Our "Baby" is 8!!

Today was Maxwell's 8th birthday! Hard to believe.... We all had an early start today as Calvin had to meet his bus for his trip by 7:30 and Max dearly wanted him to take part in his birthday gift opening. So we all got up at 6:30 to eat breakfast together, watch Max open his gifts, and then to get Calvin out the door for his week of skiing. Calvin was so excited that he was about to bust! He met all of his classmates at the bus stop and they took off for the Pyrenees!

Max played with Legos all day long (these were the gift of choice this year) until his party guests arrived at 3 p.m.

The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm, so we were fortunate enough to have Max and his 8 friends play outside almost the entire time. They also enjoyed candy, chips, and cake and ice cream. Where Quincy always wants his birthday to be as American as possible, Max only wants French things. He did agree to let me make a small lemon cake but he also wanted a fruit tart from the boulangerie to share with his friends. It was really great to see Max kiss each of his friends on the cheek (boys and girls) after opening their gift. This is the appropriate and accepted form of "thank-you" when given something. I did not see Quincy do this last week!

It is always entertaining for us to have French people over. They are so polite and spend so much time greeting everyone in the room and then saying good-bye 9 different ways when they leave! Especially funny when they are just coming in to drop their child off for a party..... They have to great everyone in the room with the cheek kiss, participate in 2 minutes of small talk but then say good-bye to everyone again with a cheek kiss! They not only say "good-bye", they also say "Good end of the afternoon", "see you tomorrow", and usually "see you later", and of course, "thank you"! This is all repeated when they pick their child up after the party!! Whew!