catching up

After Jill left last week, I resumed my slower-paced, more reluctant to leave the apartment life. We were back to the one activity a day, if that, routine. (Lucas and Eva were probably glad, while Max loves being on the go.)

On Monday, we stayed home and I did laundry and some cleaning and ordered groceries online.

Tuesday was a beautiful day, and Marc had scheduled a picnic at the Champ de Mars with his students.

While he was finishing up the shopping, the students hung out in our apartment. There are 28 of them, and we are definitely not equipped for that much company! They didn't seem to mind too much.

We had baguettes, pain de campagne, Poilâne bread, several different kinds of juice...

about 10 different cheeses, apples, clementines, grapes, and the most delicious ham I've ever had.

Marc ordered pastries for all from Lenôtre, and when we opened up the boxes, the pastries were swarmed with paparazzi. So funny.

I ended up with a lemon tart. It wasn't the best lemon tart I've ever had, but it was quite good nonetheless. Nothing like picnicking at the foot of the Eiffel Tower!

I promised Eva she could play at the playground after lunch. The boys weren't interested, so they walked home, taking the leftover food with them.

Eva and a new friend made sand castles together. It cracks me up that they don't seem to have a problem playing, even though they speak different languages.

We stayed for a couple of hours, and I was perfectly content to sit outside, enjoying Fall, and not being one bit hot.

Especially since I could read as well!

The next time we come to Paris, I think it should be in the Fall again. I love love love not being hot. (Look, boots!)

On Wednesday, we went to the American Library to return our books and pick out new ones. It just so happened that they were about to have a Halloween story hour. Eva was thrilled.

Someone had brought two bags of costumes to share, and Eva picked out the Queen of Hearts.

They had Halloween stories, a short film, and songs, and even got a treat afterwards. It was so much fun for Eva, and I was glad she got to do something festive, since we didn't celebrate Halloween at all! (The boys and I watched The Wizard of Oz on Halloween night and ate popcorn with m&ms and Maltesers.)

I went back to the library on Wednesday night for a special authors' night:

David Lebovitz, Alexander Lobrano, and Dorie Greenspan talked about French pastry. I was hoping to get some tips on new pâtisseries to check out. (I didn't really, except to have a firmer resolve to go to a couple that I had heard about recently.) But they were all thoroughly entertaining nonetheless.

Dorie talked about "the tart that changed her life" and the collaboration between fashion and pastry. I found out that Fauchon has a new flavor of éclair every month. Alexander said he felt like Jed Clampit being invited to Versailles, and related the history of his becoming a gourmet (it all began with a trip to Paris when he was 12 and faked being sick so he could go back to Ladurée on his own). David Lebovitz said he enjoys living in Paris because "French people actually eat things."

There was a discussion afterwards about how different the ingredients are here: chocolate, of course, but also butter, cream, and well, pretty much everything. The French demand quality in food, and it shows. (Max would tell you that everything here tastes better, which is probably true, but I do occasionally miss something from home.) Also, everything is sweeter in the U.S. Corn syrup is used in almost everything. Here, food is more pure. I found out that Coke in the U.S. is 1/3 sweeter than anywhere else in the world! Apparently our taste buds are very sweet-conditioned.

Someone asked why we still use measuring cups in the U.S., when everyone else uses Metric. David said that there is a visceral pleasure in filling and dumping measuring cups. Dorie looked dumbfounded and said that she relies on her scale for accuracy. It was fun to listen to these authors/bloggers speak -- I read their blogs, and so of course I already felt familiar with them. Fun also to be part of a large gathering of people who just love food.

breaking news: we left the house!

Our President's Day started off with a bang as I took Lucas to the doctor -- ear infection. It's been bothering him for a few days, but apparently not enough to keep him home from school or church. So, another scrip for amoxicillin!

Marc's parents called this morning and asked if we wanted to meet up at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Marc was working, Max wanted to hang out at home, but Lucas was game and Eva was over the moon with excitement. She is majorly obsessed with dinosaurs and has been asking to go to the museum.

The low light conditions made for blurry photos, but -- hey -- it's my blog and I'm posting them anyway.

Both of the kids loved the sand and water tables where you can create dinosaur habitats. Dams, canyons, flash floods -- mayhem and destruction, the choice is yours!

This is for you, Jess. I'm pretty sure that "Weirdicus" is another name for these fish.

I was fascinated with this specimen of many many ammonite fossils (just a small portion to show detail).

Fascinated, yet vaguely repelled at the same time. Who can blame her?

Yes, folks, that is a woolly mammoth trampling a human. Does the fact that they're in skeleton form really lessen the terror in this image? (Luckily, Eva walked right on by this exhibit.)

Lucas looking at an egg as big as his head!

Lucas was determined to get this shot. At first Eva thought he wanted her to get inside the shark's mouth and ran away in terror. We eventually persuaded her to come back, but she
was a reluctant participant.

The only other thing that scared her was the 3D dinosaur IMAX movie. The ticket agent assured us that it would not be too scary for a 3-year-old, and yet, she was starting to whimper at the very beginning, just from the music.

Still, even without sitting through the whole movie, we were there for 3 1/2 hours! I don't know that Eva would have ever left willingly, but I pulled out the big guns: looking for a souvenir in the gift shop (Grandma & Grandpa's treat). Lucas chose a stuffed dinosaur and Eva chose a snake and some stretchy lizards.

We were all thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home, but hey! We actually left the house and did something fun for the holiday, so it was a good tired. (I can say that now that I've eaten dinner, the kids are in bed, and we watched House and 24.)

miscellaneous musings

• Why do so many contestants on American Idol forget the lyrics to their songs? I know they're nervous. I know a lot of them are young. But come on, they practice for hours and hours, and they only need to remember a portion of a song. Some of them have great voices and then they're disqualified for forgetting their words. It's sad, really.

• Eva drew a picture and named it Pridiculous Shadow. And now we can't stop saying that.

• I am really good at procrastination. Really good. I have been meaning to take Max to an orthodontist for almost two years... (I'm not proud of it.)
  

• Lately, whenever I am sitting up very straight, I can feel the vertebrae in my spine aligning, almost like they are clicking into place. I can't say that I've ever been aware of my vertebrae before. It's disconcerting.

• Eva informed us recently that "you can't have a family without a pet!" Although I knew her Aunt Jessie would be proud, I just cannot concur.

• Why do fevers, earaches, vomiting, etc. so often have a sudden onset in the middle of the night?

• I really think I might be a hermit, if such a thing is possible in a warm cozy house instead of a remote, chilly cave. Last Sunday at church, a neighbor approached me about doing family search indexing. I've never really had a desire to do family history work, but I'm game for just about anything, if it doesn't require me to leave the house. Do you think I have a problem?