Birthday celebrations

Yesterday and today we celebrated the 3rd birthday of our oldest daughter.

For supper last night, we had 3 students from Hope College in Holland, Michigan over for supper. Erin, Rebecca, and Joshua were fun to have over and related well with out kids. They are here in Paris this semester to study dance and French. The meal was pretty American: hamburgers and fries, as our daughter likes them. However, we had the delicious French dessert of profiterolles, which is a light pastry that has whipped cream and chocolate sauce generously mixed with it.

Earlier that day, I presented a spreadsheet of the proposed schedule for Tricia, the ministry intern at the Belleville Church for whom I'm responsable. I think she'll do well in her work at the church, as well as it's neighborhood ministry to children and youth called "Quartier Libre."

Our daughter also brought in some chocolate cupcakes that she and my wife helped make the previous afternoon. It's the tradition at her school for children to bring in a homemade cake and something to drink to school the day of their birthday. The chocolate cupcakes, made with U.S. boxed cake mixes, go over very well.

This afternoon we had a "goûter" (afternoon dessert) at 5:00 p.m. in a local park. We didn't get organized in our invitations until yesterday, so those whom we invited at the last minute generally weren't able to come. But we enjoyed the mix of some of our neighborhood and church friends. It was an international mix. Besides ourselves, there was a Chinese Australian woman and her Franco-Australian son, a couple with a French husband and his American wife and their 2 children, and a woman from Mauritius off the coast of Africa. It's good to have friends here.