Slippery Little Suckers

Yesterday (Saturday, August 14th) was the first day the weather has been “bad” since we have been in France. It rained all day, and most of the time, it rained hard, of the cat and dog variety. My girls were so disappointed since all week we had promised them a day at the beach, but without checking the forecast first. All three girls in their swimming suits looking desolately out the window at the downpour reminded me of The Cat in the Hat. We still managed to have a little fun outside though when we noticed there were snails all over the place. The only snail my kids have ever seen is Gary from Spongebob, so to see this many was certainly novel. The girls were both fascinated and disgusted by them at first, but it soon became a game of who could spot a snail, or two. In fact, often there were two stuck together. Jenica and Jocelyn kept asking us why they were stuck together, and Jason finally answered, “Um, well. . .these snails are kissing.” That seemed to satisfy Jenica, but Jocelyn, ever aware of people and their feelings, insisted that the snails be given their privacy. She didn’t want us to pick up or disturb any of the “kissing” snails. Very polite of her, I thought.

Here are pictures of our “snail parade.” Some of the snails wouldn’t cooperate and stay in formation, and we certainly didn’t include any “kissing snails” in our line up, but overall it turned out pretty nicely. The least they could have done is throw us some candy or something. . .