We'll start with a few birthday pictures for/of/concerning my now-37-year-old sweety. Joyeux anniversaire, mon tchoups !
His family-birthday meal (almost entirely concocted by Chengy) was so delicious* that I'm salivating just writing this sentence. The first picture is the first course: (my) fig-and-ham rolls and Jean-Philippe's roquette salad. Then came the incredibly delicious (Jean-Philippe's) osso-bocco and risotto (seriously, you wouldn't have beLIEVED how delicious this was). And lastly, there was an amaretto cream-thing which deserves much more than my impaired retention of names suggests. Of course, we adults drank delicious wines with it all, while the bairns drank their apple-mango juice... 
Monsters, Inc. serves to pass the time as Chengy prepares dessert (& no, he's not preparing said dessert in the next photo. He's opening one of the gifts that we can't wait to taste... heh! heh!):
Here're my three boys, not long before two of them were jamma'd and tucked in. I think the camera was set at 800 or 1600 or something, but it really was early evening. And pouring rain! So the light was low...
*******Here's a picture of my 5€ find at the end of the French Soldes (sales) season, and of the delicious Feta-Roquette-Pine-Nuts Pizza I made that night, and which is a part of my culinary comeback* of late:
* The trouble started in the kitchen on the very last day of the last year, as I was preparing food for our party; and the downward slope continued for about six months - ?! - until, very recently, things not only started perking up, but... well, I don't know how to describe it, exactly... so I'll just say that things have got Very Tasty around here. And it's not just me! Jean-Philippe's been bitten by the bug, as well!*******
Our wee ones in their dining table tent, watching A Bug's Life (the boys were SO excited about this wee adventure; it was extREMEly cute to watch it all come together) and a corner of my presently favourite corner of our terrace, with one of my from-seed plantations (poppies):
*******And some scenes from our long weekend of camping, dancing, theatre-going and more in Bussang (in the Vosges) with Caroline and Fred and their two sweetkins...
When the accordian came out towards the end of our evening at the inn high up in the mountains above our campsite, Tomi began swaying happily in his seat. I asked him if he'd like to dance with me, and thus began a happy hour of dancing and laughing. Happy, that is, for everyone but Leo, who was utterly rejected by his beloved Lara:
p.s. The man behind her isn't berating Lara for not dancing with Leo; he was talking to their table's resident dog...I love this image of Dylan and his daddy - and also this one of Caro!
Another couple of our personal faves: 
The second of these photos is one of many beautiful moments, watching my Tiny Tims at their favourite passtime, and the first represents one of the most beautiful moments I've witnessed in a long time. The background for it is long and involved, but involves, among many other factors, having a step-mom step in (& in the middle of a VERY complicated situation that had otherwise nothing to do with her) a couple of years ago... So anyway... Dylan was drawing (really swank) houses, and telling stories to go along with them. When we asked him to draw "his house" (as in: his dream house) he made a comment that it took us a while to catch onto. After a couple of extra seconds, we realised that he was actually talking about "himself" or his interior. Just as we realised this, he said that he'd draw his dad's house for us (in other words, "his" house). As you can probably imagine, we watched with not a little anticipation to see what was going to appear before our eyes. First, a kind of tree form... then a "strong roof, and nice, too" ("Ahh!" says the child psychologist in all of us) and then... a banana shape as a front window, about which he said, "This is Caroline's laughter, all around ..." and as he said it he was looking at the "laughter" and he smiled an utterly unconscious smile, lost for a moment in happy reverie. I don't know about you, but I think he's realised how lucky he got, when his dad met Caro... 
A couple of UTOs (Unidentified Tented Objects):
A funny moment from the next (gorgeous) day, after having finally landed on Planet Wonder, at the top of the top of the top of Beauty's mountains: 
And some family photos, taken by our budding photographer, Leo: 
I would love to wax poetic on the inn that we found on this day, and the innkeeper, and the view and the food and the drink and the lovely time we had... (It was INCREDIBLE, all of it!) I would also love to linger on some of the other lovely little details of the past few weeks... But this has got to be posted. Otherwise... it will suffer the same fate as numerous other tries at posting over the past few weeks, which is: oblivion. As you can see, it's already taken me more than a week to get this one up (I started it the 31st, but it's now 7 August...), and so, with that: a very happy Tuesday (or -night, depends where you are) to you!*******
To all of you who didn't take that bridge that day: thank you!
And to Jack: get well SOON!
p.s. A few good photos of our Prodigal Härry's two-day return are coming up next...
Presently Playing: Woke on a Whaleheart (Bill Callahan, a.k.a, Smog)
(Thanks for the idea, Amber!)
*******(end post)
