Journées du Patrimoine (Heritage Days)

This past weekend here in France was Patrimonie Day, Heritage day... day where we celebrate, uhhhh.... Our French Heritage (?)... I guess. Well, Elijah can fully celebrate being a little "frenchy" at least!
It's a special weekend when things not normally open to the public Palais de l'Elysèe (my apostrophe is wrong on that, but I don't know how to make it go the other way!), which is the equivalent to the White House. Other things like museums are also open... but when you have a 5 year old, 2 year old, and a 4 month old... you go to... NESTLE Factory!!!! I know my 3 little ones would not wait in a 3+ hour line to get to see the Presidental Palace. Maybe when they are older...? And, from what I gather, this weekend is the ONLY days of the year the factory is open! So... we went to enjoy and see behind closed doors...
I'll be honest, I was expecting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was disappointed that it was NOT that. I mean, who wouldn't be, right?!? Basically it's an OLD factory, no longer in use, but they have LOTS of free-be's inside. Ice cream, coffees, chocolate, and their other products as well. Who knew Nestle made other things besides chocolates! Here's some of the fun...

This is us walking up... notice the line down the left side of the pic! 

(Thankfully, it went fast!)

 Clever idea to have Nestle products being distributed outside while we waited. 

Coffee or hot chocolate, in a book bag!!! Amazing!

  Little Missy with her hot coco! 

Noah with his... cheers! He LOVES chocolate!

Cool old building that the dam runs under...

"I scream, you scream, we all scream..." (Really loudly) when it's 

FREE ICE CREAM!!!!

Ok, so Noah loves ice cream too! 

We also love our Knacki Hot dogs

(France's "Ball Park" hot dog!)

Part of the old chocolate factory!

And at the end, we all left with a goodie bag of chocolates... 

1,2,3... "Chocolate!" (Again, Noah= SUPER excited!)

Fun day, thankful to celebrate France! 

Greece, Summer 2013

This fun family...

Got to go to Greece for a work conference. 

In our down time, we had lots of fun doing this:

    

And after the swimming, we looked like this:

and this...

Noah liked this much better (than the pool)...

 And this was Elijah and Noah's first time in the Mediterranean Sea...

And we also got to do this

(we love friends)...

And it was sad when we had to go our separate ways and do this...

 (We have been friends with this family since before Stephen and I were married and before any of us had children... We've been to 7 countries together and now we have 6 kids between us...) 

 We also got to have fun doing this... 

(With other special friends who I have known since college and also now have 6 kids between us!) 

(trying to get 4 kids to jump at one time: impossible!)

We did this and could see jelly fish out the ferry window...

Girls just wanna have fun... doing this!

Greek Yogurt... oh la la!

I got to do lots of this, and I loved it...

Then we went into Athens and got to see some of this...

(market street)

And this... 

(The Acropolis from Mars Hill)

And have fun with friends...

Amazed at all God has blessed us with... 

friends who are like family, amazing sights and experiences, and fun story to top off the 2013 summer! I am THANKFUL! 

Same little girl, same little games!

My little girlie... while we lived in Sudan...

My big girlie, living in France...

Summer Highlights!

Ok, so I'm needing some grace. Life with 3 little ones is a bit full and a lot on my plate. I LOVE IT... I love most every second, (notice I said MOST) every second. Elijah is an amazing baby... great eater (now), great sleeper, mostly pretty chill baby... THANK YOU JESUS!!! But, will summer in full swing, it's been hard to sit down at a computer to write or post pics even. So, here are some highlights of our summer:

In July, Stephen's mom (Grandma) came to visit for two weeks...

Cookouts!

Eiffel Tower visit

Sadie's Second Birthday Party (not on her birthday)

Brother/Sister love

We even got her to Disneyland Paris!

These are the "beaches of Paris"... along the Seine River. Sand and all! 

 Some sweet friends who are like big sisters to Sadie Mac took her to see Monsters University... this is the "after the movie shot"

 Elijah took his first dip in the pool around 2 months!

 Then...

NanNan (Amanda's mom) came to visit!!! 

We took her to a new favorite castle that's only 30 min. from our house.

Took her on a Seine River Boat Cruise...

Took her to the Eiffel Tower

(because when people come to visit you, that's just what you do. 

And I will say, it still amazes me every time I go!)

 

 Batman and Wonder Woman came for a visit!

and, they made plans

Back to Disney... 

Sadie's birthday party with friends!

Eli with cuddles from NanNan at 3 months

Sadie's "real" birthday... she had 4 parties this year.

Will.Never.Do.That.Again.

Noah learned to shave

and LOTS and LOTS of this on hot summer days. 

(We had a good amount this year, for Paris!) I loved it!

Happy Summer 2013...

I'll do my best to post more... when I have time. But seriously, with 3 little ones, 

it's harder than I thought to post!