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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Paris

Our world travelers returned from France having accomplished all of their goals-- the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, boat rides on the river Seine, other stuff I can't remember, crepes, ice cream, and croissants.

PTB sent Alex some birthday money a little early so that she could take it to Paris for souvenirs, or as I like to call it, junk.

What is it about kids that they just want to collect stuff and leave it out all over their rooms and drive me crazy? I can't even throw away the cardboard roll at the center of paper towel-- every last one is needed for some special craft that I will never be able to throw away.

I learned my lesson the hard way. They saw something they made in the trash and the guilt trip was unreal. Big tears and "I worked really hard on that" and all that jazz.

 Now I follow this three part plan:

1) Purge "Crafts" when the children are not home.
2) Put said handiwork into a trashbag, and hide that bag in the house for 5 days.
3) If no one has noticed the missing items after 5 days, dispose of the trashbag outside of the house. OUTSIDE is key.


That way, if they return home from school and immediately notice the absence of that painted paper towel cardboard roll rocketship* then you can get it back out and mention that you'd needed to admire it up close in your room for a bit.

*term used loosely

Where was I? Oh yes, Alex adding to her collection of stuff.
She returned with a pair of rather large dangly Eiffel Tower earrings, a free standing Eiffel Tower model, an Eiffel Tower key chain, and a t-shirt of-- you guessed it-- the Eiffel Tower.

The t-shirt isn't actually that bad.

Josh emailed me a photo while in Paris of Alex showing off her new earrings.
Later, he emailed me a photo of Alex showing off her new t-shirt.

In both photos it looked as if Josh was neglecting to remind Alex that I had indeed packed a hairbrush.
It made me smile a little, because it's such a typical Dad-on-his-own-with-daughter thing.

I love that they made that trip together, that Alex will have those special memories of having gone to Paris with just her and Daddy, and that I married a man who loves to invest time in his children.




He planned everything with her in mind-- which museums he thought she'd like the most, using a waterboat for transportation, taking her to a light-show one night, even taking along a museum scavenger hunt to make it more fun for her.

I got a good one!

Selfie at the top of the tower




Fact: We have not finished looking at all of their pictures from the trip, but I just scrolled through quickly to find some for this post.

So I have no idea what exactly this is supposed to be representing, but I am not surprised that they decided to take a picture...and you're probably not surprised that I posted it.



Meanwhile, Derek and I took advantage of our time together and the wonderful weather to have a picnic in the park, watch the Lego movie, head to the mountains with some friends, and snuggle on the couch.

Oh, and he made a bunch of crafts.
I'm off to put them in a bag...
 


2 comments:

Tracy said...

One of the best pictures I have of my daughter at the Orsay was her in front of a Manet painting of a naked reclining lady. It makes for great conversations. I'm sure that painting did the same for them on their trip.

Joyce said...

We have a couple of obnoxious pictures taken near a statue in the Louvre. A friend of mine actually set off an alarm there. She sat in a chair that was apparently not meant for sitting : ) I think a dad-daughter trip to Paris will be a fabulous memory!