Ok, every year when I don't get good pics on Halloween...

I say "We'll just take pictures tomorrow!", and then never do.

This year, we did. Woohoo!  (Door decor by my fabulous four year old arteest.)

TRICK OR TREAT!

Holy Schmoly -  there's a weally weally scawy CWOCODILE in the living room!

Hmmm.  Seems friendly.

Suddenly, instead of being scared of getting chomped..

I'm feeling the urge to chomp him. Delish.

Love this Cinderella shot with the one shoe.

RWOAR!  (Why is she roaring?)

RWOOOAR! (Why is he roaring? Crocodiles don't roar.  They snap. Sheesh.)

Aw.

These kids.  They are a real pain in my butt, but they sure are sweet.

Preparing for a rousing game of cops and pirates.

What? You wanna see my badge?

Here it is right here.  Now STICK 'EM UP!

Come here, Pirate! You're under arrest!

You have the right to remain silent....

Of course.

This looks COMPLETELY appropriate for a trip to the park.

In NOVEMBER.

When Dad's away, the family will play...

... at making a GIANT mess!

Oooh.  Glitter, glue sticks, markers..

what else could we want?

Another masterpiece! Quick! Find a spot on the fridge!

Two hours after being put to bed, Jonas wandered out like this and asked me to tie his shoes.  Good. Thing. He's. So. Cute.

V unleashes her inner supermodel.

Oh, yeah!  Just like that honey.  Now, how about a smile?

Perfect!  Perfect!  Another fabulous shoot!

After the shoot, our little model joins her brother for some bubble blowing.

See, Jonas?  Like this!

He's a fast learner.

Can someone explain to me why kids love bubble soooooooo much?

Is there anything else that makes them this happy?

Sidewalk chalk is pretty good.

But nothing beats bubbles. (Well, maybe a giant cardboard box.)

Violet doing yoga, thanks to the Wii Fit. (I'll be uploading tons of videos to YouTube... when I find a free 15 minutes... so maybe sometime in March.)

Hmmm.  This looks too clean to be Naples.

The Eiffel Tower!  We're in Paris!

The kids have a great appreciation for outdoor art.

Especially outdoor art that they're permitted to climb on.

And do ridiculously dangerous stunts on.

I love art!

I love doing anything my sister did in front of me!

Madam stands in front of the largest Sephora I've ever seen.  Look at that thing!  It just keeps going.

My family at the Christmas market. Violet is eating a giant strawberry candy that cost me 3 euro.

She seemed to like it, but Joe has sworn that I am not permitted to buy anything without his approval ever again (I thought it was 3 euro/100g, not 3 euro a PIECE.  Completely reasonable assumption!)

With backdrops like these, you'd think it would be easier to get a good picture.

Eh.  Two out of three ain't bad. (Love that sad "I will NOT smile" protest face she's making.)

Paris really is a fun city for kids.

I present to you - The Big Slide.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I have no explanation for the face Jonas is making here.

This one's a little better.  Love this family.

See, you blow into this thing here...

and on this screen you get to watch dandelions blowing all over the place. It was really cool.

These were all taken at a children's museum.

Arguably, the best place we went to in Paris.

Well, the best place as far as the kids were concerned.

I love this one- you can see me furiously working on a mitten in the background.  It was cold, and we were unprepared.

One, two, three.... deres a LOT of Jonases in dere!

Cite des Enfants.  If you are in Paris with small children, it is definitely worth a morning to head out there.  Tons of fun.

Back at the Louvre.  And everyone tilt their head to the right!

Now look straight at the camera!  (Joe points out that we have a perfectly good tripod and timer, and yet never use them to take family shots.  I'm glad he points this out NOW, now that we're leaving Europe and are done with these fabulous vacations.  Eh - maybe once we're stateside we can use the timer to get a pic of us all outside the White House. )

Smartasses.

Modern art can leave you feeling a bit wonky.

Or crazy-happy, depending on the piece.

There's that tower in the background again - every day we woke up saying "Today we go to the Eiffel Tower", and every day we just took pictures from a distance.

Ok, you can't really tell because Joe took still shots instead of a video, but what you are looking at here is me putting on my coat/hat/scarf (because it was like 39 degrees outside) and Violet taking OFF her coat (because she's a pain in the butt) and we're having a little *discussion* that basically boiled down to me saying "Fine!  If you want to take it off - take it all off!  Here!  I'll hold your sweatshirt for you!" and she DID and then she sobbed all the way home but would NOT ADMIT that she was cold and all the Parisians stared at her then glared at me like "CAN'T YOU SEE YOUR CHILD IS COLD?" and I wanted to beat her about the head with a baguette.  Being in Paris with small children was kind of like being in a lovely warm bubble bath... with a toaster.

Inside: it's the amazing toddler holder!  (Worked great on Joe's back, but the boy prefers to snuggle Mommy's front.  It's cause I'm so soft and comfy.  Also - better for kissing. )

Outside: It's a great stroller blanket. The kid would not wear mittens because he wanted to be able to feel his "soft, soft bear", so we'd put his bare hands and bear under this thing and he wouldn't get frostbite. Who knew a mei tai could have so many uses?

We dragged the kids through the Musee de Orsay.

Jonas empathized with a sad Van Gogh.

After that it was back out into the cold to head for the Louvre.  This was the day it actually started snowing on us as we crossed the Seine. (V and I are really easy to spot in our coats - why does everyone pick black?  Bright colors are obviously the way to go!)

What is with this rock star pose?

Here it is again!  Is she about to do her guitar solo?  What's with the hips?

Ahhh. Ancient Egyptian artifacts.

What else would keep these two happy and interested, besides the promise of mummies?

Well, this guy, for one.  V could not stop laughing at him. Maybe she'll be an archeologist.

Here they come!

There they go!

And they're back!  Whew, what an exciting boat ride!

Love this one - would be better if we could see Violet's "I'M ON A ROLLER COASTER!" face, too, but I'll take it.

He seems more subdued here, but he asked to go on this ride four times, so he must have liked it. (After dragging them through museums the day before, we spent the day at a small amusement park.  Rides, parks, junk food, petting zoo - kid heaven.)

What do you guys have over there?

Oh, just the French version of a hot dog. Why?

Well, you seem to be attracting a lot of birds.

Are you eating?  Or are you feeding? (And where is your shoe young man?)

What? We're eating!  See!  We don't know WHY these birds are here!

At last!  We made it!

You'd think with a head as big as mine, some of it would've made it in this picture.

Ok, now I'm in the picture, but my colossal head is blocking 80% of the tower.  Impressive.

V does a little people watching with her spyglass.

Jonas eats a rosemary breadstick and looks super cute.

After a bit of showing off for the camera...

we make our way towards the tower.

After all that not-going, we pick the one beautiful blue-sky day for our climb.  Nice, huh?

Attempt number one - ehh.... not so good.  Try again.

Attempt number TWO!  Awesome picture!  It does not get any better than this!  (So of course we keep going and take 39847398 more...)

Joe convinced me that we should wipe noses/clean faces then take some more.  We have been surprised before by a dirty face when we got home and looked at the pic on the computer, so I agreed.  Here is the Twink, wiped and freshly lip-glossed, while her brother gets cleaned up.

Ok, Attempt number one... part two.  It's ok, but you're kind of smothering your brother here.. can we lower that arm?

Attempt number two, number two.  Hmmm.  The faces are pretty cute, but you're kind of blocking the entire tower with your big head, J-dog.  And the Twink isn't hardly in this one. Let's try again.

Number three - I don't even have words for this.  What the heck?

Number four!  Another winner!  (Though I still prefer the second one I took, and even full screen can't see any boogers or dirt.  Ah, well - it wasn't like I was in any great hurry to climb the damn tower.)

Yes, I said CLIMB the tower.  The line for the elevator was really long, so Joe had this genius idea to take the stairs.  People, we did not take the stairs in 2000 when we were there without children.  The man is off his rocker.

The boys on the way back down.  No, there are no pictures of Violet or me - we were not in a picture mood after 400 steps in the freezing cold.  I'm married to a lunatic.

We have nice parks here on base.

But they just don't have *quite* this caliber of background scenery.

I'm crazy about these pictures.

Mom.  You were just cursing that tower like 30 minutes ago, remember?

Yeah, Mom.  I thought if you "never saw it again it would be too soon!"

Madam shows off her lunch - another Parisian hot dog.  Someday I'll do a blog post where I show all the weird hot dogs we've bought over here.  In Naples, you get it wrapped in pizza dough.  On the East coast of Italy, we got one that was sliced up, smothered in red sauce, and served on a crusty panini-style bread.  In France, they give you two dogs laying end to end, with melted swiss cheese, on a baguette.  It's interesting.

Boobah with the Arc de Triomphe.

Same pic, different kid.  If it works, don't fix it.

What did I just say?  This is Joe, trying to get a photo of him and the Boo in front of the Arc.  Too bad their giant heads completely block it.

And that's about it for our fabulous week in Paris.

A little shopping on the world's most expensive street, a little more chocolate consumption, and it was time to go home.  Au Revoir!