Famille means Family

One tradition in our house is the Friday Family Date night.  You see, as an extrovert, all I want to do on Friday nights is go out and hang out with my favorite people.  I know, after a week of work and activities and running around, most people want to stay home and relax.   But my introverted wife and son have obliged me with the Friday Family Date night tradition.  

We haven't yet subjected Abel to this tradition.  The first few weeks her was here, it would have probably been a little overwhelming.  And with school, Friday nights are football nights, so we have just continued our tradition with our family of three.  However, Abel didn't go to the football game last night, so we let him pick the location for our family date night.

Choices were:

1. Eat at Sea Salt and walk around Minnehaha Falls
2. Drive to Jordan to visit Minnesota's largest candy store
3. Check out the new pinball bar/restaurant Tilt and hit up Glam Doll for Donuts

Well, the deck was clearly stacked because Abel 💖s donuts. So he chose option 3. Tilt was awesome -- there were about 20 pinball machines that we all had fun playing and a dinner menu that is only hot dogs.  Abel chose to design his own dog with cream cheese, bacon, ketchup, and mustard (always ketchup and mustard).  Based on his food choices, I'd say he acclimating well.

After dinner, we walked over to Glam Doll.  I'm not sure what it says about us that Abel has been here for 8 weeks and we have already been to Glam Doll twice.  Actually, I do know what it says.  That we frigging love donuts.

Keeping it classic with one chocolate and one vanilla sprinkles

One chocolate sprinkles and one cookie dough

 

Journal means Newspaper

Plymouth is a small town, and as a result, we have a small town newspaper.  It covers things like local fundraising events, concerns for our small town government, and most importantly, high school sports.  Usually, the paper goes directly from our mailbox into the recycling bin -- embarrassingly, my news source is limited to NPR.  

The fact that we don't keep up on local news makes Liz furious, so whenever she gets the mail before me, she reads all of the headlines and makes sure she is up on all of the happenings in Plymouth.  Until this week, this habit was annoying to me.  "Who cares?" I would ask.  When I came home this week, the Armstrong soccer team was in the headlines of the Plymouth paper, with Abel's name mentioned!

Check out the full article to hear about how Abel brought the Falcons back to life.

Terminale means Senior

There are some things that we never thought about when hosting an exchange student.  Weird things. Like having someone else use your washing machine.  Or having your recycling magically taken out. Or senior pictures.  

Senior pictures in Minnesota are different than Senior Pictures in California.  You see, when I was in high school, we just took pictures in the gym.  Everyone had the same background -- the only thing that changed were the forced poses.  But not in Minnesota.  Here, you get to choose your background, your outfit, your location, your pose, your props even.  

So when we were confused about what to do and all things senior portraits, we called our amazingly talented friend Katie to take Abel's pictures.  Really, she's unbelievable.  I literally texted her "Would you be interested in taking Abel's senior portraits?" and she took it from there.

We met Katie down by the Mill City Museum.  It was pretty clear that we weren't the only senior portrait sessions happening that day.  We couldn't walk 10 feet without running into another senior with a change of clothes followed by a photographer.  

But I venture to guess that none of them turned out as amazing as Abel's.  He hasn't chosen which one he is going to submit for the official photo in the yearbook, but some of my favorites are below.  Let's just say that he and I, well.....we don't agree on the favorites. 

Jardin means Garden

A few weeks after Abel got here, I was putting Jude to bed.  Here's our conversation.

J: Mommy, did you know that having an exchange student is fun for the student from the other country and fun for the family?

Me: Why is it fun for the family, buddy?

J: Because they get to do all kinds of things in their own city because they need to show the exchange student around.

And this weekend, we did just that!  On Saturday after the Twins game, we took Abel to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  In our 12 years of living in Minnesota, we finally went to the Sculpture Garden.  It was a gorgeous day, and we had a great time walking around and checking out all of the artwork.  

Hopefully, the pictures live up to Abel's standards!

The famous Spoon!

Taking a bite out of the cherry.

Jude loved the interactive sculpture.  Abel loved trying to knock him off.   

The blue rooster...the symbol of France.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Running races on the pedestrian bridge.  Jude won, but the jury is still out on whether or not Abel let him.   

We couldn't figure out this art piece, but we did take advantage of the reflection for a family portrait.

Amis means Friends

We had the chance to take Abel to his second Twins game, and clearly, he is their good luck charm.  In both games he has gone to, not only have the Twins won, but they have scored over 12 runs!  It was a little chilly (I mean, us Minnesotans had to put on sweatshirts), but Abel had at least 4 shirts on: a t-shirt, a jersey, a sweatshirt, and a vest.  I tried to tell him that it will get about 70 degrees colder, but he wasn't buying it.

And we brought our friends, the Gasts, with us.  Chrissy and Kevin have been so welcoming to Abel since he arrived in early August, and it was so fun to be able to say thank you for their warmth and hospital with a trip to the Twins game.  Kevin is even taking Abel to his first professional football game in December (and at that point, he will have been to one more professional football game than either myself or Liz)!

Cuire means to Bake

Abel has been talking some smack about all of the things that we are going to cook.  Macarons?  Sure. Macaronade Setoise?  Absolutely.  Mille feuilles?  Definitely.  Today, we put his money where his mouth is and baked madeleines and chocolate chip cookies.  

For the madeleines, I had ordered a special pan, so to christen it, we broke out Julia Child's recipe.  They turned out amazing, but next time (and we've already decided that there will be a next time), we won't cook them for as long.  Abel made a lemon glaze to dip them in and that really took them to the next level.

The chocolate chip cookies were also a new recipe from America's Test Kitchen, and those were insane.  The secret is in the brown butter.  

It should be noted, however, that Abel not only bought this shirt after I did, but he also went upstairs to put it on when he saw that I was wearing mine.  We're pretty adorable.

Vendredi means Friday

Since Abel got here, he has been saying that things are like TV.  Our neighborhood, our garbage disposal, our house...just like the shows on TV.  But I think watching Armstrong's football team beat Spring Lake Park was for sure the most just-like-on-American-TV thing that he has done so far.  Friday Night Lights in real life.

Jude, Liz, and I were out at a friend's house, so the texts that we got  from him at the game were amazing.  It's so fun to experience all of these things for the first time with him, and his excitement about the game, the lights, the students was contagious.

Ecole means School

For the first time ever, I sent two kids off to school today, and I was super proud of them for so many reasons.

Jude (2nd Grade)

• Didn't cry
• Wore a Sete polo shirt that Abel gave him when he arrived in the US
• So excited because Abel used his special hair product on his hair to "get the lumpys out"
• Played with one of the new kids to Zachary Lane at recess

Abel (12th Grade)

• Also didn't cry
• Thought it was freezing outside taking pictures when it was 53 degrees
• Opened his locker on his own
• Didn't get lost on his way to any of his classes

Baby-foot means Foosball

One vocabulary word that was never introduced to me in 2 years of high school French, four years of college French, a semester living in France, and a bunch of trips to France is baby-foot.  I recently became aware that rather than play foosball, the French jouent au baby.  Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever heard?  Baby foot!  I'm in love.

With Jude, nous jouons au baby quite frequently.  However, one of the downfalls of having only one kid is that we have to play with him.  And he is good.  Like was in the championships at summer camp good.  My pride can only take losing to my seven year old every so often.  Whether it is on the tiny table we have upstairs or the full size one downstairs, I'm good for about a game a month.

Abel's tolerance for Jude's blatant making up of rules, table tilting, and other general nonsense is much, much higher than mine.  Watching them play together (baby-foot or other games) is so fun; Abel is so patient with him and keeps him in line when Jude's antics go too far.  So one month in, the baby-foot tournament chez nous continues. 

Jumeaux means Twins

Yesterday, we took Abel to his first Twins Game!  He had been to a Mariners game when he was in the US last summer, but this was definitely a first time experience!  

It's official - his first game certificate!

It was great to be able to have him sit next to Andrew to explain him all of the weird baseball rules that no one thinks about.  First foul ball? Strike.  Second foul ball?  Strike.  Then you can hit as many as you like.  Tag up if a pop fly is hit. Checked swings may or may not be a strike. Hit by a pitch means a walk.  You know...all the standard rules that Americans just grow up learning.

He still needs to learn Take Me Out to the Ballgame, but we'll work on that one.

He didn't know who Kirby Puckett was, but made an excellent pose anyway.

Benevole means Volunteer

One part of American High School sports that is quickly becoming part of Abel's life, whether he wants it to or not, is the fundraising.  Buying tickets for waffle dinners, sending emails asking for donations, or, like yesterday, bagging groceries.  Yesterday, the team raised $547 and they earned a barbecue before the Minnesota United game on 9/9.

Andrew and I stopped and bought a bunch of groceries for our cook out, and had the pleasure of having Abel bag our groceries.  And although he didn't ask us if we wanted paper of plastic, he still did a pretty good job.

Carnaval means Fair

When we first started talking about hosting an exchange student, like true Minnesotans we started talking about the Minnesota State Fair. What would the student eat?  Would they hate all of the American-ness?  Would they want to leave and fly back to France as soon as they realized how crazy Minnesotans really are?  

Today was that day.  Andrew, my brother, and his wife, Megan even flew out from Los Angeles for the the occasion (okay, and because they love the fair and have been hankering to come back since they were here four years ago).

Going into our day, as we do in our family, we planned out all of the food that we were going to eat. And part of our grand plan was to have Abel rate each food we tried on a scale of 1-5.  We started the day with Sweet Martha's Cookies in a cone, which was an amazing way to start the day.  Naturally, that scored a 5 (he's no idiot).  

From there, we headed to Scotch Eggs.  If you don't know what that is, it is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and fried.  It received a strong 4 from Abel (and an inexplicably angry 4 from Andrew).  

Megan's coworker who was recently here suggested that we try the Australian fried potatoes.  This is a stand that I have walked by for about 12 years straight and never, ever stopped.  And today we did. Fried potato cakes with nacho cheese, ranch, and bacon received a 4.5 from Abel.

We also did other things at the fair besides eat.  Okay, we mostly ate.  But we did walk through the pig barn, cow barn, goat barn, and sheep barn.  And then we watched the llamas and alpacas getting ready for their parade.  During this, it became perfectly clear that the alpaca is Abel's spirit animal, with his long eyelashes, long neck, and skinny legs.  He was...less than amused.

Finally, after 7 different versions of this pose, this one was finally approved by Ansel Adams himself.

We also stopped to ride the sky ride and play some horrible carnival games to win stuffed animals that we don't need.  

Although our feet are super sore after walking and standing around all day, we did obviously take some time to sit on some benches: patriotic benches, mad-face benches, and corn-eating benches.

The highlight of the day, however, were the cheese curds.  I always think that they aren't going to be as good as I hype them up to be.  That I think that they are going to disappoint.  But they never do, and today was no exception.  

And although next year, we may not have a State-Fair virgin to take with us, we'll be there.  Same time. Same Place.  The Great Minnesota Get Together.

But means Goal

This week, we had BA (Before Abel) plans on both Tuesday and Thursday, so we couldn't go to either of Abel's soccer games.  On Tuesday, we didn't miss much, as the Falcons lost to Blaine 0-4.  Yesterday, however, we missed his first goal of the season, and win against Andover, 1-0! We were so excited and proud of him, although we did warn him that it better not be the only one he scores all season and we missed it!  Check out Abel's header off of a free kick (I totally said that like I knew what the heck I was talking about).

Also, a special shout out to our friends Chrissy and Isaac who made a trip to the game.  Isaac was so excited to cheer for Abel and the Falcons, even though he'll eventually go to Andover (we'll forgive him for that.

Abel's Fan Club!