Fun weekend plans

We had our first guests over last night -- a Friday night dinner with another family from the girls' school. They have two boys and their two are about the same ages as our two. Plus, the grandma came so there were 10 of us for dinner. I almost can't believe our tiny European kitchen made enough food for that many people! We almost didn't have enough plates and silverware. I had to ask for more from the property manager earlier in the week. Chairs, we had just the right number. Amazingly, the kids all played well together. We plopped them in front of a video eventually but that was after a lot of dress up and singing and dancing, etc.

If you've ever been to our house for a Friday night dinner, you know the drill -- salmon with mustard-honey marinade, asparagus with "special" sauce, salad, fresh homemade challah and some sort of yummy dessert. You won't be surprised to learn that we outsourced the yummy dessert to the patisserie around the corner from us. I got a nice variety of sweets and lollipops for the kids. The rest of the dinner, though, suffered from the same sort of culture shock that the rest of us are experiencing. What is regular flour? How much should we use? How big are "regular" eggs in Eurospeak? The challah is still a work in progress. Similary, the mustard-honey sauce was surprisingly super-spicy. Poor Amelia was very upset. It was actually tasty but just not what we're used to.

This morning, Saturday, Amelia is attending her first birthday party here. Dan will have to give the report because I'm hanging out with Josephine. We went exploring and found a new playground near Place Royale with swings and teeter totters and a climbing thing or two. It's still a little cold to be out for too long but the sun was shining and there were lots of other kids at the park. We had a little picnic too. Thank goodness for PB&J.

Tonight for Valentine's Day Dan and I are going out. No idea where or when but Jenee offered and we accepted. Then, tomorrow, Aunt Jen and Uncle Marco arrive for a week. Maybe we'll ask them to blog on here too...