France or Bust

MY best friend is cooler than YOUR best friend. She convinced her husband to take care of our little ones while she and I assumed the roles of Thelma and Louise and took off for a day of shopping in France. Living 45 minutes from the French border definitely has its advantages. The rain could not damped our spirits as we set off early this morning for some serious French shopping. Here we are as we took off in Dennis's cool Volvo, leaving him with the minivan (hee hee). Since neither of us have an international driver's license, we thought it best that we try to blend in with French traffic, not calling too much attention to our American selves. Big White Durango screams I'm American: Pull me over for no reason and give me a ticket!!

Here we are crossing the French border: (they must have just taken down the Happy Belated Birthday Angela sign underneath)


We hit a store called Cora, which is like a French Super Walmart. Everything from clothes to shoes to toys to food. And ohh laa laa, THE FOOD!! Rows of bagettes, cheeses, and PASTERIES!!
Look at all the yummy food:



Of course I bought more for the kids than for me. But I can totally justify everything. Colton really needed a better winter jacket. 36 degrees this morning folks. That's cold for us post-Hawaiians:

I found a cool Roman galdiator helmet at an antique store that we stopped off at on the way home. I thought it would be the perfect gift for Jaxon. My hope: I would get a huge "Cool Mom! Thanks!" Reality: "Oh, yeah, that's cool.."

I set all the yummy food on the table for the kids to dig into when they got home from school: eclairs, fruit, bagettes, and of course, for all of you who have seen the Princess and the Frog, MAN CATCHING BIGNETTES!!


On a side note, Ella was so upset when I told her the night before that I was going shopping in France the next day. I think she assumed that I was taking off for an extended trip and wouldn't return for ages. Here she is when I told her of our shopping plans:

She asked me in the morning if I was still going. I told her, "I am not driving to France. Don't worry." So, I did a Korihor and acted like a Nephite lawyer. Techinically, I didn't drive to France; Christy did. I just came along for the ride. She was a little upset when she found out I went, but quickly changed her mind when she saw the jacket and princess stuff I found for her. I know, I know, not totally honest, but it was SHOPPING IN FRANCE for pete's sake!!

Heidelberg

On Saturday, we went to Heidelberg with the Turner's. It was a bit chilly but nothing could slow down our adventurous spirits and desire for fun, not even temperatures in the 40's. We started off the day by going to the zoo. Once again, animals were the second attraction, the playgrounds were the biggest hit. The kids could have just played at the playgrounds the whole time; we had to force them to see some of the animals. They loved feeding the goats, even Colton fed them this time. He had a run in with a goat about 4 years ago and is still tramatized by the experience. He suffers from Post Tramatic Goat Disorder.


If there was something to climb IN or climb ON, my kids are all over it.




My favorite part was seeing the lions. There were about four female lions with one male. Nice odds. They weren't very far away and they were wide awake and active. It was so cool to see them just staring at us, like we were their own personal Happy Meals just a little too far out of their reach.


There was a place to see how far you could jump, and compare the length of your jump to the length of an animal's jump. Ella and Colton can jump as far as a frog, Mason jumped as far as a flea.


Then we were off to the Heidelberg castle. We finally were going somewhere that peaked Jaxon's interest. He LOVES military history, castles, battle, strategy, and anything weapon related. He was born in the wrong century. He found some amazing replicas of weapons in a gift shop but was smart and decided to save all his money for his new computer, instead of a cool weapon that most likely I would have to confiscate within minutes of bringing into our house. Here we are in front of the castle:


It had started to drizzle a bit by now, but we didn't care. We were having fun!!! We found a huge pile of leaves for the kids to throw around and play in:




Then I tried to take a good picture of Mason to count for his official three year old photo, but I didn't get a perfect shot. Good ones, but not a perfect one:




The colors of all the leaves were gorgeous around the castle grounds so I had to take a picture of the kids in front of some cool leaves (even though Mason protested the picture taking):


There was, of course, play sword fighting on the castle grounds:

As we left, we found a great wall that the kids felt necessary to attempt to scale. Perhaps all the talk of knights storming castle walls and attacking the castle inspired them to try to recreate an ancient attempt at overtaking the castle:



And here's one last picture of Mason. Ain't he a cutie?

Happy Birthday

If you asked Mason, he would have told you that it was HIS birthday coming up, not mine. He has been saying that his birthday is in two weeks, for about three weeks now. He is also 5 years old, if you ask him. Don't know what happened to number 4, he just was done being 3 and figured 5 sounded good. On Wednesday we went over to Christy's for dinner because Christy ROCKS and her hubby was gonna help Colton and their son Cameron get started making their space ships for the Space Derby race in Cub Scouts. If not for Mr. Dennis, I was just planning on keeping Colton home from Scouts next Tuesday, taking him to a movie, and accidently forgetting that the Space Derby was going on.
"Oops! Really? The Space Derby was tonight? We were supposed to make a space ship out of wood? Sand it? Paint it? Assemble it? Shoot! I TOTALLY forgot!"
But thanks to Dennis, my kid won't be the only one missing that night. He will have a rocket in hand and be able to participate. I am right now in the process of bribing judges with chocolate chip cookies to secure Colton a spot in the top three winners of the night. Besides working on their rockets, we made individual pizzas for dinner. The kids LOVED rolling out their dough and topping them. Had it been my house, the kids would have been asking to top theirs with chocolate chips and marshmallows, but we were a little better at Christy's and actually put sauce, cheese and the occasional vegetable on ours.






Thursday was my birthday. My kids forgot and no one said anything about it til Sharshe called and asked Ella if she knew it was my birthday and had wished me a happy birthday. I got a few happy birthdays out of them, a fabulous picture/card from Colton, and the realization that birthdays aren't as much fun when you are older than when you are still single digits. I spent most of the day with Christy and we had fun. We had German class here in the morning, and spewed out German phrases while chowing down on Brown Sugar Pound Cake. Then we headed off to European Country Living to pick up Christy's new entertainment center. Very cool. I tried to convince her that it would make a GREAT birthday present, but I think she might have some explaining to do to Dennis if she didn't come home with it. Here is my favorite store:



After picking up the kids from the bus, we headed over to Landstuhl again for piano lessons. Remember that cute little Parisian shop right around the corner from ECL and piano, well, it was open, so I thought I better just pop my head in, since I walk by it all the time and don't want to be rude. The clothes were beautiful. The owner said they are all from Paris or Italy. Mason touched everything and deemed all clothing articles as "pretty". Ella loved the scarves. And purses. I tried one a few things, grabbed a purse and a scarf while the nice owner was feeding French chocolates to my kids, and ended up with some fun new winter clothes. Way overpriced, yes, but they're FRENCH! Everything in France is overpriced. Plus, it was my birthday, so price tags don't count today, right? Here are the kids in the store:


Ella admiring the scarves:

And me and my favorite girl outside our new favorite clothing store:

So, how does it feel to be 29 again? I think I've got this year down pat. Maybe next year I actually will let myself turn 30. Since I have the best husband, wonderful kids, am healthy and can kick anyone's hiney since I'm in the best shape of my life, I think I am happy with my age and don't mind getting older. Except for the wrinkles...

Retail Therapy

So, since I spent much of yesterday driving in a car, I probably should have stayed out of my car today. But, by 11:00am, I heard it calling.......




"Angela..........."






"I miss you..........."






"It's been so long.............."









"Where are you????????"








I could stand it no longer and listened to the promptings of the ECL spirit, grabbed Mason, and off we headed to Landstuhl and my favorite store: European Country Living. You see, you cannot break the bonds of true love. Although we may be separated at times, it will always hold a special place in my heart. No sense of tiredness, lack of funds, or whining children can keep me away too long from my favorite store in the whole wide world. (Sorry Target, now that you are so far away, I must succumb to the fact that the distance between us is growing farther and farther and my love has turned to the readily accessible and available form of true happiness in retail form found within the walls of ECL. )


So, since my birthday is in two days, I figured a trip to ECL was justified, even called for. I was on a special mission this time too: I already have a lot of big furniture, so I was looking for some fun little accessories to brighten up our home and get us in the autumn spirit. Well, mission accomplished! I found some great decorations and Mason found balloons, so we were both happy. Here are some pictures I took while I was shopping just to help inspire me to decorating greatness when I get back home and try to recreate the ECL atmosphere with the items I bought:





And here is Mason actually walking on his own back to the car ( I had been holding him for the past hour so this was a rarity):

And here is a cute little outfit at a French store right on the way to ECL that may need to come home with me next time I'm nearby. Like on Thursday, during piano lessons, since Mr. Mark is just across the street...hmm.....