Another day of school holidays, another round of princess dresses... Today we did a princess picnic in the bedroom and all the dolls had their best dresses on and ate baby boudoir biscuits (thank goodness I finally found a way to use those cookies, now that Georgia has decided that they are poison). We have a trip to the Jardins des Plantes planned for this afternoon, maybe even a visit to the 'zoo' with some friends but I am a bit nervous whenever I look out the window. There is no way to get there by bus from our house so that means we have to do the entire 20 minute walk, in each direction, even if the rain starts pouring down on us.

What? you think that I should just bring an umbrella? Well, thanks to our favorite Disney movie, Mary Poppins, Ella has a phobia about umbrellas. As soon as the window blows, she starts screaming at everyone to throw down their umbrellas before we all get blown away. The first time I laughed til I cried, by the 4th or 5th time, I was forced to admit that it went beyond a childish misunderstanding and she was seriously freaked out. So this is one of the reasons that I don't venture out too far on a rainy day. I've made plans to meet a friend there so we sort of have to go out today; crossing everything and hoping it works out. The weather says it will clear up a bit this afternoon and there is no risk of rain, but this would not be the first time Meteo France has had it completely wrong.

I also don't want to have too stressful of an afternoon because tonight, B and I have big plans to go to a birthday party outside Paris at a chateau. Oolala, right? We are even spending the night there and I am so looking forward to having a big comfy bed to collapse into at the end of what is likely to be a French party- ie a dinner with 7 or 8 courses, plus wine, plus enough champagne to float a boat. But a comfy bed means nothing if you need to get up at 7:30 in the a.m. to turn on a Disney film and prepare bowls of cereal for children who are bound and determined to wear 3/4 of that bowl. For the first time, we are leaving the girls with a sitter for the night. Hurrah! I feel like its my birthday we're celebrating. It doesn't worry me in the least, but it just means that tomorrow morning we won't be able to dawdle and try out the spa. Rats. B is desperate for a massage and I predict that I will have a monumental hangover since I've been on the (f*%?#-ing diet) wagon for so long. It would have been nice to have a massage to look forward to, as well.

I am a mess and I will only have a half hour to get ready between zoo and departure of the 'bus' so am a predicting a frantic witching hour at our house- which has only gotten worse since Georgia began to fight her second nap. Would have loved to have the afternoon to go and have my nails done and maybe a brushing at the salon since it looks to be a big fancy party but I organized badly and only asked the sitter to get here at 5. Double rats.

PS I am trying REALLY hard to clean up my language since Ella picked up the habit of saying 'Damn' when something went wrong. This goes back a ways- one day after I heard her use the word for about the third time I jumped up and shouted at her. It was such a shock, and she got into such trouble, that it really marked her. Only, she was so shocked that she couldn't remember if she was supposed to say 'damn' or supposed to NOT say 'damn'. Rats was one of the alternatives that I suggested. Its been a long road, but she has almost integrated 'rats' into her vocab. Which means, of course, that I have to integrate 'rats' into my vocabulary. We're getting mixed results, so far.