An Expat Adventure

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Sports, Spidermen, and Fairies...

February brought us a few fun little things. T had a gymnastics show and both kids had a carnaval celebration with their schools. We also had the Lemon Festival and a trip to Snowland, but those posts will be coming up next. Once I edit and get myself up to date. :)

Here in Monaco the kids have a half day for Wednesday so most the kids have classes in the sport of their choice. T did swimming with his school for the gym class in the first trimester so, like E, we chose gymnastics as the outside of school activity. I liked the idea of how the sport is good for toning all the muscles, works on balance and flexibility, and while being a team sport it is also an individual sport. Helping him to both work for the team and to compete as himself.

His "competition" was more of an exhibition of his skills and he was rated 1-5 on each exercise. Out of 80 he got a 75. Pretty good I think. And for his hard work he was rewarded a bronze medal and a sugar crepe. :) The French love their sweets!

Ready...set...

...cartwheel.

Well done T!!

Now for the costume ball....

Every year Carnaval comes along and the kids get to dress in costume and enjoy the fun of it all. In Nice of course there's the parade, and in Monaco the school kids did a parade through the park and danced to some "Gangnam Style".

T's school dancing up a storm with a Zumba instructor leading the way.

E's school had some dancing a games as well. They too are big fans of "Gangnam Style".

Next up...the Lemon Festival and Snowland! Stay tuned.....

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

And the Race is On....

Wow, did January fly by!!

As a parting gift of the uneventful month, we had the Monaco Old Fashioned Car Rally...better known as the Monte Carlo Rallye Historique. It always amazes me at how accessible things are when an event is held here, you can just go right into the heart of it. There are rarely crowds to keep you out of a good viewing position. As with the Rally, we got right up next to the cars and even the starting point. We even got right up close to Prince Albert who came out to see his car before it took off. Yeah, that's right, rubin' elbows with the Royals. Only in Monaco...

Here's a little video....

and some pics...

This was the Prince's entry to the race.

5...4...3...2...1...go!

The kids had a little race of their own.

I just love all the cool old cars and T really loved the race aspect of it all. A future racer??? Living in Grand Prix town just may put the bug in him. :)

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Monaco Christmas...

Monaco knows how to do Christmas. They decorate the streets and the Casino area in such a lovely way and they have a Fun Fair/Christmas Market in the Port along with an ice-skating rink. There's a great Santa in the posh Shopping Center, the Metropole, and as you already saw, one of the mom's takes it on herself to set up a Santa's letter writing area in the park and she makes sure each letter gets answered.

Santa even visited E's school, but we left for Germany that day, and T's school took him on a trip to see a play about St. Nicholas up in the Old Town and gave each child a huge Chocolate figurine. Monaco does go out of it's way to make the season fun for the kids and special for the adults. We like it here! :)

Decorations...

Barclay's was really pretty with it's stairs all decorated with little animals and lights.

A little fun at the Fun Fair/Christmas Market...

Santa...

Santa's Letters...

They both got letters back from Santa all individualized,
super cool.

St. Nicholas play...

Local school children acted out the tale of St Nicholas for the other school
children in the city at the Prince's church on the Rock. The story they were told in school goes... three children
were cut up by the butcher, put in a barrel to cure and be sold as ham, St Nicholas exposes his crime and turns them back into children. No candy-coating the stories here folks!