The canicule returns

This is insane- according to the thermometer, its 43 degrees on our balcony right now! Yesterday I think it might have been almost as hot in the afternoon, as I got a bit of a burn sitting out in the park, but still, 43 degrees is a bit of shock. Especially after the last three weeks of August had me convinced that fall had arrived.
Yesterday, Ella and I did take full advantage of the nice weather. In the morning we went to a playgroup at the Place des Vosges. It was the first one of the year with our old gang and it was really fun catching up with everyone. Naturally all the babies looked like huge hulking beasts. Somehow in my head, they all are still 7 kilo infants. The moms all commiserated over the fact that they are now toddlers, with rotten tempers and finicky eating habits. Glad I am not the only mother who spends more of mealtime on my knees cleaning food up off the floor than I do actually spooning it into Ella's mouth. Its par for the course at this stage, I guess.
In the afternoon, when Ella had woken up from her nap, I threw her in the stroller and we took off to catch the bus over to the 16th. Elizabeth and I had decided to have a drink on the terrace at Palais du Tokyo while the kids played. I actually had to help her write a letter to the insurance company as well (this was a work meeting, so to speak), so after the girls finished wrecking havoc at the cafe we moved across the street to a really nice park behind the Musée de la Mode and let them run wild. Apparently, she had been at some chichi cafe in the 16th and sat on a chair that was broken (in that a nail was sticking up through the seat). The seat of her pants was torn to shreds and the cafe offered to reimburse her for a new pair. They didn't realize that Elizabeth is addicted to Max Mara. So they made her send the bill to the insurance company. She can't write very well in French and that's why I offered to help, but it ended up being all me. Elizabeth felt bad that she couldn't do more but actually I was awfully proud how easy it ended up being. I won't go so far as to say that it was a masterpiece but I didn't stumble through it. I need to use the dictionary to check a few noun genders and I had to figure out how to say she "scratched her butt on a nail", instead of "she was poked in the butt by a nail" (I mean, it sounds classier, right?) I am not absolutely certain that official letters are allowed to include the word "fesses" so often, but I stopped at getting out a French thesaurus to find synonyms.
After all that hard work, we went to pick up Elizabeth's dog from the hairdresser and decided that we needed another drink. I got a happy meal for the girls, thinking somehow it would be easier to manage them with food. Of course, I forgot that the dog would want some as well. And then there were only 4 chicken McNuggets for them to share. And they were tired. And then someone knocked over a glass of soda and it broke. And then Isabella kept running towards the road and Ella kept dropping food and eating it, which had a table of old Frenchwomen gape-mouthed and fanning themselves with the shock. SO its not too surprising that we didn't notice the tow truck coming and taking away Elizabeths car. We got up to leave and the babies were tired and we were tired and the dog was running in circles and then... no car. Didn't have too much time to cry over it as the kids were screaming. I got in a taxi to come home and I guess it could have been worse. But honestly, I was so tired that night. Thank god that there was frozen food in the freezer and we didn't have to try and cook. I could barely swallow.