French Playdate & Sleepover (5 June)
What a day for the kids today!
It all started last week during one of our internet refugee moments at McDonalds. Chayton befriended another blond 6 year old on the McDonalds playground. I came to find out that Rowan (Chayton’s friend) was there with his grandmother and little bother Rueben. All three of them speaking English!
Rowan’s Nonna (Ruth), his grandfather and his parents have been living in France for the past five or so years (originally from Cromwell, England). The boys hit it off so well (and I think Ruth must have liked me a little bit, too) that Ruth invited us over for a playdate. It seems that the French schools are only in session Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri. So Wednesday was wide open to receive guests.
What a lovely family they are! They live just outside the town of Pleyben and have been working these past five years in renovating an old farm. Shelley (Rowan’s mom), her husband, the boys and two lovely labradors live in the main house. Ruth and her husband live in part of the renovated barn area while they also work on another cottage on the property. It is an amazing place. Just as Rowan had described to Chayton!
Rowan and Chayton had a great time – and so did Courtney and I. The girls seemed to like it as well. Nazeriah played with the boys and Kaija hung out listening to the grown-ups talk. An altogether fun afternoon.
When we arrived back home later that afternoon the children went to play with Mia and Eion. It was an afternoon filled with playing outside. The kids didn’t want it to end and asked if they could have a sleepover. So off they went (at 11:00pm – I’ll tell more about that in a minute) over to John’s cottage for the night.
One of the things we love is that the sun doesn’t set until after 10:00pm here. So needless to say, our schedule has become a little out of sorts. The earliest we seem to get into bed is 10:30pm and the earliest we seem to wake up is 9:00am. Not too bad! But we do see the necessity to get back into a more regular schedule once we hit Germany. The late nights are started to take a toll.
Not only were we up as par a normal late night; we had plans to talk to our best buds – the Vurals! With the time difference it had to be 10:00pm here and 4:00pm there for us to be able to say something to each other. Too bad the connection wasn’t that good. But we did get in a few words and it was very nice to hear their voices.
