Visiting with the Vrignaults

Our friends Thao and Eric, along with their three kids, spent a few days in Charlotte last week during their annual visit to the U.S. from France. The kids had a wonderful time, and we were sad to watch them drive away on Saturday.

We invited the Finks, Steph, and our friend Dave, who we knew in Wilmington, over for dinner with the Vrignaults one night. Molly immediately took a liking to Dave, and we had to drag her away from him to get her to go to bed at 10 p.m.

So nice to have these friends around our table

Emily, Olivier and Thao

Steph and Walt

Walt and Olivier in matching stripes

Molly and Vivy spent the evening playing in Molly's room

Molly and Dave

We had a big chocolate cake one night to celebrate Josh and Gaspard's upcoming birthdays. Josh called it his "practice birthday." The 6 is for Gaspard and the 7 is for Josh. I can't believe Josh is almost 7 years old.

Gaspard and Josh could not contain their excitement about the cake

I told Gaspard, Molly, Jeremie and Josh that they couldn't have cake until we got a picture of them all looking at the camera.

Can you tell I'm about the keel over from exhaustion?

We also went back the spray grounds, which has not lost its charm after repeated visits

Life has not slowed since the Vrignaults left Saturday morning. We found out hours later that a dear friend from church had been in a tragic car accident that day, and then we had to pull it together today for a neighborhood back-to-school party we hosted with a neighbor. The party was fun, and now we are about to collapse.

Here's Molly, a bit over-prepared for playing in the sand table at the party:

Josh showing off the jump shot he learned at Muggsy Bogues' camp