la fête

I started the morning with more packing - mostly Alice's stuff, then moving packed stuff into the cars. They're filling up! We won't be letting the house out to paying guests anymore, so it means we can leave some personal things here, which helps.

Ironing and pre-move deep cleaning....I was cleaning the downstairs shower room, when I came into the living room to fetch some wipes. Alice, mop in hand, was washing the floor. It was quite wet! However, it was a very nice idea, so I made sure to praise her. Eager to continue helping, she wanted to mop the bathroom upstairs. I suggested she sweep it first, and use a spray-on detergent before using the mop. All very good and she soon finished. I went up a few minutes later, and looked in the bathroom. It seems she had also mopped all the walls, mirrors etc. With a dirty mop :-) My fault for not offering a little more guidance and help I guess. I wiped it all down without her knowing :-)

Then it was last minute preparations for the big party this afternoon. Heavy rain was forecast, but thankfully we had it yesterday afternoon and overnight and we've had mostly sun, with a couple of light showers.

4 children turned up...Maerva, Camille, Candice and Benjamin... which was just the right number - not too many, not too few, and it meant I got it right with the number of pass the parcel layers! They all really enjoyed the games. Apart from Jacques a dit and la chasse au tresor, the games were all new - and they loved them. Pass the parcel, musical statues, charades, scavenger hunt, pin the tail on the cat (yes, cat), and the tray memory "Kim's game". We managed to keep them going for 90 minutes, then they had a snack, before some free play and hide-and-seek (cache-cache). Benjamin's mum came armed with her home address and email so that he and Alice can keep in touch.

Benjamin seemed to particularly enjoy Twix bars - M saw him eat several sticks resulting in him then saying "j'ai mal au ventre"!

Just as the others left, armed with all their goodies (sweets, chocolate and numerous Guernsey souvenirs), but sadly not with their jackets, Nicolas arrived back from his week's holiday, so la fête continued long past the scheduled time.

Alice was given presents by all her party friends, mostly cat-related, including 3 cat books, a bi-lingual learning book, a hand-painted stone, and jewellry. A hand-made card said "J'ai trouvé une super copine cette année, j'espère qu'on se reverra, gros bisous". I just love the way all her friends come and offer us their cheeks on arriving and leaving.

A successful part I think, and with just one stumble (when they didn't have a clue what I was talking about), we seemed to communicate ok.

Today is Paimpol's liberation day. It was the last town of the departement to be liberated, and 8 local resistance fighters were killed just hours before the Germans surrendered.