Dear Grace and Camille and Clark,

 This was my breakfast this morning.  In French, breakfast is called "le petit dejeuner", which means "the little lunch".  I thought you might like that, because I always call breakfast lunch or dinner by mistake.  Look, Clark!  Yogurt!  But, no gogurt.  This is much better.

 We got to see the Eiffel Tower.

 Who's this?

 Here's daddy.  Instead of waiting for hours in a long line to take the elevator to the top, we decided to walk to the top.  You actually can't take the stairs ALL the way to the top, just to the second level.  It's about 680 stairs.  Camille, I know how much you love to count stairs.  Do you think that you could count that high?

Here is a view from the tower.  It is looking west along the Seine river.

 Remember us?  Yes, Grace, I am wearing lipstick every day in Paris.

 Here's daddy in front of the Louvre- a huge art museum.  It was built about 400 years ago.  The glass pyramid that you see was built about 20 years ago.  Some people say they don't like the pyramid next to the old museum because they think it doesn't go together.  But, I think it looks great.

 Here's your mother in front of the "Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel".  We didn't take a picture of the top, which has a picture of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte riding a chariot with horses and golden horses.  Napoleon was a guy who basically made himself the ruler of France, and then had a bunch of monuments put up for himself.  There is another Arc de Triomphe not too far away.

 This painting is by Camille Corot.  There were a lot of paintings by him, but this was my favorite.  There were also a lot of paintings by Camille Pisarro.  Maybe later we'll listen to some music by Camille Saint-Saens.  There are a lot of Famous french artists named Camille, Camille, but they are all men.  You may be the first famous female Camille.  

These statues were from a tomb in Assyria.  They made me think of the books that we've been reading about Egypt.

 

 Here is the most famous painting in the world.  I think it's the most famous.  It's called... do you know?  I think you know.  I'll write the answer at the end.  It was painted by an Italian artist named Leonardo Da Vinci.

 Then we took a break at the museum cafe and ate some dinner.  People here eat quite late.  Which kind of makes sense, because it stays light until about 10.  Weird!  The cafe is called Paul.  Dad is eating his 3rd ham sandwich of the day.

 I like this picture because of the colorful wings on the angels.

 Clark, see this picture?  What is baby Jesus in?

Well, that's all for now.  I have a cold so I'm going to try to sleep before I go out on the town.  Dad's at his conference today.  

I love you!!!

love, Mom and Dad

PS.  The answer is the Mona Lisa

Dear Camille and Grace,

Bonjour!  We are in Paris now.  It is a beautiful city, I think that you would like it.  There are lots of things to see, and I think that my favorite parts are the trees.  We have been getting along well, although not being able to speak French scares us a little bit.  Sometimes we wish that Clark was here along with you, because he is so bold and doesn't mind asking people questions.  But, we know that he is having fun with Jill, and we wouldn't want to tear him away from that.

 This is us.  In case you forgot what we looked like.  I like how Camille is wiggling her tooth-  I can't wait to see your new tooth hole!

 Here's dad waltzing through a path of trees.

 Here's us in a garden called the Tuilieries.

 A playground that you might like

 A carousel for Clark.

 Me eating mango ice cream.  Yum yum!

 The Notre Dame Cathedral 

Way off in the distance is the Eiffel Tower.  We'll have to go closer maybe later today!

I love you!  I hope that your chorus concert was great and that you're having a lot of fun!

Love,

Mom and Dad

High Tide

Tonight when he was drinking his milk, Clark somehow managed to spill half the cup all over himself.  When I asked him what happened, he said, "well, I was drinking my milk and then the tide just came in!"

After that he asked me what "tide" meant, as if he wanted to make sure that he understood it correctly after a Curious George book that we read.  I think he's confident that he used the term correctly, and perhaps the moon is in the right phase for a high milk tide after all.

Is This Shirt too Weird?

I made this shirt, but now I'm wondering if it's wearable.  I need your honest opinion.  Here are the things that I am concerned about (besides the messy living room and lack of picture taking skills):

Not having the floral patterns in the middle of the shirt- my abdomen bisecting or being bisected by the obvious lines of the pattern on the material.

 I thought it would be a fun type funky, but maybe the patterned front and the solid back just don't go?

I like the v on the back, but I'm worried about my chub.

Maybe I've talked myself out of it already!  But, I hate giving up something that I made- it's not like I can just take it back to the store.  What do you think?  You can vote on the sidebar or leave a comment.

The Best Mother's Day Present

   The girls' school is having an auction, and one of the very creative moms in their class is making a quilt.  (I think their squares are the bottom 2 squares.  It's a little hard to see.)  Each child is in charge of drawing a quilt square that represents what they want to be when they grow up.  Here is a list of each child's answer (I highlighted my girl's answers so you can find them easily):

 

Miles: soccer player

Megan: teacher

Severn: race car driver and game creator

Lily: doctor

Alyssa: doctor

Axel: farmer

Gracie: builder or teacher

Marco: police officer

Josie: nurse

Daniel: FBI agent

Isabella: teacher

Xander: paleontologist

Holden: soccer player

Jayden: basketball player

Isaac: construction worker

Grace S: doctor

Bethany: dog walker

Andrew: police officer

Ava: Art teacher

Spencer: architect

Izaan: race car driver

Camille: mother

Grace: mother

Andrea: "in charge of the pool"

Tyler:  "take care of children"

 

   I'm not sure what I would have answered when I was in Kindergarten.  As far as I can remember, though, I never thought that "mom" was the right answer.  Not because my mom wasn't a wonderful mother- she definitely molded me into the mom that I am today.  I thought, though, that a career was the most important thing.  Even when I started college, being a mom, and only a mom, seemed like something that would be the worst possible outcome.  Staying at home, just taking care of my kids seemed like it would put a huge damper on my personal development, not to mention how horribly depressing and mundane it would be.  I'm thankful that I married Paul- the most supportive person, who encourages me to grow, even beyond the bounds of family life.

   To tell the truth, there have been periods in my life as mom and a stay-at-home mom at that that have been horribly mundane and depressing.  My personal development has been hampered in some ways.  But, motherhood has far exceeded my wildest dreams in terms of fulfillment.  Sure, I wish that things were easier sometimes, or that I had more time for "me" and less time for de-cluttering the house and regulating my children.  But, I'm glad that my girls feel that "mother" as a profession and a calling is something to happily anticipate.  Apparently I'm not always the drudge that I sometimes feel like, and they can see past my frustrations and feel my love and joy instead.  Motherhood and the gift of eternal family has been the greatest gift and blessing in my life, and I'm so thankful that I get to share each day with Paul, Camille, Grace, and Clark.

Sometimes Even Clowns Need to Cry

I've been encouraging Clark to pick out his own clothes lately.  It has been nice having autonomy over how he dresses, since I can make him look the way I think is cool, but since his sisters were already dressing themselves at this age, I figured that it was time for him to learn some more skills.

Of course the problem with letting your children pick out their own clothes is the weird combinations that they come up with some pretty wild stuff.  My girls still have a strong sense of "personal style" (wonder where they get that from?) and it shows.

Today Clark chose "clown costume" for his clothes after much deliberation.  He finally got dressed and came out to find a smoothie already made for him.  This upset him because he likes to hand pick the frozen fruit that goes into his smoothie, so he had a tantrum for about 15 minutes about it.  When we pointed out that clowns don't cry- that their purpose is to make other people laugh, he pouted, "but if they had a problem, then clowns could cry!"  You can't argue with that logic.  And he got his laugh without even meaning to.

Eight Days?

I could use an extra day this week.  Do you ever feel like that?  Too many things going on!  Either an extra day or a robot Sarah.

I was driving a high school friend to seminary this morning and she was talking about conflicts in her summer schedule.  She has cheer camp the same time as the youth trip.  She wants a robot for each of the camps, and she would choose to sleep herself.  I would always choose sleep over anything else- even fun things most of the time.  It's nice that a teenager feels the same as this old fuddy duddy, at least some of the time!