Happy Bastille Day! Wouldn’t it be fun to be in Paris to see the parades? Businesses here are completely closed for the day, but it’s a normal work day at the Blair house. Such a funny feeling. : ) We will be celebrating the holiday this evening with a big pack of fireworks. Vive La France! image here

On Tuesday, I made my second trip to the D-Day beaches, this time with Laura and her family. Our first trip was on the 4th of July — and it was a really amazing place to spend Independence Day. We started on Omaha Beach in the morning. Then, spent some of the afternoon at the nearby American Military Cemetery where over 10,000 soldiers are buried. The grounds at the cemetery are immaculate and beautiful. There is an excellent visitor center and it will prepare you a little bit for the humbling sight of all those graves. Part of the memorial at the cemetery includes huge maps, beautifully made of colored tile, showing where the war movement centered in Normandy, and we were surprised to find out our town of Argentan played a part in the action. Because it was the 4th of July, there also happened to be a choir at the cemetery — wearing red, white & blue, of course — and singing American patriotic songs. What a treat! As you can imagine, it was pretty much impossible to keep the tears at bay. The cemetery and memorial overlook the water and it’s such a sacred feeling to walk among the graves, feel the ocean breeze and see the shore where all those boys gave their lives.

First, can I just say I loved coming up with this list and really thinking about the books that my children love the most — I kept having endearing flashbacks to cozy reading sessions and quiet bedtime routines. Second, coming up with this list was such a challenge! There is an incredible amount of excellent work out there. Narrowing it down to fifty was tougher than I expected. Most of all, I’m over-the-moon about the reaction to the Children’s Library Giveaway. Yay for books! A few notes: As I compiled, I realized I want to make a few different lists — favorite toddler books, favorite chapter books, favorite holiday books… But for this list, I’m focusing on picture books. I had in mind children ages 3 to 10 — though some books skew younger than 7 and some skew older than 6. I also included a few books that would fall under the toddler book category, but that are loved by most everyone of any age. There are a couple of well-illustrated chapter books too — selections that even my young children enjoy. The other thing I tried to do as I compiled the list, was to include as many authors and illustrators as possible. For example, there are at least 6 Dr. Seuss books I would consider essential to a children’s library, but I only included one here. Lastly, I made sure to include a Fairy Tales collection, Mother Goose collection and Fables collection — it wouldn’t be a decent library without them. I’d love(!) to hear how your list might look different. Any picture books that would make your top 50 that didn’t make mine? P.S. — Image by Brooke of Inchmark. She writes wonderful library book reviews. …

Design Mom’s Top 50 Picture BooksRead More »

Sometimes we daydream about buying a house here. We imagine renting it out as a vacation home, and maybe living in it for part of each year. Sharon recently told us about this property: It has 5 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms, sits on 2 acres and has outbuildings. It’s priced at about $300,000. Are you tempted? The idea of owning and renovating a house in a foreign country sounds amazing and terrifying at the same time. What’s your take? Would you ever look at property in another country? If you’re curious, we like this site for searching. P.S. — Speaking of real estate, our House Hunters International episode re-airs tonight. See schedule here. Or you can find it on YouTube.

Oh dear. This is quite possibly the most mundane post I’ve ever written. It’s about trash! I thought you might be curious about how it’s handled in France. Feel free to roll your eyes if this is too ridiculous of a topic. : ) In Normandy, there is no curbside trash pick up. Instead, there are dumpsters in every neighborhood, and you drive your trash to the dumpster at your convenience. I’m not sure if this is just a Normandy thing, or if it’s country-wide. This is the first time we’ve lived somewhere without curbside pickup, so I was a bit surprised. But, since Ben Blair and I are ridiculous about forgetting to put our trash out on the right day, we’ve decided this is a good method for us. When the garbage bags are full, or the recycling has piled up, we drop them off at the dumpster during our next errand. There are specific bins for garbage, paper, plastic and glass. Silly fact: I think everywhere we’ve lived handles trash pickup a bit differently. In Colorado, residents provided their own trash cans and put them on the side of the road once a week. Recycling was picked up every other week. In Utah, it was similar to Colorado, but the city provided the trash can and there was no recycling. (I wonder if this has changed…) In New York, there was trash service 5 days a week! M: regular garbage, TU: recycling, W: furniture/non-bagged items, TH: regular garbage and F: yard waste. In Athens, Greece, we would take our garbage bags and make a big pile (no receptacle) in front of our apartment building on trash day. And then cross our fingers there wasn’t a trash strike that day. : ) How do they handle trash pick up where you live?

My brother Josh, and sister-in-law Erin, have spent the last few days touring around Paris, and today they’re coming to Normandy! Ben Blair and I are meeting them in Louviers to take a cooking class from world famous chef, Susan Loomis.

I’m so excited! It’s been ages since I’ve taken any sort of cooking class and I can tell this is going to be a really good one. Plus, I’ll get to spend the day with some of my favorite people.

How about you? Have you ever taken a cooking class before? If you were to take one, is there anything in particular you would want to learn?

P.S. — For those of you who have seen our House Hunters International episode, we’ll actually be taking the class in the 2nd home featured in the show — the restored convent!

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Photos by Stacey Haines for Traditional Home

poster here My mom writes a sometimes-blog and I especially loved her latest post. It’s about how blogging has changed motherhood for her daughters. In her post, she references a journal entry she wrote in 1973 (the year before I was born) when she had 4 young children at home. I hope you’ll read it and tell me what you think. I’d love to know if you feel the same way about blogging. P.S. — I love that I get to blog for a living. Even better, I love that I get to blog about my experiences as a mother for a living. I would say I definitely do what I love and love what I do.

When we started this adventure I knew I wanted my kids to keep a record of their experiences here in France. They each have a journal, plus assorted notebooks and sketchbooks, but I can’t say anyone in the family (including me) is a great pen and pencil journal writer. So we came up with a plan. I registered new email addresses for any of the interested kids. Without sharing the real addresses, I’ll tell you they’re along the lines of maude2012@yahoo.com. The kids write emails to their new addresses whenever they feel like it. When something cool happens, when they get frustrated, when they end up in the hospital(!) for 4 days. My hope is that this is easier than a blog, something they don’t feel compelled to add pictures or links to, or share with an audience. The plan is to open all the email when we get back and find a fun record of their year in France. At that point, they can turn the emails into a book, or just keep the digital record. Either way, I think it will be great for them to re-discover their year abroad through their own letters. Do you do journals and diaries at your house? Paper or digital? Any tips for encouraging kids to keep a journal? (And yes, Maude is getting better everyday. She’s still in bed, but look! there’s a little color in her cheeks. Hooray!)

[imagebrowser id=4] [nggallery template=’carousel’ id=’4′]   On Father’s Day, we were taking an afternoon drive and happened upon Chateau Medavy by accident. It’s a grand old building and you can pay a few euros to take a tour of the interior, but we were delighted to just walk around and enjoy the grounds. I thought the round outbuildings (apparently, former towers) were the best part. I would say happy accidents like this are one of the big differences between living in a place and visiting a place. Chateau Medavy is beautiful and it’s definitely a place we’d love to share with houseguests, but if you’re only going to be in France for a week, and there are places like Chateau Versailles to visit, Medavy is probably not going to make your list. : )

In France, garage sales/yard sales/tag sales are called Vide Greniers (pronounced veed-gren-ee-ay). And they are organized by the community. Each town picks a weekend and a location and any resident that wants to join in, sets up a table with all sorts of random stuff they’re ready to sell. Now that summer is here, we see signs for vide greniers all the time and try to stop whenever we happen upon one. We rarely buy much, but it’s always fun to see what’s there. Here are some of the treasures we’ve brought home so far: 1) A little lunch pail. This is actually very small — about 7 inches high. Perfect for a light lunch or a big snack. I bought it hoping Betty would use it for her daily snack container. But when she saw it she just looked at me and sort of sighed and shook her head no. I’m sure she’s wondering why her mom can’t figure out how to buy a normal snack container with a Hello Kitty on it. …

French Tag SalesRead More »

[imagebrowser id=3] [nggallery template=’carousel’ id=’3′]   Last weekend we went to a wedding. It was here in our tiny town and it took place in the town church. [A note on our geography: We live near Argentan. Argentan is a decent size town with a good hospital, 3 huge grocery stores and a quaint main street full of charming shops. Our kids attend school there. But we live outside of Argentan in one of several teeny, rural towns that surround it.] We loved the wedding and thought we were so lucky to attend! When we arrived, the chapel was already full-to-overflowing, so we waited outside until the bride and groom emerged. The local fire brigade created an archway for them with a red fire hose (they practiced first to get it perfect). Isn’t that fun? The weather was tricky that day and it started raining just as they came out of the church. The sea of umbrellas looked festive. Then, after the ceremony, the wedding party walked down the road to the community center for a reception. In France, a person’s hometown means a lot. Many people attending the wedding had been baptized and married in that very same church. And their relatives are buried right outside in the church cemetery. We’ve noticed a strong, supportive community spirit in each tiny town. Have you ever been to a wedding in another country? What was it like?

When Ben Blair and I were in Paris for our no-kids weekend, we went to the D’Orsay Museum. We both rented a headphone tour guide and spent several leisurely hours wandering around the museum. Sometimes together. Sometimes alone. It was luxurious to feel so un-rushed. Kids at a museum is a different feel, but we still love it. In Amsterdam, the whole family visited the Van Gogh museum. It’s a great one for kids, because it’s not too big and you can still see a lot in an hour (which is about how long my little ones can last). For this visit we tried something new: We started at the gift shop and had the kids pick out a favorite postcard. We purchased the favorites and then treated the rest of the museum visit like a treasure hunt, trying to spot the originals we could see on our postcards. This was especially great for Oscar and Betty — and the postcards make wonderful souvenirs! How about you? Do you take your kids to art museums? Have any tips or tricks you can share?

What do you do when you feel out of control or powerless? Me? I work. Ben Blair is at the hospital with Maude. His French is one billion times better than mine, and he needs to be there to communicate. Maude is still very sick. Her fever went down in the night, but was back strong as ever this morning. She’ll have her third set of x-rays this afternoon and then we’ll get a current assessment of her status. I am taking care of things at home and feeling frustrated that I can’t do more to help my sick child. I am in need of a distraction and work is the only thing that sounds appealing, so I’m going to post a few things today to keep my head in a happy place and give me the illusion of a little bit of control over my life. Thanks in advance for indulging me. : )

images by Sarah of Modern Kids As promised, I’ve made a list of all the sources for our clothing and accessories from the Modern Kids shoot. I keep using the term “French Greys”. I don’t think it’s an official term, but I’ve noticed that pretty much every clothing store here in France carries options in muted greys. They are warm greys — some even lean to purple, like a dove grey. Others are sort of creamy. I love the look! When I was a design student, I had a box of warm grey Prismacolor pencils and I used to admire them when I was bored during class. I feel the same way about the grey clothing and I love that it’s easy to find here. …

French GreysRead More »

[imagebrowser id=2] [nggallery template=’carousel’ id=’2′]   A few weeks ago, Sarah from Modern Kids Photography came to our home to shoot a family photo. We just got the results back and I’m so pleased with how they turned out! I had a hard time narrowing down the images to share with you. Something fun: instead of shooting with a digital camera, Sarah decided to use film. I asked Sarah about it and she said, “These images were shot on a Contax 645. This is a medium format film camera that makes lovely negatives — about twice the size of 35mm film. The bigger the negative the prettier the results — typically. ;) I love film because the process is slower and makes me more thoughtful when shooting. I also loves the beautiful skin tones achieved with film.” I’m pleased with the skin tones too! There is one of Baby June (2nd thumbnail, last row) where she is simply radiant and I want to eat her up. If you’re looking for a great photographer of kids, I highly recommend Sarah. My children adored her and even insisted she stay for dinner! Sarah lives in San Francisco but photographs all over the US (and sometimes Europe). If you’re interested in a film shoot, reserve her quickly, because she only offers a limited number of film shoots per year. Want to see more of Sarah’s work? You can find her on Pinterest and on her blog too. P.S. — Do you like the French Greys we wore? I’ll share all the sources in another post.

I saw this shop featured on Black Eiffel. It’s in Abilene, Texas and the design was done by Ryan Feerer. I love it because it’s great looking, but I especially love it because Betty and June are our two youngest kids and the phrase “Betty & June” is used at our house a dozen times a day. : ) If I’m out and about and I see a shop with one of my kids names (like Oscar’s BBQ in Colorado), I snap a photo. It’s a simple, happy thing to collect. Do you have any silly habits like that?

Remember the TV crews that came to our house a few months ago? We were being filmed for an episode of House Hunters International — and our episode aired last night! We haven’t seen it yet, but it’s called Historic Country Homes in Normandy, and we had such a fun time filming the show. I’m feeling so nervous. If you get a chance to watch, please tell me my family looks adorable. : ) UPDATE: You can find the episode on YouTube here (it’s in 4 parts). P.S. — The funniest part: We don’t get HGTV here in France, so I didn’t even realize it had aired until I read your comments today on our way back from Paris. So glad you let me know!

Can you believe we’ve been in France over 4 months now? We are loving our time here and we are doing our best to make the most of it. But that doesn’t mean we don’t get homesick every once in awhile. Today I woke up missing America — nothing specific really, just the familiarity of it all. Since homesickness was on my mind, I asked the kids what they’re missing most of all. Here’s what they had to say: Betty: Well, what I miss… hmmm… I miss my flower blanket and I also miss our cousins and I miss the green belt behind the house. Oscar: I miss blueberries from Whole Foods! I miss the Sabeys. I think I miss my superhero toy too. Olive: I miss having smoothies every day after school. Maude: I miss cupcake batter. I miss cinnamon rolls. I miss Sour Patch Kids. I miss my gymnastics class and my turquoise bed sheets. And my favorite weeping willow tree on the way home from school. Ralph: I miss pizza delivery. I miss the mall. Sometimes I miss dressing casually. It feels strange to be watching American pop culture happening from so far away. Also, I miss having movie theaters really close to my house. What do you think you would miss most if you moved away from home? P.S. — I took these images last month during a visit to The 104. We heard about it from Jordan. There is a stunning carousel there unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And no matter how many pictures I took, I couldn’t do it justice. Every creature was elaborate and unique, with parts to manipulate and levers to pull. Truly a stunning work of art. If you want to see it in Paris, act fast, because it’s moving to its next location in a few weeks (we heard London might be the next stop).

Question: How are you getting your Warby Parkers shipped to France? On their site, they write that they only ship within the U.S. I’m in Canada, and as so often is the case, apparently out of luck in trying out this company. — Anna Answer: Great question, Anna! I have a few different options. 1) I have stuff shipped to my mom who lives in Utah, and then she ships it on to me. 2) I have stuff shipped to Melanie, who watches the P.O. Box I left behind in Colorado. Then she ships it on to me. 3) If I have a friend or relative coming to France for a visit, I have stuff shipped to them and then they bring it to France in their suitcase. 4) When I knew I was going to be in the U.S. for Mom 2.0, I had a few things shipped to my hotel in New Orleans. Like the shoes pictured here. : ) Don’t have those sorts of options available? No stress. Natasha told me about My US and I think it’s genius. You sign up with them for an annual fee and they give you a U.S. shipping address. You can shop from any U.S. stores you like and have the products shipped to your assigned address — then My US forwards the packages on to you wherever you live in the world. I haven’t tried this, but it sounds smart and costs about what I pay for my P.O. Box. How about you Dear Readers? Have you ever tried a service like this? Do you have one you would recommend?

On Saturday morning, Ben Blair decided it would be really amazing to attend the final match at this year’s French Open. It was between Federer and Nadal — who are quite possibly the best two players of all time. So he got to work searching every possible online source and around dinner time, we were proud owners of two tickets to the final! Yesterday, we drove to Paris straight from church. Jordan and Paul generously took care of all six kids, while Ben Blair and I grabbed a taxi to Roland Garros. The stadium was very French — lattice work cement, orange clay, green seats and red geraniums lining the court. It was such a treat to be there! This is what it looked like about 30 minutes before the match started: …

The French OpenRead More »