That cute little girl in the front there is our niece, Perrin (if you are Ella or Chloe, Perrin would be your cousin). Perrin turns 5 on Tuesday so her parents, Brenda & Greg, threw a little family birthday party for her tonight. Also in this photo are Dwight & Michele, Melinda’s and Brenda’s parents. Greg set up the timer on his camera to snag this shot just before we all left, about an hour ago.

You veteran sabbatical blog readers will be familiar with this entire cast of characters, given they all visited us in France last December for Christmas. Perrin was prominently featured on the blog, including on December 16th when she, Chloe & Ella posed outside of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

Returning to today, at Perrin’s request Greg made scampi for dinner (how many 5 year-olds request scampi?). It was incredibly delicious. Earlier in the day, Melinda & Ella were over at Perrin’s to assist with her “kid party.” Brenda put together quite a bash for that one — hidden treasures, face painting and Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Me, I’ll take scampi.