Fraises

There are a few strawberry plants in the backyard, and today there were a few ripe strawberries that Summer couldn't wait to pick. After we brought them inside, we waited for Allison to finish putting Samantha down for a nap before we tried them. For ten minutes, Summer insisted that one of us had to watch them at all times. Luckily, we each got to try one before they ran away. They were tart but still good.

Spelling Lessons and Crazy Hair

It has been rainy and cold here all week, so we have been having many pajama days. This sounds fun, and it is for a while, but after being in the house for two days straight and getting a bit stir crazy, we have been struggling with finding fun and time-consuming things to do. The girls have become big buddies over the past few months, and Samantha loves to follow Summer around and be her student, baby, pet kitty, emergency room patient, and various animals needing rescuing. We got out the chalkboard, and Summer instantly became the teacher. It surprises me how long Samantha will sit and listen to her.



We also decided to play beauty shop to display our wide assortment of clips and hair bows. The girls did my hair, too, but it wasn't quite as cute as theirs.

Donkey

Today we went to a small park near my work that had a couple of goats, some chickens, a peacock, and the girls' favorite, a donkey.



(By the way, I took a picture of a bunch of flies eating crusty stuff out of the donkey's eye, but Allison won't let me put it up).

Les Grottes de Choranche

It's been rainy here for the last couple of days, so I decided to take the girls to Les Grottes de Choranche, which is a series of caverns about an hour from Grenoble. We showed up between two larger groups of people, so we got a private tour from a guide who spoke simple enough French for me to understand most of what he was saying. The most interesting thing I remember is that the caverns continue on for 30km. The inside was impressive, especially since there was a lot of moving water. The pictures don't do it justice.





There's not much to do around Grenoble when it's raining, so I was pretty proud of myself for thinking to go visit the caverns. But it turns out the water levels in the cave are affected by rain that somehow drains through the mountain. A few small sections of the caves were already closed, and the guide told us that it would probably all be closed in the afternoon. So I wasn't so smart after all.

The tour climaxes with the guide leading you up some stairs into a dark chamber. He then cues up a choreography of music and lights that gradually reveal the impressive structures and a cascading river that comes out of no where. It's all a bit cheesy, but it's hard not to get sucked in by it.

Chateau du Miolans

We took the girls to visit a castle about thirty minutes from our house, le Chateau du Miolans. On the way there, we heard Samantha in the back seat talking about baby Eiffel Towers, and then we looked outside:



We went on a rainy Friday morning, so we had the whole castle to ourselves, which made it very enjoyable. Summer had a lot of fun exploring, but eventually her standard response after going through a new doorway was, "It's just another dirty old room."