Been in Felletin for 9 days now. Haven't had much to report. It was nice and relaxing. Justine and Capucine arrived with Christian and Claude and Genevieve went up to Paris to pick up Philippe and the Chilean cousins. The cousins played well, Christian did the cooking, I did the serving. I worked quite a bit. We took the kids to the lake to swim and play. Christian took the kids mushroom hunting.

Then Genevieve and Isabelle arrived on Thursday with Antoine, Eva and Diane. It got a little bit crazier and noisier. Diane, who is 2, and Severin had a small battle the first night when Diane took Severin's chair and blanket and when he tried to get it back she screamed. Now she yells at him everytime she sees him.

The news from Paris was that Philippe was making everyone miserable so Claude brought the 4 Chilean cousins down yesterday and Philippe stayed in Paris with Abdel (Isabelle's husband). We are hoping he stays there. So with 11 cousins (Marion and Emily haven't arrived yet), it is crazy and noisy. Isabelle and I served the dinner last night and it was difficult to corral all the kids and make them sit at the table to eat. The only seat left for Severin was next to Diane and when he tried to sit down she screamed at him so he went to hide so no one would see him cry. Mathilde, who is 4, who saw Severin wasn't at the table decided she didn't have to be at the table and I couldn't convince her otherwise. I finally got Severin to sit between Thomas and Simon and made Mathilde sit next to Diane. Mathild doesn't speak much french at all and is pretty wild. She runs all over and doesn't listen to anyone. Genevieve has moved in to the lower house to her room next to our room. Mathilde is sleeping with her there. When she tried to put Mathilde to bed last night, she took off up to the other house. Genevieve cannot chase after her of course and by the time I got downstairs she was on her way back with an ice cream bar. This was at 10:15 pm.

The Chilean boys play pretty rough and Severin and Liliane have both been hurt already by one of them. The girls don't always understand what Liliane is saying and she feels like they ignore her. Liliane is riding bikes in the yard with Justine right now so that's good.

It's an adjustment having everyone here. I hope everything settles down a bit.