In Honor of James

It's James' 4th birthday tomorrow!  And in honor of the momentous occasion I found a few gems in the archives.

Most notably I found his 2nd birthday video, which I hope you'll be able to watch.  I'm able to watch it on my computer, but I was told by some that YouTube blocked it because of music I used being copyrighted.  Whoops.  I try to use music from movies the kids have watched a lot each year for their birthday videos, and James was really into Fantastic Mr. Fox from 1-2 years.  My children have always been older than their years in their movie preferences.

Looking back at pictures it is hard to believe this baby is the James I have now.

Sweetest thing.

 

Franco Fridays: Bouillon Chartier

On Thursday our team met with members of Emmanuel International Church to have lunch at a traditional French restaurant, Bouillon Chartier.  The restaurant is over 100 years old and someone in our group compared it to a Parisian City Cafe, crowded and popular, filled with regulars on their lunch break as well as tourists.

Tucked away at the end of an alley, it's not a place you would find on accident.

It's definitely more upscale than City Cafe, but I did say it was a Parisian version, so more upscale is implied.

Ordering off of French menus always reminded KJ and I of Barney Fife.  Not wanting to appear like he couldn't read French he would just point and say, "I'll have that."  Thankfully we had several translators to help us.

I ordered the Choucroute Alsacienne, which Google just translated to me as Alsatian Sauerkraut.  It reminded me of how we eat Corn Beef and Cabbage.

The waiter jotted down our orders on the paper tablecloth.  I don't know why I ordered sparkling water when I knew the only sparkling water I really enjoy is flavored.  Maybe I thought it would be different in Paris?

Does it look like I have enough meat?  KJ ordered the duck, I think, served with potatoes.

I think we were all taking pictures of our food at this point.  We were Americans in Paris after all.  We all really enjoyed getting to spend this time with the Paulhiac family and other teenagers in Parker's youth group.

I think there was a musical exchange going on here.  Yann showed us what a real Frenchman eats as an appetizer.

KJ tried them, but I just couldn't.  I'm not sure I could handle the texture, though I believed him when he said the flavor was really good.  We had to rush off from lunch to meet a few people we met at the Polyglot on Tuesday night.  They were accompanying us to Versailles that day.  I really think the connections we made were fruitful.

Life with Ella

One of Ella's front teeth has been loose for ages.  On Monday it finally got to the point where she could twirl it around from side to side.  It was hanging by a...I don't know what, and it was bound to fall out any moment.  She had a great fear of swallowing it.

I could pull it up pretty high.  Monday night she had pizza for supper, and afterwards we heard a startled cry from the living room.  "Did I swallow my tooth?!?!"  "Is it missing?" KJ asked.  Thankfully, the missing tooth was found on her plate.  She thought she just had a particularly hard piece of crust.  I took the cutest picture of her with missing tooth, but she's refusing to let me post it.  Eventually her toothless smile will have to be seen, though, right?

Cutie.

In other Ella news, we had our first piano lesson in a long while.  For some reason lessons were a hard thing to work into our school rotation, but we had a chance during James' nap yesterday and jumped on it.  I even started a lesson book for her where I wrote down what she should practice each day, so hopefully we will keep it up.

 Oops.  I spy an upside-down missing tooth.

Changing Seasons

I'm going through pictures of James for his birthday video (He's 4 one week from today!) and came across some pictures that make me say, "Yes, bring it on Fall."

"A Long-Expected Party"

Friday night some of our students threw a Hobbit party in honor of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday.  Most of the time the kids and I don't make it out to gatherings like this, but they started early (Hobbits are always ready to eat.), and the kids were really excited to go.

When KJ was in seminary we heard Dr. Mohler say once that congregations take on the personalities and quirks of their pastors to a certain extent.  That may have happened a little bit here.

We threw together "hobbit" costumes on short notice.  We have no shortage of Tolkien accessories around here.  The kids each sported a ring of power, and we brought the banner from James' room for the festivities.

 Katie looked so pretty.

 

Brandon did a great job pulling his costume together.

Even Daisy got in on the festivities, though she was a reluctant participant.

Dance like a hobbit.

 

The girls made hairy hobbit-feet cookies.

 

We told the kids they could watch the "happy" part of the movie, i.e. the beginning, and Katie tried to hold the blanket up over their eyes during the "scary" parts.  Ella was happy to hide behind the blanket, but James just stood up and stood on his tip-toes to see.  We left pretty early on in the movie for little hobbits to go to bed, so we avoided all of the battle scenes.

 

They were pretty taken with the Shire and over the weekend watched all of the non-scary parts of The Fellowship of the Ring with KJ per their request.

 

We're really thankful for all these guys and gals.

 

Franco Fridays: The Louvre, Tuileries, and the Champs-Elysees

Our walk through The Louvre recommences with Napoleon III's very grand apartments.  Very grand.

I love wide, stone staircases.  They're just gorgeous.

We really enjoyed the Egyptian exhibit.

How is it possible to have hieroglyphs so small?

The main feeling I had walking through The Louvre was one of awe at how great God is in that He gives men and women the talents and creativity, not to mention the immense patience and discipline, to do such things as these.  It truly is amazing.

I think everyone agreed the coolest thing we saw that day was this column from King Darius' palace.  Think book of Daniel.  This was amazing.

How incredible is that?

So cool.

It was a really beautiful Spring day in Paris.

Because you have to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower

from wherever you are in Paris...

 Tuileries Garden

And that?  That's just a little souvenir Napoleon brought back from Egypt.  That man may have been a little crazy.  Or maybe a megalomaniac is the correct word.

Our team had been out really late each night since we arrived, so Wednesday we called an early night to rest a bit.  We walked down the Champs-Elysees and went back to the church for the night, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by some of the ladies in the church.

Vive la France!

There were actually some activities I didn't take pictures of on Wednesday (gasp!), so I raided KJ's iPhone photos to bring you a glimpse of a few other things.  Wednesday morning the ladies of the church made us a delicious breakfast, and we passed out French gospels in the neighborhoods around the church.

And that's a wrap for Wednesday.