travel

so, we're back and thank goodness it's 70 degrees and it was homeschooler park day yesterday or we'd do nothing but sit inside and miss Nanna and France. it's not Paris but the playground is free and full of friends. flights and airports all went smoothly with only one low point in desperate parenting when there were NO children's movies available on the 8 hour flight and we let Jackson watch the Ben Stiller film "A Night in the Museum" and Billie paid attention to every detail of "Marie Antoinette" by Sofia Coppola- which is funny and a great flick by the way. Sloane did cry and call out but not for more than 10 seconds at a time (we've never had to do a crying baby on a plane before but i guess it could have been worse). So, like i said, it was fine...up until the very end when Jackson urped up all of the candy, chips, and other usually-forbidden junk food he'd eaten all that day on the shuttle bus between airport terminals as we returned to DC. blech.
And now we're back and I'm reading The Suprising Power of Family Meals, inspired by Pat and the French way of enjoying your meals (less food shoveling, more talking between bites). Dinner time as a family is going to be my new mission (trimester 2 is 'mission mode' and the only 3 month stretches of time in the last 6 years that I'm actually productive and able to complete a project from start to finish that entails more than slathering on sunscreen and packing snacks for the beach).
well, i've got two kids in a wagon waiting for me outside and one in roller skates. we're heading to the library- maybe over a mile away so we'll have to stop for snacks at a less-than-cool-non-patisserie along the way but it's WAY too nice outside to drive!
Here's some Paris memories: us in Monet's garden, reading about Monet's garden, catching ladybugs in Monet's garden, climbing trees in Monet's garden and at Monet's grave.