I don't know all of the readers of this blog personally. It may be that some of you live under a rock, at the bottom of the sea or perhaps deep in a cave where you live with a family of gentle, yet fierce and socially-isolated badgers.

And if any of the above scenarios apply to your personal situation, you may be one of the estimated 16 human beings on planet Earth who have not heard of "The Hunger Games"movie that came out on Wednesday.

But I'm just an average woman, living in a normal, badger-free house, so that means that my kids and I had been looking forward to the above-mentioned film for quite a while.
I'd read the trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins to my girls and we all loved it. (I'm a big fan of YA science fiction and I've had a great time over the years discovering great authors like Susan Beth Pfeffer and Carrie Ryan). So, you won't be surprised to learn that we went to see the film on Sunday.
We went to Geneva so that we could see it in English, rather than dubbed in French....

and we got there an hour early, in order to be sure to get good seats...

(Please don't ask me why Severin is making completely deranged facial expressions. I really cannot tell you.)

It was a great evening and a fun time was had by all...

BTW- Go see the film. It's really very excellent!

March has been busy...and promises to get even busier.
On Saturday, I took Valentine to sign up at the fine arts school in Annemasse. It's her "Plan B" school if things don't work out for the school in Avignon.
I'm sure it will all work out, but it's good to have a backup plan, right?

That afternoon, our pal Max, Alexa and I went to Geneva to do a bit of shopping. I ended up finding an amazing pair of shoes on sale for 60% off! But mostly we wandered around the flea market at Plainpalais. They have one there every Wednesday and Saturday.

Plainpalais is a neighbourhood in central Geneva and here's and interesting fact about it: Historically, it was an area outside the densely populated city of Geneva where they brought the sick to avoid contagion and an epidemic.
Everybody looked pretty healthy there on Saturday, though- so that's good.....
It's such a drag to contract the plague. Amirite?
Something for everyone!

It was a bit cold and windly, so we stopped in a nearby Starbucks for a shockingly overpriced snack. But it was so good!!!!

Sweden is a mysterious country.
Tell me, really- what do you know about Sweden?

Chances are, not much.
Perhaps the Nobel Prize springs to mind.
And also possibly those tasty fish-shaped candies they make

True fact: In Sweden, you can have your chewy fish-shaped candy "Salmiak"-flavored.
"Salmiak" means "salted herring".
I am not making this up.

Luckily, you can count on my informative, fact-filled blog to tell you everything you need to know about this mysterious, salted-herring oriented nation.

So, here's what you need to know about Sweden:
Sweden is very cold. It is located mainly at the North Pole. They have lots of reindeer there.
And trolls.
They have lots of trolls*.

The towns of Sweden have humorous names like "Jokkmokk" and "Nykoping". This is to cheer up the Swedish people who sometimes get depressed because winter lasts nearly 11 months of the year there.

The only other really important thing to know about the wonderful, troll-filled Arctic nation of Sweden is that Valentine is there RIGHT NOW!

She packed her bag on Friday night:

Then she and her boyfriend caught the plane this morning, quite early. They'll be staying with Mat's grandparents in the mildly funny-sounding city of Uppsala. And they will spend 10 days visiting the various salted-herring candy factories and caring for his grandparents' massive reindeer herd**

Now you know all about Sweden and Tya's trip there.

You're welcome!
___________________________________________________________________
*I know this is true because I read the following item in the India Times: "Author Jan Brett trolls Scandinavia for atmosphere. So she naturally headed to Sweden - home of all kinds of trolls - to research her new picture book".
See? I do serious research!

**This is possibly not entirely accurate.

On Saturday, we spent the day in downtown Geneva. It was a cold day to be walking around a lakeside city, but we were on a mission. My mom had a ton of souvenirs still to buy for the family back home...and she leaves Monday morning!
So, we got busy helping her choose chocolates (free samples, FTW!), t-shirts and suchlike items.
While the twins and I helped out Mom, Valentine, her boyfriend and Severin ran over to the Apple Store to try to clear up an issue with Tya's iPad (it never really has worked properly!). They were promptly given a brand new iPad and sent on their way.
How's that for customer service?!
After our labors, it was good to sit down to a nice lunch in an adorable Swiss-style restaurant:

Deliberations over the menu were long, but the three older kids finally decided on...fondue!

We were all pretty tired by the day's end and glad to be heading home!

Bob was happy to see us all.

As far as we can tell, anyway.

My mom's visit here in the lovely Haute Savoie continues well.
As you can see, a good time is being had by all:

(Daisy apparently feels really relaxed in my mom's company.)

On Friday, we picked up Tya from school a bit early and went shopping!

We were in Annemasse, a nearby town that has some good shops. What's a trip to France without a trip to the Monoprix? Amirite?

The town square in Annemasse is quite pretty most of the year.
It's a bit barren in January...

...but it was still fun taking pictures to commemorate our outing!

On a trip to France, most people might expect to go visit interesting sites- perhaps the great Cathedral of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower.

We are not doing any of that sort of thing with my mom. In fact, today she got to help me clean my house.(Thanks, Mom! Love you!!!!)

But we don't only clean house.
Mais non!
We also....go pick up Mallory when she gets out of school early:

(FYI: My car is the one with the blue "Nebraskans for Peace" bumper sticker.)

Here's Mallory getting her papers inspected as she leaves school:

Back home, Finally!

This is Bob. My mom thinks Bob is kind of cute and sweet.

Bob is actually strange and kind of deformed.
She was like this when we found her and even the vet can't explain how a stray cat could be so hugely obese. She's like a watermelon with four toothpicks for legs. But she's so pathetic that you have to love her....

My mom has been enjoying the lovely fruits and vegetables here in France...

(She took this photo at the supermarket. Kind of pretty!)

She has also sat through two of Alexa's dance classes. She went to ballet on Monday and today was modern dance. As she watched, she had to hold the teacher's dog, Coppelia. Coppelia is quite spoiled and barks at you if not petted and endlessly cosseted.

If my dad shows these photos to their dog back home, my mom could be in big trouble. Bridget seems like the jealous type....

You may notice that the photos below do NOT contain Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Tower of London or serious guys in tall, black, fuzzy hats.
This is because none of the pictures were taken in London.
Don't worry- there ARE London pics and you will see them.
Eventually.
But right now, I'm in the midst of a visit from my mom, who trekked all the way over here to see us!! She's only here for two weeks, so we're keeping quite busy.
The main activity has been shopping.
Here we are on our way into the Balexert shopping mall, which is just outside of Geneva:

(No, she isn't crouching. My kids are all giants and she is kind of tiny.)

Here's Alexa modelling some adorable leopard ears:

MacDonald's is always popular with the kid. Mom says she agrees that the European versions of their food is MUCH nicer. The salads are quite good, even!

We have also ventured to the Ikea, as mom has never, ever been to one!
The thrills started in the restroom, where they had a Dyson AirBlade to dry our hands.
Very amusing!

Equally thrilling were the tasty Swedish meatballs!!

The fish Alexa ordered was less thrilling, but the desserts were quite excellent.
There were even donuts!

Luckily, we had an actual Swedish person (Valentine's boyfriend) to guide us through the huge labyrinth. He was also very handy for translating mysterious signs and carrying heavy stuff. Nice boy!

Having a bit of a rest is a must. The place is quite huge!

After a few days in a row of shopping, we decided to take Sunday off and have a rest at home.

What's in store this week? Definitely a day in downtown Geneva- other than that, no definite plans have been made...

This morning, we leave for LONDON!!!

On Sunday afternoon, the Annemasse music conservatory gave their annual Christmas concert. I participated, just as I did the past two years- but this time it was much more fun because Valentine was there singing with me:

(This isn't a great pic, as it's kind of blurry- but it's the only one where you can get the full effect of our concert garb. I think we looked kind of elegant!)

The church was pretty full, but not as jam-packed as previous years, when it was standing room only.

Vivaldi's "Gloria" (RV 589- the famous one) was on the program.

It went really well and a good time was had by all.

We had an excellent Halloween!

The kids had the whole house decorated and invited a dozen friends over.

I even got dressed up for the occasion. I was a witch and Severin was supposed to be a vampire.
But I thought he looked more like a male model after a particularly hard night of partying....

Don't the girls all look cute?
Valentine had the Hipster Vampire Girl look going, while the twins were just being gorgeous something -unspecifieds....

Original Halloween Cuteness (by Mallory)

It's mid-October now.
School has been well underway for a month and a half now and we're heading into the two-week long "Toussaint" holiday.

But my kids aren't thinking "all saint's"- they're all about Halloween.

It's definitely NOT a French thing.
In fact, many people here are actively Halloween-hostile.
Which is weird.
I think it comes from the multiple attempts that French shops have made at promoting the foreign holiday in order to push merchandise. The efforts were such blatant attempts at culturally invasive money-grubbing that it turned many people off.
And, frankly, France doesn't need Halloween.

My kids and I always have a big party for our friends because we're American and like to enjoy this fun holiday that I grew up with.

But I'd really rather not see French people doing Halloween parties. They try to make you eat pumpkin soup and they don't know what candy corn is.
It's just sad, really....

It's my birthday today.

Yes- I'm now 46 years old. And I don't care who knows it. Coyness does not become me.

No- I don't want any cake today. Thank you.

Yes- I just spend 10 minutes reading my Facebook birthday wishes and counting how many there are so far (25). This is possibly pathetic, but I'm not sure. While I feel that 25 is a perfectly respectable number, I have a suspicion that it's not cool to count- or at least to admit that you did so....

No- I'm not having a party. Back in the day, I used to always have a party with a good friend from jr high/high school. It was always very fun and crazy and no parties since have ever compared.

Yes- I have been invited out to dinner and will be going to a nearby restaurant that I've wanted to check out for ages. It looks so chic and charming- I hope it lives up to its reputation...

and finally:

No- I'm not going to trot out that tired old bit of nonsense "I'm not getting older, only getting better".
In fact, I am getting both older AND better.
So there.

This has been an odd summer...one that, for a variety of reasons, I haven't been too inclined to blog about.

But here's a nice topic for a post:

Along with three friends from the Music Conservatory, I performed last weekend at a medieval faire in a charming mountain village.

It was a long, hot day, but lots of fun....