Alex has headed off to France! We had the final meeting on Monday, and everything was all set to go. Friday was the big day, at about 10:00 they boarded the bus at the high school and departed for O’Hare. He was pretty excited but also very nervous. We sent him with something to help him sleep on the plane, but he reported he was not able to get any sleep at all during the flight. So for the next week he is going to be touring Paris, the Loire valley, and Normandy. Then as soon as he gets back, the whole family is heading to Arizona. Alex is going to be exhausted….This week the softball team finally had a long-awaited rematch with the team we defeated in the championship game last year, and the result was the exact opposite, with us losing 10-0 this time. We aren’t playing badly, but we just are not hitting and our defense in the outfield is not good…..Natalie has not been feeling good lately, with a persistent sore throat, so Beth took her in to the doctor on Saturday (we don't want anyone sick when we go to Arizona!) and as it turns out she has strep throat! Yay. So she's got a round of antibiotics, which should have taken care of things by the time we go.....Missy had a birthday party with her friends, going out to Black Pine animal rescue park (again. She’d live there) with some friends. Since we were short a seat in the minivan and I didn’t really want to go again anyway, I elected to stay home (she said it was ok if I did). Unfortunately it just so happened that they were closing early that Saturday because of some special even the next day, so the girls didn’t get a whole lot of time there. They did agree to keep it open like a half-hour extra since it was her birthday, but still not all that long. But it was all they could do. So they all came back home earlier than they were planning, and then had cake and ice cream and presents at the house.