Halloween in London

After last year, when we learned firsthand that France doesn’t really celebrate Halloween, this year we decided to take a family trip to London, hoping that maybe we could find some Halloween festivities there.  Or at the very least some enormous black ravens to set the mood. So we went with our friends, Louisa and Barron Crosby, who have an 8-year old daughter named Tess, whom our girls adore.  Though it was tricky taking the London Underground all over the city with four kids, we managed not to lose anyone, and we really had a great time. 

Tess (as Rapunzel), Maisy (also as Rapunzel), Jocelyn (as Princess Leia, but the wig was too "itchy"), and Jenica (Batgirl).  Let me just tell you how dirty Jocelyn's dress was by the end of the day!

Highlights on our trip included:

A ride on the London Eye, which is the largest Ferris wheel in the world

A Riverboat cruise down the Thames (a jolly good show)

The Tower of London, seeing torture chambers but also the crown jewels

Eating traditional fish and chips

Eating excellent Indian food (the Brits do love their curries!)

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament

St. Paul’s Cathedral, which made us want to sing “Feed the Birds”

The London Disney Store near Regent Street

Buckingham Palace

Green Park right by Buckingham Palace with gorgeous fall leaves

Tower Bridge and London Bridge

Piccadilly Circus (their much smaller version of “Times Square”)

Westminster Abbey
Camden Town and seeing all the bohemian shops

The Tower of London was the perfect ghastly thing to do on Halloween day.  It was very spooky in parts because of its history.  I made sure the girls didn’t read the information too carefully, and I’m positive they didn’t quite know what they were seeing, but maybe I’ll clue them in when they are older.  For example, we walked through a torture chamber with a rack used to pull on people until their joints dislocated.  Jason kept everyone calm by commenting to strangers, "Nice rack, eh guv'nah?" We saw an actual chopping block, oversize axe, and executioner’s mask. We also saw rooms full of weapons of war, such as cannons, rifles, swords, etc.  They mostly just loved this cleverly-made dragon (below), the medieval suits of armor, and the beautiful diamonds, rubies, emeralds and gold on the crowns and scepters where the crown jewels are displayed.  I’ve never seen so much gold in all my life, but they wouldn’t let us take pictures.

It might be hard to see through the glass, but this is a chopping block and oversize axe.  The mask is on the upper left.  Very creepy looking.

The girls really dug this medieval dragon.  It was made out of metal scraps.

This is called "Traitors Gate," and it was where prisoners were brought into the Tower of London to be executed by beheading, including people like Sir Thomas Moore and Anne Boleyn.  

Jeni and Joss in front of Traitor's Gate.  I think they got the concept.

Jenica loved the suits of armor, and there were many displayed

Here the girls were at the beginning of the first day (October 30):

Tally-ho!

And then here they are at the end of the first day, completely knackered:

This picture was not staged.  Maisy really was asleep, and Jocelyn had had it by dinnertime.  We must have walked 10 miles, and the girls did great.  Hardly any whining or complaining.

 My girls could have played in the leaves in one of London's many parks all day.  This is Green Park, one of the five royal parks in the city, and it's right next to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace.  There were crowds of people waiting for the changing of the guards.

Westminster Abbey

I'll admit I wanted to dip Jocelyn in Clorox after this picture.

Big Ben and Parliament: my girls all loved the sound of the chiming clock and simple melodies it played

 My favorite thing we did was probably the Riverboat cruise down the Thames.  The guide was funny (super dry sense of humor like a typical Brit--"That's proper good, that is.") and informative, and I loved learning the history of so many buildings and landmarks you can see on the Thames.  The bridges were beautiful, even though the river water was murky brown.  The most interesting thing I learned was why there’s so much French in the English language, which is roughly about 30% derived from French, and the rest is Anglo-Saxon.  According to our guide, it is because William the Conqueror, who was French, invaded and took over England in 1066.  He is also the guy who built most of the Tower of London and used it as a palace and residence.  I won’t lie: I absolutely loved being able to understand our tour guide perfectly and also just being in a country where everyone speaks English!

The Tower of London

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge on Halloween Day

Barron and Louisa Crosby on the Gatwick Express to London

Final impressions: London is a huge, beautiful, sophisticated city, and I was surprised how clean and well-maintained it was. The Underground railway system was amazingly convenient, and it was clean and free of graffiti.  I loved seeing how people dressed, and I thought the Brits were stylish, but a little funkier than what I am used to seeing in France, so it was fun to see their ensembles.  I was also blown away by how polite the people were to us, even with four loud kids.  A young gentleman actually offered “to give me a hand” and he carried my suitcase down the stairs for me as we headed into the subway.  Chivalrous, right?  People also let us get in first on trains.  Young men even gave up their seats for me on crowded trains!  (That has NEVER happened to me in Paris.)  Overall, I was very impressed with London and we had a smashing good time.  So Cheerio, and pip pip to all our mates and blokes!  Long live the queen. . .

and Happy Halloween!!!

The girls' full costumes on the day of their school Halloween party with all hair pieces and Jeni's Batgirl mask

Happy Halloween from the London Disney Store!

And from the steps of St. Paul's!

Daddy Diary - Day 4: The Chilly Willies

From the Desk of Jase:

As luck would have it, we actually live not far from the Plascassier town cemetery. It's a small, quaint cemetery, and our kids are fascinated by it. Lots of cool family tombs, with some tasteful mementos and touching French phrases engraved on the tombstones. The kids like to go for short walks there because we can literally watch the bats fly around the village church belfry and see some new fresh flowers left behind. Here's what the front gate looks like.

Well, during October, the kids decided to bring their own belongings to the cemetery. This resulted in the following photos:

Note the careful attention to the "belly up" pose.

Yes, even though I have no indication that this cemetery was a mystical place used by the Native Americans in ancient days, apparently it is also a Pet Cemetery. As anyone will tell you (seriously--anyone, just ask your buddy on the Greyhound bus), next to "Howard the Duck", the scariest movie ever made is Pet Sematary. It takes everything cute and fluffy, like housecats, small children, and scalpels and brings them to terrifying levels. Even Stephen King, after writing the novel, "put it away" for a time, fearing that maybe he went too far.

Lest you report me to Child Protective Services, I did NOT explain the premise of this novel/movie to my kids, but it didn't stop us from reenacting this scene from Churchhill ("Church") the cat.

Okay, I am ready to admit some slight concern that this tomb has been shattered open, even though we saw nothing inside. Because it escaped??? We'll just hold our breath until we're done passing this cemetery now.

Moving on to finish our last creepy items at the Villa...

Daddy Diary - Day 3: Angry Birds

From the Desk of Jase:

The next scariest place in our house, or at least the place that has sustained the most casualties, is our back patio. It's a gorgeous terrace, but it features on the northwest side a huge plate glass window.

Easier to see from this angle:

Since we've lived here, I've carted away SO many dead birds that fly smack into this window. More dead birds than poisoned rats by a factor of at least 3. This has led to many surprises, like Maisy going outside to open the shutters and discovering a dead bird which had been half-eaten by some feral cat. Here's a quote you don't want to overhear your 3 girls saying outside, "Oooh, is that its brain?" or "The ants are eating its eyes!" On the day I took this picture, it only took 2 minutes to find the latest casualty -- here are some wing feathers sticking up over the stone.

Some conversations you just don't want to have with your kids this early in life. Like explaining why the ecosystem needs mosquitoes, why we should keep up with the Kardashians, or why birds sometimes accidentally fly into windows and kill themselves. But I explained it all Mr. Rogers-style, meaning I was patient, clear, even-toned, and continually in a state of dressing and undressing. Now they understand that we simply scoop the dead birds into the back yard to show them respect. And if a cat should come by to lick the only-stunned bird back into health, well then, even peachier.

In order to help explain what happens here, I asked Maisy to get a bird to demonstrate. The only bird we could find was a stuffed chicken, which automatically makes this unrealistic because we know chickens would never be able to fly into a plate glass window. Because they are mostly flightless, a real chicken would just walk straight into it instead.

And to show the "smashing" of the bird, here's the picture from the other side of the glass.

Looks like I'm going to have to pick up the pace if we're going to get through the rest of these Halloween pics. The girls are having a ton of fun thinking up the next "spooky" shots. Hopefully you readers are enjoying your holiday season as well.

Daddy Diary - Day 2: Go Into the Light

From the Desk of Jase:

During our usual bedtime topic of thinking "happy thoughts" before bed in order to have sweet dreams, we brought up our "Go-To" Happy Place. No, no, not Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. I'm talking about Disneyland. The girls only vaguely remember Disneyland, having gone almost 2 years ago the last time, when they were 5. But I showed them pictures of the Haunted Mansion

 and we realized that--HEY! We have gates like that now. Not like this, from a distance.

Can we bring the camera in way closer and like at a weird angle to perhaps capture some cobwebs?

Oh, that's much much better, thank you kindly. Really ominous-y and pointy.

This discovery combined with our new interest in reenactments led to an interest in demonstrating to family and friends aspects of OUR CREEPY VILLA.

For example, usually our TV area is not that creepy of a location, unless like most normal people you are averse to Care Bear Movie DVDs. But how about now?

After this occurrence, I noted that Fluffy the Clown wanted to start sleeping under the bed like a weirdo.

At least the trees are still acting the same and no midget psychic ladies or preachers with bad teeth have shown up yet. We'll keep investigating...

Daddy Diary - Day 1

From the Desk of Jase:

So we recently had 3 dear houseguests come for the last week for a visit through Paris, the Riviera, and forays into Italy, which Tiff can report on separately. Since we actually do not live in Paris (blog title notwithstanding), this meant that Tiff took off for 2 days on the front end of the trip, starting on Sunday.

And really, for the rest of the week, I knew that Tiffany was going to be busy entertaining guests. The girls and I quickly hatched a plan to make the week go quickly. Knowing what I was up against (mainly the inarguably superior care of their mother), I had to be deliberate to assure my girls that I could adequately get them through a week of school, homework, dance, and piano lessons. Plus non-McDonald-ish meals and getting them to bed at a reasonable time. All while trying to get in my normal 12-hour work day.

Step 1: Ingratiation

"Kids, let's go buy some new hamster tunnels for your Zhu Zhu pets!"

Parenting tip--Zhu Zhu mechanical hamsters are better than real hamsters. If there are any hamsters reading this blog (or, more likely, being read to), well, I'm sorry. But facts are facts. Zhu Zhus simply represent a superior species--less fur, less mess, less escaping, less treats. All around positives. And the manufacturers know that they have you over a tiny barrel, which is why Zhu Zhu accessories (tunnels and stuff) cost MORE than accessories for real hamsters. So buy fake hamsters with real accessories if you're being economical these days.

This kept them busy for hours, which allowed me to move to the next stage.

Step 2: The Wonders of the Internet
Only 3 seconds of searching for hamsters brought me to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDMNHvnIxic about a hamster on a piano. Endless remixes abounded....

Step 3: Reenactment

Thusly inspired, the kids moved on to this stage with our snazzy new Casio keyboard

Day 1 closed out with me making (NOT reheating) hamburger gravy, green beans, and dessert pizza. Okay, Tiff did prepare the frosting ahead of time, but the girls whispered incredulously, "Dad, I think you make this even better than MOM!" Thanks for overlooking the burnt dessert pizza crust, girls.

Hmm..hair down and not done well by Dad. This feels like foreshadowing.

Not too shabby for Day 1. But then....I got to thinking. What other reenactments might we be able to work up? Maybe related to October and the fall season...

Oc-Toad-ber Frights

From the Desk of Jase:

It's no secret that October is one of my favorite months because I love the Halloween season, even if it's not celebrated here as much as we're used to. When I was visiting Utah for a few days during the corporate convention in September, I noted that many of the semi-vacant strip malls were filled with temporary Halloween Superstores that had sprouted up like mushrooms after a hard rain. I was only able to visit one or two in my brief time, but I was very impressed (and, frankly, envious) that there was so much cool selection compared to the crappy costumes available to kids when I was growing up.

My girls are not at all into scary things, except sometimes light practical jokes involving fake flies in icecubes. But one fun/scary prank we pulled last year was when we found a giant toad under our terrace and decided to have some fun with it. The video was never posted....until now.

The kids got a huge kick out of pranking Tiff, which is why we then decided to get to know the toad a little bit better. You can easily see that the toad is as big as my hands, but he was pretty calm throughout the whole thing. Note how Jocelyn gets it in hand, and then immediately brings it over to Maisy to tease her. This is the reason why we can't keep nice toads around the house.

Here's where we cross over and Maisy has been teased too far in proximity of the giant toad, but we did practice interspecies protection:

And so we have to recover by making the toad seem comical again, and then Maisy is happy again, but still, and very wisely so, toad-wary:

And then we dropped the toad back into the garden where he probably hopped back to his home swamp in Chernobyl. None of the kids had any lasting effects (i.e., nightmares), but they still recall the toad.

So this month I've talked it over with the girls, and we've decided that, to really get into the Halloween season this year, we are going to show you some of the spookier parts of living in France. Like if you get an ice cube in the mail with a fake fly inside it, well, then we had NOTHING to do with it.

Stay tuned...

Because I Have Been Given Much

Attending the Cannes ward has been an equally frustrating and uplifting experience. While there are many comforting similarities to our ward in Utah, there are also some vast cultural differences.  For example, I recently had two of the weirdest experiences at church.  First let me preface that, in general, the members here have all been warm, friendly, refreshingly anti-materialistic  (especially in contrast to the normal population of this area), welcoming, and normal.  And now having said that, read on . . .

The first strange experience happened just two days ago on Saturday night.  I was asked to give a presentation for a Relief Society activity (with the assistance of a translator) about how to foster a love of reading with young children.  I put quite a lot of effort into the assignment, brought many visual aids and examples, and with a lot of help from my French tutor, I wrote many headings and captions in French to organize my presentation and to keep the interest of my audience. These were all printed in large fonts, spell-checked and proofread correctly for French grammar, and prepared well in advance. And it seemed to go over well! My message was being delivered AS INTENDED. In fact, the audience even laughed when they were supposed to and nodded in agreement with many of my points.  Being it a Relief Society function, I had also taken the time to dress nicely in a dress and heels.  So I was feeling pretty confident after I finished, and I was supremely relieved since I had been really stressed for over two weeks about how I was going to pull off this assignment to a French audience. 

However, during a short break, a woman whom I have never met and only barely recognized started a conversation with my by saying  she had noticed my Calvin Klein purse.  Because my French is too poor to be able to say, “Yep, I got it for super cheap at TJ Maxx,” I just smiled and nodded. 

Then she says in broken English, “I bought a bathing suit that’s Calvin Klein from the internet.  It came from America.”

I thought, “OK. . .How nice for you?” 

She continued:  “But it didn’t fit me.  Would you maybe want to buy it?  I have it right here.” 

I thought for sure I had misunderstood, but in an instant, she pulls out this hot pink one-piece right out of her bag.  Before I could even make sense out of what was happening, she says, “I paid $120, and you can have it for only 30€.  What’s your size?  I think this will fit you.”

First of all, the suit was NOT my size—it was much too big for me, and all I could think was, “Well, I’m never wearing THIS dress again!!!”  But then, I am embarrassed to admit another side of me thought, “That actually is a really cute bathing suit.  I wonder if I could make it work.”  Then of course I slapped myself and told her no thank you.  By any account a strange encounter though, right?!?

Then the second weird experience happened maybe a month ago.  After Primary one Sunday, the nursery leader comes up to me holding this ratty, nasty-looking stuffed CLOWN of all things and says in broken English, “Sister Pierce, this clown was donated to us, but it scares most of the little children.  Do you want to take it home?  Maisy seems to really like it.”  In my mind I am thinking, “Lady, are you crazy?  Didn’t they ever release the movie ‘Poltergeist’ in this country?”  But then Maisy says, “Mommy!!  Yes, let’s take him home.  I named him ‘Fluffy the Clown,’ and I really want him!!”  I cannot stress enough in this blog post how much I did NOT want to take this germ-infested, creepy clown, that’s as big as Maisy, home with me that day.”  But apparently, I’m a pushover, because it’s been in her room for a month.

 Yes, she still loves “Fluffy the Clown.”  She sleeps with it, and plays with it, and I just have to turn away.  And sometimes breathe deeply into a paper bag. . .or sit down and put my head between my knees.  I really want to get rid of it, but Maisy told me no way.  She at least agreed for me to put Fluffy away while we have company in town who will use her room. I am really hoping she forgets about him after the company leaves.  I guess my other option is to let her watch “Poltergeist” . . .

 If it were only a little smaller, I could carry it around in my purse and try to sell it to unsuspecting people. Real cheap. And say it came from America.