Rat Face

It's the man from the Bank who got punished, he didn't come, probably having a nap... At 2:45pm, I called the bank to warn them that if he hadn't appeared within 1 minute, we were leaving for the swimming pool. That made the lady laugh, she tried to reach him without success and strongly advised me to take the children swimming, with all the bank's apologies too! I don't know if he came or not in the end but who cares?

In 5 minutes they were all packed into the car and we were on our way. Don't assume that the enthusiasm was shared by everyone, it never is with so many different personalities at home. Today it was Peter playing the rebellion card. First he started sulking then refused to go and put his swimming trunks on or pack his bag, finally he proceeded to hide behind a few cushions at the back of the settee. He is skinny but still, does he really believe that a few cushions are going to shield him from Eagle Mummy's piercing eyes? So it was quickly resolved, I threw his trunks and a towel in his bag and let's go, put your shoes on Peter! He was clever enough to consider himself conquered and so we left, phew! Sometimes the fight is harder, and mostly longer!

At the swimming pool, Peter had a little surge of rebellion again by refusing to leave the changing rooms with his brothers. Kevin worried came to inform me of this but I told hime to get into the water and that Peter would come out eventually. Exactly 5 minutes later he fianlly appeared as if nothing had happened...

Amandine is a right little fish, she's the only one of them who can't swim yet but it shouldn't be long before she does, seeing her incredible ease in the water. She practises her moves, holding onto any kind of floaters that usually lay around . I had a lot of fun with her and then with Peter too who came to show off how well he can swim underwater! We even went to the deep end, Amandine was holding onto the side bar and was practising again and again her leg movements! Kevin and Chris were playing a little further away and then Laura came to join us, having finished at Auchan.

By the time Laura arrived, I had turned into a suntanning lizard since we'd managed to find 2 unoccupied sun loungers. Amandine was playing the little star laying there with her pretty pink swimming costume, she only needed sunglasses and a drink to sip! Then Amandine went back into the water and I watched her from the side. I must say that my tummy was hurting a bit... But never mind, it gave me a chance to perfect my suntan. I have some way to go before I reach their level of suntan! When we first arrived from England we were the tribe of Pale Faces but now we're more like the Suntanned tribe!

We left the pool towards 5:15pm without stopping by the showers for once. Sometimes it is just easier to do these things peacefully at home rather than trying to move half the bathroom to do it somewhere else...

Of course we were hardly home and shoes removed that they were clamouring for their snack! It should be simple but believe me that lot has all kind of different tastes and fancies... For once today my choice was unanimously accepted: white chocolate bars, chocolate biscuits and the rest of Daddy's cake (the one he had made the other night at 11.30pm! For me to have such an urge in the middle of the night I must be pregnant or something!). The resulting chat was comparing cakes from Laura, Daddy, and Mamie. You'll notice my name isn't on the chart, that's fairly normal, I don't make cakes, maybe for birthdays and that's all! Laura won first place and then, strangely, Mamie ended second! Not a good idea to bake cakes in the middle of the night... Usually, Daddy wins, his cakes are very very good.

Oh well, a good shower, a game of memory with Kevin, Peter and Amandine (Kevin won all the time!) and the end of the day is near.

The Rat face from the title was the lifeguard on duty at the pool. He had the nerve to be mean to Amandine by telling her off for running so Kévin shouted at him: "Rat face!". By the time he'd turned around, 4 totally unconcerned heads had dived under the water...