In which we have friends over

Friday and Saturday Blaise had to go into Paris for a 2 day workshop on simplicity, or something like that. (I'm confident about the 2 day workshop part, not so much about the simplicity part.) Friday, of course, was a regular school day for the kids, so it wasn't much different then usual, except that Blaise wasn't home for supper. Saturdays when he has to go in all day are a different animal. For one thing, it means that I have to drag all 3 kids to the grocery store, which they hate, on the most crowded day of the week. Unfortunately, the store is closed on Sundays, so I'm stuck going on Saturday. I told them that afterwards we'd have a snowball fight and then make hot chocolate as a reward.

On the way home from the store yesterday, we ran into Blanche's older sister, who told Sapphire that Blanche had been looking for her earlier, so Sapphire ran to ring Blanche's buzzer while the younger kids and I dragged the groceries upstairs. While I was putting the fridge stuff in the fridge, Sapphire rang our buzzer. Evidently Blanche's mom was out for the afternoon, and Blanche was expected to entertain her younger sister so that her dad could get some stuff done. Was it alright if Alexandra came and played in the snow with us too, and then maybe came up to our apartment? She could play with Cherry. (Cherry and Alexandra are in the same maternelle class. And Cherry regularly tells me that she doesn't like Alexandra, because she speaks French to Cherry (duh) and sometimes she is holding the teacher's hand and so Cherry can't hold the teacher's hand.) It seemed like it would be worth a try, so I agreed, and Cherry, Ezio, and I headed outside to meet Sapphire, Blanche, and Alexandra.

The kids spent 30 minutes or so running and sliding on the playground, throwing snow at each other (I'm not sure it can be quantified as snowballs), and climbing on the equipment. By that point, we were all cold (I know, I know, it's colder in the US), so we headed inside. Sapphire and Blanche made the hot chocolate, Ezio read, and I got out the Duplos for the 3 year olds. So far so good--there are lots of Duplos, and Alexandra was perfectly happy to just stack up towers of them, so it didn't matter that Cherry was being possessive of the "cool" pieces. Once the chocolate was hot, we all sat at the table and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows, then Sapphire and Blanche suggested to Cherry and Alexandra that they should all play Polly Pockets together. Fortunately, there are now a lot of Polly Pockets, and so they were able to divide them in such a way as to allow everyone to have plenty of clothes, and their own doll.

Cherry got sick of that fairly quickly, unfortunately, and then I made a mistake. It occurred to me that we have two babies here in France: Dora and Baby Jr, and that the little girls might like playing with them, so I got Dora for Alexandra to play with, and Cherry found Baby Jr. Then Cherry got out her stroller.
"Je veux la poussette!"
"No, it's my poussette."
"Je veux la poussette!"
"No! It's my poussette!"
Perhaps Alexandra would like to use the sling?
"Non! Je veux la poussette!"
Maybe they can take turns with the stroller? How do you say "share" or "take turns" in French?

Blanche asks if she and Sapphire can play with Sapphire's potter's wheel. Yes, and maybe the little girls (les petites) would like to play with PlayDoh? I bring the PlayDoh to the table. Yes, they would like to play with PlayDoh, and there's plenty of that to go around. For 30 minutes Sapphire and Blanche work on a pot, and Cherry and Alexandra trade little bits of PlayDoh with each other. Then it's 5:30, and time for Blanche and Alexandra to go home so that I can make dinner.