Three Years Old... in Paris

Milo has hit three years old! We had quite the series of celebrations for him, spread out over weeks in Paris and Brittany. For this post we'll talk about the month leading up to Milo's b-day.  

Ah, the life of a toddler in Paris. Busy busy! There are shows to go to, birthdays to attend, urban nature walks to do!

Milo and his friend Joah went to see Trois Hommes Verts (three green men) at the Pompidou center for Joah's birthday.

The three green men is the most recent play for Perrine's actor cousin Gaëtan Vourc'h

Three martians land in a kid's bedroom in the middle of the night and explore everything with wonder - the show is hilarious and quite beautiful.

The boys loved the show, C'était un bon spectacle! said Joah afterwards

  

Another friend, Melville from daycare, invited Milo to his birthday party

A few weeks ago we signed up for a nature walk in the Vincennes forest just outside Paris with a medicinal / edible plant specialist guide.

 

Milo was very attentive and took notes and samples for his journal like a real naturalist

But he had a little trouble staying with the group as the hike went on...

There was a lot to explore!

The best part of the hike was eating flowers - we sampled some sureau (Elderberry) flowers plain, as a tea, and cooked into buttery muffins. And we ate some acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia / Black Locust tree) flowers which were delicious smelling and tasting!

Milo munching on Elderberry flower muffins

Black locust flowers

And finally we get to the birthday party... Milo invited all the kids from his daycare, as well as a few other friends and cousins Gaëtan and Amir, who were a big help to us as well.



We had the party at our nearby park, which turned out great despite quite a bit of rain at the beginning.

A guitar from Joah! (and from Dan and Corinne)

Lascaux chocolate cake?

Milo and his big cousin Amir

The next morning was Milo's actual birthday, so he got to start the day with a stack of birthday pancakes and a skype with Maminou.

Then we got to go to the swimming pool with Joah and Dan, followed by a lunch at a Spanish restaurant.

After the nap we got a strange call on Skype... from the middle of a lake!



It was grandpa and grandma, with cousins Carrie, Rachel and Will, in the motor boat on White Iron lake on the way to the cabin at RingRock.

Then we finished opening presents, and headed out for a spin on Milo's present from Grandma and Grandpa - a new bike! (A dandy horse actually, no pedals and intended for toddlers to learn balance and then go straight to a real bike with no training wheels).