Sing once again with me our strange duet...

If you are a fan of Broadway musicals, you probably figured out our starting location today, based on the title of this post.  That's right, we began our day at the Opera Garnier, which is the setting for Phantom of the Opera. I first read that novel in high school when I was studying abroad in Japan. I fell in love with the story and it remains one of my favorites today.  Dan took me to see the musical when I was in college and I have passed down my love for this story and musical to my children.  Hadley can sing most of the score and wanted to be Christine Daae for Halloween last year.  Needless to say, the Opera Garnier was a big hit with our family.  I have pictures of us on the Grand Staircase and in front of Box 5, which was the box that the Phantom requested remain open during performances.  I am also posting a picture of "the chandelier" that actually fell during a performance in the 1800s, prompting Gaston Leroux to write his novel.  It all still gives me chills just thinking about it.

To top it all off, they had a temporary exhibit focusing on ballets performed at the Opera. The girls had a chance to see real costumes used in Swan Lake and Giselle among other ballets.  The adore studying ballet, so this made it extra special.











The Opera is close to Harry's Bar, which is an establishment that Dan wanted to see because it was frequented by many famous American authors.  Unfortunately it was closed until 6PM, but I took his picture with the kids underneath the sign.  He and I will sit and have a drink there...someday.

We made our way to Le Grande Epicerie, which is a famous gourmet take-away food market. We picked up several items for lunch and took them to a park across the street for a picnic.  The kids were able to have some playground time after lunch, so we all were satisfied.

After a little shopping, we headed to Notre Dame.  There was quite a wait to get in to see the inside of the cathedral and the wait to walk up over 400 stairs to the roof, gargoyles and bell was over an hour.  Since we experienced such a wait yesterday and couldn't figure out how to get Jack up 400 plus stairs, we opted for just waiting to get in the actual cathedral.  The line moved more quickly than we expected and it was absolutely beautiful inside. We also toured the Treasury at Notre Dame, which houses lots of relics, such as bone fragments from martyrs.  They have the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified, but they only display it on Fridays during Lent.  I can't imagine the wait on those days.

We didn't make it to Sainte-Chappelle or back to the Louvre to see the Venus de Milo, along with a few other places.  We will add them to our to-see list the next time we come to Paris.  We board a train to Dijon in the morning, where we will spend the next 5 nights.  Goodbye Paris!   It has been more fun than I could have imagined.

Waiting, waiting and more waiting

We left our apartment earlier than usual today to try to get to Versailles at a decent time.  We expected it to take around 45 minutes to an hour.  The travel time was fairly accurate, although we did have a pickpocket scare in one of the Metro stations.  We had to change two different train lines in order the board the proper train to get us out to Versailles.  For our European trip, I purchased a great tote bag from LL Bean that can also double as a backpack.  It is very durable, as it is made out of ripstop nylon and has great interlocking zippers.  I sound like a Bean ad.  Well, during our first train change, I was carrying Jack down the stairs, so I was wearing the bag as a backpack.  We rounded a corner and an old guy was sitting in the landing of the stairwell playing an accordion very loudly. This is unusual, as there aren't many buskers in the Metro stations, but we didn't pay him much attention.  As I continued down the stairs, I felt a vibration on my back.  I looked behind me and a pickpocket had managed to unzip both of the zippers on my bag and was reaching his hands inside.  He must have been working in league with the accordion player, so that I wouldn't hear the zippers opening.  Luckily, they are very strong zippers, so I could feel it.  I yelled at the guy, yelled for Dan and yelled for one of our friends that was traveling with us.  The guy immediately put his hand in his pocket. He was trapped on the subway platform with us, so our friend cornered him while Dan and I made sure he hadn't taken anything.  They guy didn't even flinch or acknowledge that we were talking to him.  I had stuffed my wallet and our passports deep into the bag, so he wasn't able to take anything.  Jack teared up a little because he was worried that the guy took his animal crackers.  It was a close call.  We had several people in Paris warn us about pickpockets and had witnessed three girls trying to take a guy's wallet out of his front pocket on the subway, but this was our first real experience with it (and hopefully our last). We know the warning signs now and I learned to carry my bag a different way.

After all of that excitement, we boarded our train to Versailles.  Our guidebooks had told us to expect a 2 to 3 hour wait to get in, but so far the guidebooks had greatly exaggerated the wait time.  Also, we thought we were going to be able to skip the queue, because we were using the Paris Museum Pass (which I highly recommend).  Everywhere else, we had been able to skip lines, but not at Versailles.  It ended up taking us 2.5 hours of waiting in line to get to the entrance.  We decided to feed the kids a picnic while we were waiting to help kill some time.  Thus, the kids sat on the cobblestones in front of the golden gate of Versailles and ate sandwiches where Kings have crossed over the years. Pretty amazing, if you let that digest.  It is kind of like using the restroom at Yarborough's in Lexington, so that you know you have washed your hands in the same sink as Elvis Presley, a different type of king.  OK, maybe not the same, but you get my point.  Here is a picture of Jack with his baguette:

Versailles was beautiful, opulent, humongous, all you would expect of the Sun King and more.

I didn't take many pictures inside, because we were inundated by large tour groups the entire time.  It was hard enough keeping up with the kids in the large mass of people and still looking around a little.  I was most impressed with the Hall of Mirrors.  My picture doesn't do it justice, but it was absolutely beautiful.  This was where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

After exiting the palace, of which we only made it through a portion because it is so enormous, we thought we were going to stroll through the gardens and over to the Petit Trianon, Marie Antionette's retreat.  We changed our minds, when we discovered that it would cost around $50 additional just for all of us to enter the gardens, it would be at least a 25 minute walk each way (probably longer on the kids' pace and with no stroller allowed for Jack) and the wait for the little tram was at least 45 minutes each way.  After the earlier wait, we decided to scrap that plan and head back to Paris before the kids melted down.  Instead, we took them back to the playground at the Tuileries and let them play for an hour.  They were much happier and I think we made the right decision.  Maybe we can take the kids back to see the grounds surrounding Versailles when Jack gets older.  After the playground, we enjoyed one final dinner in Paris with our friends, as they are heading back to NC tomorrow.  We are sad to see them go!  We have one more full day in Paris, so it will be fun to see what that brings.  We are planning on Notre Dame and Sainte-Chappelle.  We shall see.  I have learned never to make firm plans with 4 kids involved.

Stepping through Montmarte

We decided today that we would tackle Montmartre.  I had really been wanting to visit this section of Paris, because it was described in the guidebooks as having a little feel of "old Paris".  It is the highest hilltop in Paris, and we could see the Sacre Coeur (a major church on the hill) from the top of the Eiffel Tower and the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  It looked like a fluffy white marshmallow in the distance and I decided we just had to see it up close and personal.  One of my four guidebooks (yes, I am a big dork) that I have been using is The Little Bookroom Guide to Paris with Children.  It was definitely worth the $10 today, as it gave us a fabulous step-by-step tour of Montmartre to follow.  Its #1 recommendation was:  do NOT take a stroller!  Boy, am I glad I followed that advice.  We traveled up and down and around so many steps today and over so many cobblestone streets, that we would have been carrying Jack and the stroller. It was a workout, but it was worth every step.  It was probably my favorite part of Paris so far, a must-see on my list.

We took the Metro to the Abbesses stop, which is a word I can not seem to pronounce correctly.  I still can't figure out why I have trouble with it, but I do.  After carrying Jack up what seemed like a thousand steps, we made it into the sunlight and saw the Le Mur des je t'aime, or I love you wall.  "I love you" is written on a huge wall in 250 languages.  I don't know what the origin is, but it might be that the artist was saying "I love you" to the flat ground after walking up so many steps.

We passed by the Moulin de la Galette, one of the only two remaining windmills in Montmartre.  Then we found a crazy sculpture in the place Marcel Ayme, based on one of the author's short stories in which a character develops the power to walk through walls. The kids thought it was cool, but it disturbed Jack a little that the man was stuck.

We stopped in a neighborhood park and playground to let the kids run around a bit.  The park contains a statue of Saint Denis, the patron Saint of Paris and France.  According to legend, when Saint Denis was beheaded in Montmartre, he picked up his head and carried it in his hands while he walked for six miles and preached sermons.  Now that is dedication to your calling!  It was a creepy story that the caught the kids' attention.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the statue. Notice that he is holding his head in front of his chest.

We found our way to the Place du Tetre, which is a village square full of cafes and artists painting scenes of Paris and painting portraits.  We contemplated having a portrait painted of all 4 kids, but quickly changed our minds when we discovered they would have to sit there for 2 hours.

We had lunch in a cafe on the square, where we caught Jack trying to cut off one ear of his toy Sully from Monsters University with a butter knife.  He had already cut off one ear of some other Monsters University character.  He is taking this Van Gogh thing a little too seriously.  I hope he doesn't start trying to chop off heads like poor Saint Denis...

After lunch, we finally reached the Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church high on the hill. The inside of the church had many elaborate scenes made out of tiny mosaics.  It was breathtakingly beautiful. Sorry, no pictures of the inside, but it was a rule.  I have already discussed my rule-following habit. Here is a picture to show the beauty of the outside:

I also couldn't resist posting this picture of Hadley. She is doing her "Sofia the First" pose on the steps below Sacre Coeur.

We found another park nearby, because the kids had been so patient in the church.  The park was quite lovely. The guidebook stated that the playground had climbing walls.  In actuality, they were ramps covered in astroturf like on a putt-putt course. It sounds hokey, but the kids had a blast.  They must have run up and slid down 50 times.  If I could figure out how to install one of these in our back yard, I would.

We ventured back down the hill and ended our visit to Montmartre on a double-decker carousel.  I was too busy trying to ensure that Jack didn't fall off of his horse to take a picture.  They don't have the carousel safety belts in France that we have in America.  I am sure it somehow relates to me being an overprotective parent.

After going back to the apartment for a quick nap for Jack and downtime for the older kids, we headed back out to track down Shakespeare and Company.  It is a vintage bookstore that Dan wanted to find because it was a hangout of Hemingway and because we are book hoarders in the Briggs house.  We ate a late dinner at a cafe two doors down from the bookstore.  I am happy to report that I did not order frites a single time today.  I am so proud of myself.  Also, no animal lost an ear at dinner.

Tomorrow, Versailles...

Museums with a small Harry Potter detour

After our busy day yesterday, we started our day a little later than usual with crepes and omelets for brunch, which were, of course, accompanied by.....wait for it....frites.  I have officially turned into a French fry; although, here it is just called a fry.  I promise that I am not trying to order them.  They just come with everything.  It is a good thing that we are walking miles and miles each day.  

After brunch, we headed to the Palais de la Decouverte, or Discovery Museum.  It was a really cool science museum that blew SciWorks out of the water.  They even have a "rat school" where they have trained the rats to do unusual  things.  The rat we saw was about the size of an opossum.  Yikes!  Of course, the kids thought it was so "cute".  We also experienced a French planetarium show.  The planetarium was the only part of the museum that was air conditioned, so we got settled in, the lights dimmed, a man with a lovely voice spoke French to us, and most of us took a little nap.  It was decadent.  

Then, we headed toward the Musee de l'Armee and the Invalides, which houses Napoleon's tomb.  The boys wanted to see the military museum and the girls wanted to see the Musee Rodin, which was right next door, so we split up.  The Musee Rodin was a beautiful sculpture garden displaying lots of Rodin's finest works.  I have always enjoyed Rodin's work, so this was really enjoyable for me. We did see "The Thinker", but I didn't take a picture of it.  Too cliche...  Instead, you get this picture of the girls, so you can see the beauty of the grounds.  Sorry that I chose a sculpture with a bum staring you in the face (a body part bum, not a street beggar):

Maybe you will find this picture of Hadley a little more appropriate.  She was imitating the pose of the statue "like Aunt Jodie usually does."

We met back up with the boys at Napoleon's tomb.  I don't have any pics of this.  Napoleon is not one of my favorite people, but please don't tell that to anyone here. 

We headed to the Centre Pompidou, which is a really funky building with all of the pipes, duct work, etc. on the outside.  We ate dinner in a cafe facing the square, and we dined on hamburgers and...altogether, now...frites.  Next was the really exciting part of the evening for us Harry Potter fans.  We tracked down the actual house of the real Nicholas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle.  If you don't know who this is, read the first Harry Potter book.  I refuse to explain it to you, because I think everyone should read those books.  The house was established in 1407 and is still standing.  It has very interesting carvings above and around the doorway. 

We attempted to head back to the Centre Pompidou to ride the glass escalators to the top of the building for the amazing view, but it was closed.  That was probably a good thing, because Jack and Hadley began to melt down from several busy days in a row. Tomorrow should be a more leisurely day. 

Feeling very French today

We had a jam-packed day today.  When I think back on what we did, I don't know how we fit it all in.  We began our day by "locking our love" for each other on a bridge near our apartment.  My friend discovered that there is a tradition in Paris in which you place a lock on a certain bridge and then throw the key into the Seine River below, thereby forever locking your love for this person.  My friend planned ahead and had locks engraved for Dan and me and for our family before we left for our trip.  Here are pictures of us locking our love and of our kids throwing our key to our "family love lock" into the river below:

It was really neat to walk by the thousands of locks on that bridge and know that two of them are ours.

Next, we visited the Musee d'Orsay, which is an incredible art museum and not nearly as overwhelming as the Louvre.  We spent most of our time on the top floor, which houses the Impressionists. The kids were able to see lots of Renoir, Monet and Degas works of art.  They loved the Degas paintings and sculptures of ballet dancers.  The museum is a refurbished train station, so it has a huge window that serves as a clock on the top floor.  The kids immediately got excited and said, "it's the Harry Potter clock from Hogwarts". I am sure any Harry Potter fan can sympathize.

You aren't supposed to take pictures of the art, and you know I am a rule follower, so you are only getting a picture of the clock.

The next part of our day made me feel like we were a Parisian family for just a little while.  We spent the afternoon in the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a very lovely garden that is popular with locals. We began with a picnic lunch.

Then, the kids played on the best playground I have ever seen for about an hour and a half.  Lyndon made friends with a girl from Brazil and Sidney befriended a girl from Switzerland.  Here are the kids climbing on a miniature Eiffel tower.

The girls went on pony rides through the park.  Hadley was deathly afraid of ponies up until last year, so this was a major step.

We capped off our Luxembourg Garden experience with traditional wooden sailboat racing in a small pond.  Our kids were the captains of the Australian sailboat. The gist of the activity is that you launch your rented sailboat with a long wooden stick.  Then you chase your sailboat around the pond for 30 minutes and prod it with the stick to make it sail back and forth across the pond.  Each sailboat has a different theme, most of which relate to countries or sea creatures.

After the park, we headed to the Eiffel tower.  We only had to wait in line for about 45 minutes,which is really not bad!  The kids had been looking forward to this so much and it exceeded our expectations.

We made it to the top of the tower, and the views were phenomenal.  I need to explain this next picture.  When Dan and I first decided about this trip, we immediately began making references to the movie, National Lampoon's European Vacation.  As a joke, I ordered berets for all of us and resisted the temptation to have the name "Rusty" monogrammed on all of them.  (National Lampoon fans will get a chuckle out of that.)  I insisted that we all take a picture at the top of the Eiffel tower in our berets and they were all good sports about it.

This may just have to be our Christmas card  picture, if I ever get around to sending Christmas cards this year.  Last year's cards are still sitting in a drawer in my house.  I may send out 2012 and 2013 together...

The Mona Lisa and more

We started our day at the Louvre, which is very massive and overwhelming.  It took quite a bit of hiking (and lots of stroller collapsing and re-opening) to get back to the Mona Lisa, but it was worth the hike. The kids loved it, and we were all amazed at how small the painting actually is.  Here is a picture of the girls with the Mona Lisa in the background.  Look for the tiny speck on the wall with the hundreds of tourists surrounding it.

We also saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a real-dead mummy (as opposed to a real-live mummy), a statue of Ramses and several statues of a sphinx.

On our way to a park near the Champs-Elysees, we stopped into a really neat (and not overwhelming) art museum called Musee de l'Orangerie.  It has two huge displays of Monet waterlilies and willows.  It was excellent and I highly recommend it.  The kids could get really close to the paintings and see the brushstroke detail before stepping back to get the full effect. It was a great lesson in perspective.

After a little playtime in a park, we hiked up the Champs-Elysees to see all of the high-end stores and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe.

We climbed up the 284 steps to the top (luckily, we discovered that Dan could take Jack and Hadley in an elevator) and had a breathtaking view of Paris.  (It was also breathtaking to me, because I was extremely out of breath from the climb.)  Notice the Eiffel Tower in the background:

It was another memorable day.  The kids were troopers with all of our walking.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Goodbye Amsterdam, Hello Paris!

We headed to the train station in Amsterdam this morning to catch a high-speed train to Paris.  I learned one major traveling lesson this morning:  take a cab from your apartment in Amsterdam to the train station when you have all of your luggage and six people, NOT THE TRAM!  While the tram is a great way (and inexpensive way) to get around town, it is not great when you have six people's worth of stuff.  It may have taken several weeks off of my life, but we made it.  The kids enjoyed the 3 hour train ride to Paris. They got to use headphones and look cool...

After we arrived in Paris, some guys outside of the train station tried to scam us into double the price of a taxi to our apartment. Luckily, Dan saw through it and we boarded a real taxi and made our way towards the Louvre. (Our apartment is just around the corner from the Louvre.)  We settled in and then headed out for a little sightseeing.  First, we visited the glass pyramid of the Louvre.  We had to convince the kids not to get in the fountain.

Then we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries where the kids begged to go on the ginormous Ferris wheel.  The steep price was a little hard to swallow (gulp), but the view was worth it.  Notice the Eiffel tower over Dan's shoulder.

We had a little spontaneous play time in a playground in the park. Jack rode on a small merry go round with a kid that only spoke French.  Pretty cool.

After dinner on the terrace of a cafe across from the park (I ate frites again,but this time with steak au poivre...I am probably going to turn into a giant French fry.), we wandered back to the Louvre and waited to watch the Eiffel tower light up in the distance.  It sparkles every hour, on the hour, and looks like a giant Christmas tree.  I still can't believe that we're here.  The kids may only remember bits and pieces in the distant future, but I will treasure it always.  Bon nuit!

Shame on you, Pulp Fiction!

Dan and I first watched the movie Pulp Fiction when we were in college. In the movie, a character returns from a trip to Amsterdam and explains to his friend that Amsterdam is on the metric system, so a Quarter Pounder with Cheese at McDonald's is called a Royale with Cheese.  He also explains that they dip their fries in mayonnaise instead of ketchup.  Dan and I have quoted that line for years, assuming that it is true. I mean, why wouldn't you trust pop culture on the facts of McDonald's cuisine overseas?  We passed a McDonald's today and popped in to see "Royale with Cheese" on the menu.  (No, we didn't let our kids eat there.  We are operating on a no-fast-food-chains-from-America rule while we are in Europe.)  Well, we were EXTREMELY disappointed to discover that we were misled by Pulp Fiction for all these years.  Here is a picture as evidence.  The quarter pounder menu is in the background.

Luckily, that is really the only disappointment for the day.  We did start off with a slight hiccup, when Jack and Hadley both got sick at their stomachs this AM due to jetlag and not eating enough. They managed to only get sick on ME multiple times (which required multiple showers on my part and three loads of laundry in a Dutch language washing machine-- very funny to watch me try to operate, by the way), but they bounced back by lunchtime and had a great afternoon and evening.

We did confirm that the fries dipped in mayonnaise were accurate from the movie, as evidenced by our afternoon snack of frites from Chipsy King.  Don't judge...I didn't say we wouldn't eat at local fast food chains.

 After lunch, we toured the Van Gogh museum.  It was fabulous!  The kids were able to follow a self-guided audio tour just for children and they learned a lot.  It is interesting that sometimes genius goes hand-in-hand with madness.  Jack said his favorite painting was "the guy cut his ear off".  We think he means one of Van Gogh's self-portraits, because there are no paintings of the severed ear.

We spent the evening on a canalboat cruise.  We had perfect weather and it was great to sit down for a while and watch the scenery go by.

We capped off the night with dinner at one of my top five favorite restaurants, Wagamama.  It is an authentic Japanese restaurant that Dan and I discovered in London the year after we got married.  We happened on one today and the three girls liked it as much as we do.  Hadley cleaned her plate and begged to eat there again.  Jack ate Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels.  That was one battle I wasn't going to fight tonight.  Tomorrow, we are headed to Paris!  Yay!

The Anne Frank House

Getting to visit the Anne Frank House was a very moving experience for me.  I get choked up just reminiscing about it. I discovered Anne Frank in late elementary school.  A librarian recommended her diary to me and I was immediately hooked. This began a life-long interest for me in the Holocaust and World War II.  Looking back on it, I think that reading her story is one of the main things that began my passion for helping people and trying to "fix" situations of injustice.  I have always dreamed of visiting the "Secret Annexe", her hiding place during the War.  I never imagined I would be able to, and I don't think I ever mentioned it to Dan.  As luck would have it, it was better for us to fly in and out of Amsterdam, which helped make this dream a reality.  By taking me to this place, he gave me the best anniversary gift I could ever ask for.  Both Sidney and Lyndon have read a biography about Anne Frank, so they knew all about her.  Sidney is currently reading her diary.  As we waited in line, Lyndon remarked that we could hear the bells of the Westerkerk, which she mentioned frequently in her diary.  That really hit home for me that my kids understood that she was a real person with real experiences just like us.  After about a 30 minute wait, we made it in.

We couldn't take photos inside, which I am thankful for, because I don't think we would have really experienced it if we were worried about taking pictures.  When we actually walked through the original bookcase that hid the entry to their apartment, I teared up a little.  The rooms they lived in were tiny and dark.  To actually be able to see what I had "lived" through reading the diary was incredible and very moving.  I can't say enough about it.  I just know that we are incredibly blessed every day and hope we can always make certain that political climate of oppression and death doesn't happen again.

Anne Frank was a gifted writer at such a young age, and I am glad her words live on.

Here is a picture of the three girls with a statue of Anne Frank outside of the Westerkerk.

Planes, trams and bikes, oh my!

We made it to Amsterdam!  The long plane ride was thankfully uneventful, thanks to on-demand TV and movies in each seat back.  The last time I flew internationally was in the dark ages, so I didn't account for our new "on-demand" lifestyle.  I packed entirely too much "entertainment" in their carry-ons, which wasn't necessary.  The kids attempted to sleep on the plane.  I think Jack was the only one to actually sleep, which required me to wrap my body around him like a pretzel.  Great for him...not so comfy for me.  After we landed and took trains and trams to our apartment, we all crashed for a nap.

The biggest adjustment so far has been the massive amounts of bike transportation.  EVERYONE rides bikes -- even women in dresses and heels on cell phones.  There are about six lanes to cross a street, including a non-descript bike lane.  You have to be careful to dodge long streams of bikes, cars and trams in the middle of each street.  It feels like a human game of Frogger.

After our nap, we wandered over to the Vondelpark in search of hedgehogs. There were no hedgehog sightings, but we did find some amazing gelato.

After ice cream, we visited the Anne Frank house (which deserves a post all its own), wandered around a bit and enjoyed dinner outside at Le Pub.  We finally experienced frites (french fries) in Amsterdam and they were delicious.

Can Paris Handle This?

Seriously.  Paris isn't going to know what hit it when the Briggs kids arrive, if this picture is any indication.

I took the kids to Target for a few items we need for our upcoming trip. I bought Jack some boxer briefs as a way to encourage potty training.  Somehow, they ended up on the kids' heads. I surrender.  I promise I won't let them embarrass the USA too much.  Less than three days until we fly out...

Yes, we are crazy...

The title of my blog, "Cochon Avec Des Ailes", translates as "Pigs with Wings".  Let me explain.  Dan and I are approaching our 15 year anniversary on August 8th. If you had asked me 15 years ago, "Is there any way possible that you predict fifteen years from now you will be taking your 4 kids to Europe in celebration of your anniversary?", my response would have been, "When pigs fly..." (I am originally from Arkansas, and we say things like that.)  Well, the pigs have sprouted wings and are about to take flight to France via Amsterdam.  It is a fitting title, as we are from one of the self-proclaimed BBQ capitols of the world.

Let me clear up a few questions you may have.

Yes, we are taking our four kids, Sidney, Lyndon, Hadley and Jack, ages 9,7,5 and 3. 

No, we are not taking any grandparents or babysitters.  We do have friends meeting us in Paris, however.  They have two kids of their own, so it won't minimize the chaos.

No, Jack is not potty-trained, yet, due to that being my least marketable skill as a parent.

Yes, we are crazy.  Hopefully, in a crazy-fun sort of way and not in a crazy-insane sort of way. 

If you would like to follow the chaos, please check out this blog regularly. It should be entertaining...to you. Hopefully, it will be entertaining to me. I may be rocking in a corner somewhere in Europe.  We have, at least, managed to convince the kids that we are flying in and out of Amsterdam, not "Hamsterdam," which is what they interpreted us as saying.  They were envisioning a land of giant hamsters.  I think they were a little disappointed when we finally cleared up that misconception. I cushioned the blow with the info that hedgehogs supposedly inhabit the park near our apartment there. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the guidebook is correct, as they are infatuated with hedgehogs. We shall see.  Stay tuned!