Welcome to the madhouse!!!

I have to sit around to break up the fights (!) but they just get on with it now and play by themselves !

"Ooohh bébé !"

Meanwhile, Sophie legs it across the room and pinches Juliette's seat ! But Juliette fights back !

Hehehe if you pinch my chair, I'll pinch your bed !

Ah that's better, let's all be friends and share !

Juju's latest obsession is magnets - on the board, on the dishwasher (which has died a death but let's not go there, dodgy subject !)

"Look Mum, I brushed my teeth and now they're really shiny"

Santa paid his first visit to St Pol sur Mer last week. It's was Mike's works xmas party with the traditional visit from Santa. Juliette got a Winnie the Pöoh coat rack for her bedroom and Sophie got a Barbie B-book (basically a kid's laptop) - it's totally bilingual which is cool. Loads of word, maths and logic games. (The parents choose the presents out of a catalogue and pay the extra if necessary, after the firm's contribution has been deducted.)

Sophie hasn't put it down ever since !

It's true love !!!

It's bathtime !!!

Notice how I strategically placed Juliette !!!

Juliette's got her cheeky face on - either that or she's sat down on the nail brush !!

Killing herself laughing splashing!

Playing peekaboo over the side of the bath

Unusual to see her with her hair down, except in the bath !

The festive fairies (me and Sophie !) have been busy getting the house decked out for xmas. It's a bit of a poor effort this year as it's all being done in dribs and drabs as I get time.

Juliette's got her eye on that bauble !

Mike hates it when I say those fateful words "I know what would be good fun" and run off upstairs ! This time I came back with ... window marker pens !!!

It'll all wash off ... after xmas !!!

Fave recipe so far is 1 banana, 1 yoghurt, milk and some generous scoops of vanilla icecream !

Here's the photo of Mike in Juliette's Halloween hat I couldn't manage to upload last time !! And no, I haven't shot hil in the chest, it's the horse designer label on his shirt !!!

I'm back !!! Been snowed under at work, what with last minute tests and assignments to mark, marks to load into the computer and reports to fill in.

Plus the kids have gone loopy. On Thursday, my last class of the morning piled out and went into big fight mode - about 20 of them (girls !) had a big brawl in the playground.

Changed sites in the afternoon, got to the staffroom and everyone was talking about a fight, assumed it was the same one - it wasn't ! This time it was the class I was about to have. One boy insulted someone's mother, got thumped, smacked his head on the door and ended up being carted off to stitches because he blacked out. He ended up with a few stitches in his head but was back doing rolypolies all over the place in gym the next day so obviously felt better !

So all next week, it's "conseils de classe" (end-of-term class meetings with all the teachers of each class) in the evenings and "conseils de discipline" (disciplinary hearings) at lunchtimes. Sophie and Juliette will think I've abandoned them.

Roll on the holidays - only a fortnight to go but it seems a long long way away !!!