Birthday Time of Year

We have had a lot to celebrate recently!

In May, Daniel had a birthday and so did Grandpa Dude. Of course, the very last day of May is reserved for . . . Josey. Yay! She is 11 years old. Can you believe it?

And speaking of hard to believe birthdays . . . Alex turned 16 on June 5th. My little girl has turned Sweet 16. I can barely believe it.

I'm waiting for Alex to send me pictures. The last time I posted pictures of her without her permission, and she was not (let me repeat, NOT) happy. I thought they were great pictures, too. Alas, she doesn't like my taste in clothes either.

As for Josey, her birthday was wonderful. She brought homemade chocolate chip cookies and Coke to school - a truly American goute (that's snack in French) to celebrate. At home, she tried to blow out a sparkler in a HoHo (thanks, Grom & Dude!), then she unwrapped presents.

This last weekend, she had a birthday party at Fantasy Park Adventure, home of bounce houses, trampolines, limbo sticks, and general fun, fun, fun.




Her birthday present from me & Mike is sailing lessons! As part of the school curriculum this year, her class has sailing lessons in l'etang. Thus, they walk 3 minutes down to the port, prepare their little 2-person sailboats, and sail for 3 hours every Thursday. How cool is that?!





Here are some great shots of her school sailing lessons. Amazing!



In the shot above, Josey is in the boat with the white sail on the left.

She was having so much fun at school that when the Yacht Club de Bouzigues flyer arrived, we signed her up for lessons. Now, every Wed & Sat afternoons, she sails for 2-3 hours with up to 5-6 other children. Her first lesson was completely private because she was the only child there!

She absolutely loves it. She told us, "This is the most fun thing I've done in France yet!"

Mike and I observed that she (of course) has selected the most expensive sport on the entire planet to be her personal favorite.

It may be difficult to tell, but that's Josey in the little white sail boat - kickin' back & sailing. All alone!



And here's a group photo in front of the oyster farms.


Love to all!!