Constant Beginnings

We flew to Paris directly from London on EasyJet. I arranged private vans to bring us to our apartment we rented just blocks away from the Arc de Triumphe. It was my first experience with using homeaway.com to rent an apartment vs the typical hotel. It was a great find for a group so large, location and helped keep the cost down. Typically, European hotels will only sleep 3-4 in a room and finding 5+ rooms in a single hotel is difficult not to mention considering the location. The apartment was perfect. I neglected to take photos though. We hopped on the hop on hop off bus tour with a 2 day pass. This allowed us to use this mode of transportation to navigate the city each day. We spent the first day completing the loop and checking things out from atop the bus, while the second day was a mix of sight seeing and riding. We went in the Louvre, saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe, walked and rode down the Champs de Elysees, enjoyed Macaroons from the fam ou s patisserie, Laduree, put...

The weekend before school dismissed, we hit the playground for a picnic and playtime. The kids had a blast. Claire is our climber. She loves to go to the Rock Wall and climb. Now that Chris was trained with the ropes and harness, she can do it as much as she wants. The girl is definitely our child. I have no fear of heights and clearly, neither does she. 

Occasionally, I try to do fun things for the girls' classmates and friends. These are the end of the year gifts for their friends. I think they turned out really cute and they were super easy!

1. I am trying to decide between enrolling Claire in soccer, swimming or gymnastics next fall. Any thoughts? I'd sign her up for soccer on base, which would mean driving 20 minutes or so every game. Not sure if they have practices (I'd really hope not considering it is a bunch of three year olds!), so I am assuming it would be once per week. I'd have to find a sitter for Mya (I was thinking I'd pay one of my high school students to come along for the hour or two--a few of them are DYING to play with my kids.) Swimming would require me to put Mya in the gym daycare and even moreso, get in the pool! I kind of hate that idea, but I would certainly put my insecurities aside for the sake of my daughter, and gymnastics, well, that wouldn't involve much. I could watch Mya while Claire does her thing. Claire has done open gymnastics before, so she is more familiar with the expectations. What to do, what to do... 2. I am missing Chris. I just feel like time is standing sti...