Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)

On our trip to Paris, we took along our trusty Rick Steves guidebook and used it all the time, including on our journey to Versailles. We left so early on Saturday morning that the Champs-Elysees was deserted, took the suburban train out to the palace, ate a fantastic breakfast at the Hotel Ibis across from the train station (cafe au lait, crepes with Nutella, pain au chocolat: perfect French breakfast!) and made it to Versailles just after it opened. We were trying to avoid the crowds, but we were still surrounded by tourists from everywhere! It was worth the crowds, though, because Versailles is amazing! Gene had not been before...

Famous Hall of Mirrors
The view down the Royal Drive

We walked a lot at Versailles!

This is the Grand Trianon. Versailles had originally been designed as an escape from the pressures of Paris, but when King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, the chateau soon became busy and he needed another retreat. Down the Royal Drive is a smaller palace, the Grand Trianon, covered in pink marble.

Versailles is truly like nothing else and a definite must-see!

Paris, Part I

Gene left for Paris, on business, on January 31st. After two weeks on my own with the little boys (but with lots of help from the grandparents!), I joined Gene in Paris for a wonderful little getaway (my first time back in France since 1999!). All of this was made possible by all four grandparents who took turned watching the boys and shuttling them to school, birthday parties, and all their activities while Gene and I took a much-needed vacation. Thank you, Nana and Pop and Gramma and Grampa!

This is the sweet note that greeted me when I got to the hotel last Thursday morning.

There was champagne and wine too, from Gene's friends.

After a quick mid-morning nap so I could recover from jet-lag a bit, Gene and I headed out for lunch and a long walk around Paris. We headed down the Champs-Elysees to the Tuileries Gardens. It had been really cold before I arrived and all the ponds were frozen. Fortunately, it had warmed up to the 40s by the time I got there! Behind Gene are the Musee de l'Orangerie (home of Monet's Waterlilies) and the Eiffel Tower.Crossing the Seine,
we saw views of the Eiffel Tower everywhere. We actually walked all the way to it but the lines were LONG, so we decided to save the trip up for another day.
Day 2: We got our 4-day Museum Pass and hit up l'Orangerie and the Louvre. Even in February, these museums were packed with tourists!
In the afternoon, we headed out to the Arc de Triomphe. View down the Champs-Elysees: our hotel was on the left and the Louvre is behind the huge Ferris wheel.
View of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe. My first three days in Paris were gray and overcast like this, but the sun broke through for our final two days.

Arc de Triomphe at night

We ended our second day at the Pompidou Center, which is full of modern art. Our favorite was this contemporary installation called Flux by Zilvinas Kempinas. He places magnetic tapes from an audio cassette under a fan, so the piece is in constant movement but it never falls. We were mesmerized!

A romantic walk and dinner in the Marais district followed, and then it was back to the hotel to collapse after walking miles and miles around the City of Lights!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day was pretty low-key this year. I made heart-shaped peanut butter toast for the boys this morning. They were both so surprised and thrilled by their special treat. (And Mama was surprised and thrilled that it still doesn't take much to make these little boys smile!)

Will went off to school (and a fun Valentine's party) and Henry and I decided to make a heart-shaped bird feeder for the many, many birds in our neighborhood. Such a simple craft... from Highlights High Five again! I cut out cardboard hearts, coated them in Crisco and let Henry sprinkle the birdseed all over.
Then it was time to hang our masterpiece in the tree.
Happy Valentine's Day, birdies!
And happy Love Day to all our friends and family too!

The Box-osaurus and Some Valentine's Fun

We have been busy crafting up a storm lately, and not just because Valentine's Day is tomorrow!

One of Will's homework assignments this week is to make a box-osaurus (basically just a dinosaur model out of boxes). Will chose a triceratops and we enlisted the help of the grandparents. Will had the vision, Nana provided some boxes, Grampa wielded the scissors and hot glue gun, and Gramma kept Henry occupied!

I don't think we could have done this project without Grampa's help! Will's triceratops turned out super cute.
Will also worked on this beautiful heart mobile for several weeks in his after-school art class.
First they had to roll the clay into snakes and fit the clay into heart shapes. After it was fired, the kids glazed the hearts and it was fired again. The result is gorgeous! View from the back...
Yesterday, we had Chloe and Bella over for our second annual Valentine's playdate. Belinda brought all the ingredients for the kids made penguins out of Oreos and candy corn.

The kids love edible crafts!

This morning was Henry's Valentine's Day party at school, which, of course, meant more crafts. Henry decorated his bagwith heart stickersand then all the kids had to place their friends' cards in the correct bag.
They also decorated picture frames.

Box-o-saurus completed? Check. Valentine's crafts done? Check. Special Valentine's fun with our besties and many a sweet tooth satisfied? Check and check. It's only Monday, but I'd say Valentine's week is off to a great start!

School Work on Display

The boys' classes both have new bulletin boards and other artwork up on display.

Will's class has been working hard on Valentine letters to a friend.

Will picked Sarah Jane's name out of a hat, so he wrote about her and she wrote about him.

I loved reading what Sarah Jane wrote about Will!

A couple of weeks ago, we had to make this blue man for a unit on art. Each child was assigned a color and had to decorate a paper figure using only his color. Will had blue, obviously. I especially like the blue feather hair!

Henry made a blue man too, but his is an astronaut because his class has been learning about space and rockets!

You know he loved this learning unit! Here's Henry constellation. It looks like a pirate cruncher to me.

5 4 3 2 1 Blast Off!

Henry was so proud of his rocket. He also followed the pattern the teachers laid out for him. If you look at the picture above, you'll see at least one deconstructed rocket.

The kids came up with their own classroom rules too. The best ones? Always go pee pee in the potty, no cutting hair and keep real animals out of the classroom!

And finally, I'll leave you with the amazing totals from the Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive at Will's school.

In five days, our school collected 28,145 pounds of food to donate to the Houston Food Bank. WUES has given the most food of any school in the US for the past three years with totals between 12 and 15,000, so 28,145 pounds is pretty phenomenal. The food bank wasn't even prepared; they had to call in a second truck to haul away the goods! I have no doubt that the totals were fueled by some pretty intense, friendly competition between the classes but in the end, the Houston Food Bank was the real winner here. And our kids, who are so lucky and don't ever go hungry, got a chance to haul in bags and bags of food to help out those who are not quite so fortunate.

Father's Breakfast

Henry's school held its annual Father's Breakfast yesterday morning. The kids all invited their dads to join them in the classroom for some crafts and snacks, and then they had breakfast tacos and coffee to go. Gene couldn't come because of his travel schedule, so Henry invited Pop to join him!

Henry made Pop a special snack of pretzels, marshmallows, teddy grahams and chocolate chips. Then he ate most of the snack himself!

They played Play-Doh together.

Pop found a pirate hat for Henry to wear

and a more colorful one as well!

Calling Daddy on the phone?

The teachers also asked the kids questions about their dads and posted them on the windows. We had to guess Henry's response to the questions. Some of the answers were hilarious!

Here are Henry's answers: What is your favorite thing to do with your Daddy? make a Henry sandwich (pillows on the outside, Henry on the inside!). What is your favorite thing Daddy cooks? special coffee (duh!) What is Daddy's job? he works in his office Where is your favorite place to go with Daddy? the park

We missed having Daddy at the Father's Breakfast, but Henry was so excited that Pop could come in his place. After all, Henry said, Pop is a daddy too!