If there is no Labor Day, when do you stop wearing white pants?

I asked myself that question all day today as I ran around in my white capris. I guess I'll just have to see what other people do! It wasn't a holiday here today but it was certainly crazy! The traffic was horrible and the stores were absolutely packed! I guess it's just the official last day of summer so everyone was out trying to get things done before school and work start up again in earnest! A lot of "pardon"'s and "excusez-moi"'s were flying around as the kids and I traipsed down aisle after crowded aisle in the stores today. A little overwhelming to say the least! We had a good day though. We started out with a meeting with both of Max and Calvin's school teachers at their school. They do not speak much English and our children will be their first students who don't speak French but they seem more than willing to bend over backwards to help out. They do have a student teacher in the school that speaks quite decent English and she will be very helpful. Calvin's teacher plans to spend all day on Mondays with just him while the student teacher teaches the class! Can't beat that! So... school starts tomorrow and I think we are all ready! (I know that I'm ready for some peace and quiet!!) After the teacher's meeting, the kids and I ran some more errands. Max has soccer practice starting on Wednesday mornings (remember the little boys don't have school on Wednesdays but do have school on Saturday mornings) so we needed to get him socks, cleets and shin guards (because of course, we didn't think to pack those things in the luggage that came with us). We then hit the clothing store again to get a few more back to school items and then the grocery store for our daily stash. After coming home for lunch, we met our translator, Priscille, who helped us to get the last of our list of school supplies. She also helped me to buy a freezer (our refrigerator in our house is not only small but does not have a freezer at all!) and to set up the voicemail on my cell phone. She is just a God-send! She also looked through all of my paperwork that I had painstakingly filled out for school and sports and told me that I had done it all correctly! Hurray! One more hurdle crossed! I then pulled out the checkbook that we had gotten from the bank on Saturday to just have her walk me through the steps of writing a French check - only to have her chuckle and tell me that it was a deposit slip book, not a check book! Good thing I didn't try to write anyone a check on it!! Every day we learn so much!! I will never again take simple tasks for granted! By the way, I did finally master the grocery carts! We were fumbling with one again over the weekend and I don't know if it was because Josh was along and struggling or what, but all of a sudden, we had 3 old ladies trying to help us. Turns out that our token was just a little bit too small and by using a 1 Euro piece, we were able to unlock them just fine! One other funny thing that happened today... remember those wild curtains in our apartment that have been the backdrop for so many of our pictures - well, when we came home from our errands today.... we were just all doing our thing when all of a sudden, Calvin asks "Where did the curtains go?!" They were gone!!! Josh then decided that he better go ask at the front desk of the attached hotel. Well, let me tell you... you don't learn to ask "I lost my curtains, do you know where they are?" in many French classes so he had quite a bit of trouble getting that point across. He thinks that the man told him that they took them down for cleaning.... We ate at a great little pasta place for dinner as you can see from the picture. The dark picture is of Josh and the kids in front of our apartment building. The other picture is Taba checking her email - we all love to get messages!!