephant teeth. So cool! They told Inga this was the first time that children had ever been in their archives.
We walked home for lunch and then Inga helped me frost and decorate the cake. It turned out even better than expected. It was raspberry almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling and almond butter cream and ruby cocoa flowers.
We had a somber interlude in the afternoon. A few days ago, our baby dove died. It was around 4 days old. The kids have been devastated and we finally gave it a proper burial up at the chateau, along with the other egg that never hatched. Inga and Zari came up to say their goodbyes.
Eric cooked a fancy dinner for Inga: one artichoke for each of us (a treat--usually we split them!), scallops in a shallot-cream-Vermouth sauce, 3 super delicious cheeses on my homemade sourdough bread, and then birthday cake #2.
I thought I filmed us singing "Happy birthday" but I hit the wrong button. Oops!
One of the pictures shows Inga writing in her journal this evening. It took her a while to get through the day.
ps, don't you love my kids' messy hair? It takes too long to braid every day! Oh well...
0 comments:
Post a Comment