Friendly friends and horses

So for these past 7 months, when we play in our big park, we can see over the hedge to the next backyard, filled with apple, plum, and 'mirabelle' (yummy tiny apricot-like fruit) trees. But we've NEVER seen anyone out there. So today Stephen and I stopped by after our morning exercising and knocked on their front door. We intro'd ourselves to this sweet little old Swiss lady - she and her husband have lived in their lovely villa next to the church here for 40 years - some of the original residents. We asked her (all in French) if she'd like to sell us any of her fruit - that we live nearby and noticed it in her lovely yard. OOOOHHHHH - she says, come on back here and pick all you like! Here - take these bags and help yourselves anytime!  Oh, my heavens. How could she have known the very words that are music to my ears. The plums were just melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and enough apples to juice til we die. I love good friendly people. We're baking her banana bread now to take back over.

Stephen finished the Lord of the Rings series - he was quite motivated to finish it all in about 3 weeks since he wanted to see the movies before jumping back into homeschooling. It's going great - by the 2nd day, he had already finished everything for the week, except for his daily tasks (journal-writing, Rosetta Stone French, and current events).  He loves the freedom he has - much like his cousin Sterling -- it will be interesting to see how this steers his future education.

Kas enjoyed her first group horse-riding class this evening! She was able to control her cheval beautifully and guide him through cones, even though he wanted to follow his amies (other horsie-friends). 8-)

And some back-to-school shopping... pretty much, with the price of things being about double here, we're making what we have last... but we did get Kenny new jammies (there is NOTHING as yummy as new cute kids jammies!) and Kas a new bomber jacket -- she actually paid for half of it herself, and said it was just the coolest thing in the whole wide world. I took pity, since her last winter jacket was 'pink barbie', (the warmest one I could find in Houston), but she despises all things 'girly', so this was right up her alley. Even though it's so hot here (not quite Houston's 106 degrees, but still hot...) she insisted on wearing it the rest of the night.