Roma - Day 1

Off again on another adventure. This time we are headed to Rome & Barcelona! We had an early start, about 4:30a.m. so we could get to the airport in time to check in. We found an airline with $.01 tickets plus taxes and fees, the only catch is there are no assigned seats so it's kind of a free for all. We decided it was worth it for the price.

It took us a series of buses, and the metro to arrive at our apartment, but we made it without too much trouble (because we had our map - Mark). Once we got to our apartment, we unloaded our gear and headed out for a walk toward Vatican City, which was about 10 minutes from our apartment. Along the way we stopped for our first Gelato. YUM! There is something about Italian ice cream that just can't be beat.

Chocolate was one of the favorites, but we all tried lots of different flavors, some include watermelon, cantaloupe, pina colada and pear.

We are lucky to have a very good "fast food" joint right on the corner by our apartment. They have the most delicious pizza, as you can tell from their faces we loved every bite.

In the center of Vatican city.

We had read about the Swiss guards and so we had our eyes peeled for them. When the kids spotted them I suggested that we go get our picture taken with them. I walked up and asked if I could take their picture? "Yes" "Can I take it with my children?" "Yes", can I take it with each of my children individually?" "Yes". They were so kind and patient and let each of the kids pose one by one. A few funny tid bits about them. They have to be of Swiss descent, handsome, speak German and be 5 ft. 8 1/2 inches tall.
























There are fountains everywhere, with the most delicious water. Of course you are instantly thirsty every time you see one, so we all took our turn at the fountains all over town.

At the end of a long day what's better than a movie, especially in English? We are happy to let the kids watch movies at home, but the only catch is they must be in French, so since we are on vacation we decided to bring along a few English movies.

Le compte à rebours- The countdown

Here is our #1 countdown man! Yes there are two countdown calenders- it's a lot more fun to mark off two per day than just one. We have been at it for a long time (40 days) and so it is getting very exciting now that we are into the teens. We had a big mark off day yesterday with the arrival of Dad. YEA! Back together again, it was all too exciting. Tomorrow will be another big mark off as we depart for our family trip, and so with that all done there are only 13 more days until the main event, the arrival of North! (We know there are others coming, and are very excited about every ones arrivals, but sorry, North is sort of the star in this one).

At this point I don't know who is more excited, Logan or me? There are days I feel like I just might explode with anticipation! I can hardly wait.

Trouver un trésor-Finding a treasure

Our day started out with frustration on our minds of having to go through the whole Carte de Sejour wait again. This is a document we have to have to live here in France. We had to go to the Prefecture (police station) once we arrived and show them all the same papers we had just shown the people in San Francisco, to get our visas, to get another piece of paper saying we are legal. It is a royal pain! The wait is forever long and I have already done it 3 times. You are supposed to receive a permanent one, but until you do you have to renew every three months. We went yesterday with the hopes of getting it out of the way but we were too late. They told us to return the next day at 9:00. We did just that, we actually arrived at 8:30 and there was already a line waiting for the door to open. We joined the line until the magic hour. When they opened the doors they announced those with children would be allowed first. Lucky us-we took Sophie with us and so we marched straight to the front and were the first ones in the door. Needless to say it was not as painful today as it has been in the past. Within 28 minutes we had done our business and were driving away. Both days we paid for 2 and a half hours of parking and so we gave away our parking slip to two lucky people.

We were so happy to be finished so quickly that we took the scenic route home. We drove down this very cool tree lined street and came across this chateau! (I had actually read about it, but was not quite sure where it was) Veaux Le Vicomte. I can just pictures the royalty who walked these grounds.

It was closed today, but we will definitely be back.

I loved the towers that were part of the main entrance gate.

A little further down the road we came across another beautiful castle. Chateau De Blandy Les-Tours. (I did not know anything about this one.) It has been recently renovated and completed 2007. It is set in such a quaint little village. We decided to wait and tour it when we had all the kids with us-so we will return.

À jouer au tennis- To play tennis

Annie and Logan showing us their stuff.

The class is held in a gym in Montigny, which is also used by the elementary school during the week for gym, so since we are the last class of the night, they have learned how to take down the net and help put it all away.

Since Mark and I are both tennis fans we decided France was as good a place as any to introduce our kids to the sport. So this is what we do on Tuesday nights. We registered the kids right when we got here. We were able to put the Randalls and us in a class together, so it has been really fun. The poor instructor William-6 little Americans who didn't speak French or play tennis, I think he was a bit overwhelmed, but he has done a terrific job with all of them. For kids who had never played before they can now rally back and forth with each other.

William is also my instructor on Thursdays.

Un Robot

The boys have been using their creativity and made a Robot, and here he is! Pretty clever with what was available.

I particularly like the "used" look they gave him.

Saint-Valentin- Valentine's

When it was time to go to school the kids had laid out all my outer wear. A red coat, red beret, red gloves, red scarf and red shoes-after all it is Valentine's Day.

When we went to deliver the cookies to the kids school, Jesse's teacher said, "Wow, you are very red!" I had to remind them what day it was.

Later when she was passing out the cookies to the class she asked them if any of them had seen Jesse's mom

"She was dressed all in red, she was hard to miss."

I am sure they think this American woman is CRAZY!

Jesse had a chance to explain to the kids what we do in America on Valentine's. She told them we make boxes and exchange cards with candy. They all moaned and said, "Can we do that?"

It was a very fun holiday this year-simple. It is not a big deal here which made anything we did that much more special.

As tradition I gave the kids a "heart attack".

The best part was getting Valentine's from the kids, there's just something about having your six year old write "You are my favrizte mom in the world" it just doesn't get much better than that! Beautiful flowers from my neighbor to wish us a Happy Valentines Day!

We send all our love to all of you and hope you have a wonderful Valentine's!

On al'impression de printemps- It feels like Spring

It feels so strange to be experiencing spring in February. The weather has been so beautiful lately that all the flowers think it's time to come out. Everywhere we look there are signs of Spring. Today when I walked to the backyard I noticed these flowers popping up, right in the middle of the dead ones from last summer, and our neighbors rose bush had so many blooms on it, it looks so beautiful. Hopefully this is just a taste of what's around the corner.

The kids are loving the great weather and play outside every chance they get. I love looking out the windows and watching their imaginations run wild! They are constantly coming up with new ideas and adventures in the backyard. The best part is it never requires anything except a little imagination and sometimes some rope and always the logs and sticks.