France!

On June 15th, Jeff & I headed to France! We got into Paris at 9:00 am on the 16th. We needed to take a train to Nantes (pronounced Not). Luckily it was part of the airport, so we didn't have to go far! This was the train station:

The reason why we got to go to France, was because one of the companies Jeff's company buys equipment from is based in Nantes, France. We were supposed to meet the salesman that Jeff works with from Sercel, and his wife, but their plane was late, so we headed on the train without them & checked into our first hotel. This was the inside:

These are the buildings outside our hotel. I love how all of the buildings are really old.

Here is our hotel:

It was the courthouse up until recently, and then renovated to become this hotel.

Since we had awhile to wait for John & Debbie to arrive, we ventured out into Nantes. This was a beautiful cathedral by our hotel.

Then we found this big square with this beautiful fountain in the middle:

Something that we learned fast in France, is that everyone pretty much makes their own hours everywhere. People are open at odd hours, and lots of people are closed on Sunday (and Monday...but we learned about that later.)
Anyway, after wandering around & not finding any stores open, we stopped in a little cafe & had our first French meal:

A sandwich & pasta carbonara. LOL! We split both & they were yummy!

We went back to the hotel and got things organized. In case you have never seen euros, here are some:

Here is our room. That picture is really freaky.....

John & Debbie finally got there & we ate a late dinner with them.

The next day, Jeff & John went to tour the Sercel plant, and Debbie & I (slept in) went out to tour some things in Nantes. Here we are getting ready to go out!

We originally started out in an industrial building, but it was closed. So we headed across the street to the chateau/castle.

Here I am playing "Lady of the Manor".

This is a well:

These are the grounds inside the castle walls:

It was the Duchy for the Duke & Duchesses of Brittany. 
We tried to go inside, but it was closed also. We later learned that "France is closed on Monday". That would have been nice for the concierge to tell us, before we trekked all of the way over there....

After we left the castle, we walked around Nantes. It is a pretty small town, and you can walk over the whole town in a short amount of time. They have tone of cute shops and cafes that we stopped in. We also saw the top of this church, and decided to find it.

On the way, I saw this & thought it was funny. :0)

This is the inside of the church we found:

As we were walking back to the hotel, we saw this cathedral again:

Debbie & I headed back to the hotel & waited for the guys to get back.
When they did, we went out for drinks & dinner.
This is Jeff & I in front of the cathedral on the way to dinner:

Debbie & John:

We went to an Irish pub! I thought that was so funny that they had an Irish pub in a tiny French town.

On Tuesday, Jeff & John went golfing & Debbie & I slept in (again) and then went back to the castle to actually tour the inside.

This is Ann of Brittany. She was the duchess here, but she was also queen of France twice. She was widowed 3 times, and always returned home to her beloved Duchy.

This is a replica of what Nantes looked like hundreds of years ago:

A beautiful tapestry:

Most of the museum in the castle was about the shipping history of Nantes. This was on the front of a ship:

Ann of Brittany again:

These two statues were at the edge of where the ocean comes into the Nantes harbor:

China used in the Duchy:

How a room would have been set up:

That night we went out to a nice French restaurant.

On the way home we saw this shop making crepes. They had these all over Paris, but I hadn't seen one until then. People seemed to love these, but I wasn't that fond of them. They are like pancakes with different fillings.

  This was our last night in Nantes. On Wednesday, we got back on the train to go back to Paris!

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily turns 6 years old today. My baby is 6. It actually makes me sad. I know it shouldn't, but it does. This picture of Lily decked out as a princess is SO Lily. She has been a little princess since the day she was born. Her daddy & her brothers have helped her hone that image. (and maybe me a little bit too.....) She loves girly things, glitter, pink, dresses, shoes, purses, make-up, hair things, rainbows, unicorns, and anything else you can think of to make someone girly. But she is also strong, independent (when she wants to be), funny, smart, loving, sarcastic, imaginative, bossy, friendly, and a whole host of other things that make her Lily. And I wouldn't change a thing about her.  

Happy Birthday Lily! We love you SO much!

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day a little early this year since Jeff & I will be gone on Father's Day. The kids made Jeff breakfast in bed and gave him their presents and then he had his favorite dinner; chicken fried steak.
I wanted to save something for him to see on the real Father's Day though, so I had the kids answer these questions about Jeff. Some of the answers are sweet, and others are funny. Please enjoy what my children think about their dad:

Zach:
My dad is funny because: he makes jokes.
My dad thinks I am funny when: I make jokes too.
My dad is 36 years old. (close, he's 37)
His favorite thing to do is: build stuff.
His favorite color is: green.
My dad's job is: to work at Paragon.
He loves to eat: Chicken Fried Steak, and regular steak, and anything he cooks on his smoker.
He is really good at: Working at Paragon.
My dad loves when I: build with him.
My dad always says: "Bub" (it's what we have called Zach since he was a baby.)
My favorite thing about my dad is: he is himself.

Riley:
My dad is funny because: he makes lots of jokes.
My dad thinks I am funny when: I tell jokes.
My dad is 35 years old.
His favorite thing to do is: cook on his smoker.
His favorite color is: green.
My dad's job is: Vice President at Paragon.
He loves to eat: Chicken Fried Steak.
He is really good at: his job.
My dad loves when I: make him things.
My dad always says: "Fart Monkey"
My favorite thing about my dad is: that he is nice.

Lily:
My dad is funny because: he picks me up & swings me around.
My dad thinks I am funny when: I make silly faces.
My dad is 127 years old.
His favorite thing to do is: watch TV.
His favorite color is: green.

He loves to eat: salad.
He is really good at: fixing things.
My dad loves when I: hug him.
My dad always says: that I am "Pooter"
My favorite thing about my dad is: that he loves me!


Happy Father's Day Jeff! Our kids are very lucky to have you! We love you!!

Lily's Birthday Tutu

Lily turns 6 on June 27th. The theme she wants for her party is Tinker Bell. I had seen this super cute Birthday tutu and shirt on Etsy....but it was $90. Yeah...I'm not going to spend that much on a tutu. So, I decided that I would make one myself. Lily picked out pink & green (her favorite color & the color of Tinker Bell's dress) glittery tulle, and ribbon. She also got some cute pink birthday cake ribbon. Instead of using ribbon or elastic for the waistband, I used a pink head band. :0)

For the shirt, we got iron on glittery butterflies, pink & green paint, and pink glitter:

Lily LOVES her accessories, so she picked out these pink wings & birthday headband.

The first thing I did was make sure the tutu was going to be the length I wanted it on Lily. (Please excuse Emma's crackers on the ground.) :0)

Then I put the headband on a roll of paper towels, and started tying on the tulle.
(Notice my little photo bomber there in the background trying to eat the tulle?) ;0)

My niece Rachel told me that it would be fuller if I used a slip knot, and she was probably right, because this didn't seem too full. Here it is with a whole roll of pink tulle:

And with a whole roll of green tulle added on.

It wasn't anywhere near as full as I wanted it, but Rachel had told me about the slip knot thing after I was already done, and I was NOT redoing that! I was covered in glitter & my fingers were tired. :0(
So, I just decided to add more tulle. :0)

Since I wasn't crazy about jumping into the glittery mess again, I decided to work on her shirt. First I printed out a 6 that I liked and put it in the shirt so I could use it to trace.

I outlined it in green:

And filled it in with pink when the green was completely dry:

While the pink was still wet, I put the glitter on top:

After about an hour, I shook the excess glitter off & let it finish drying:

Then I ironed 6 butterflies (per Lily's instructions) onto the shirt.

The next thing I worked on was the ribbons. I wanted them to be curly, and I found a way to do it. You wrap them around dowel rods (or kabob skewers, since that's what I had) and use clothespins to hold them in place. I did not have clothespins, so I tired to use paper clips, but those did not work too well, so I ended up using push pins. That did work. I placed them on a baking sheet and baked them in the oven at 225* for 20 minutes.

While those baked, I finished the second tutu. I thought it would be easier to just make a second tutu and tie them together since I was going to use ribbon anyway. Here are the 2 tutu's tied together: 

Much fuller! Then I tied on the birthday cake ribbon:

When the ribbons were done, I took them out of the oven. Guess what? plastic push pins will melt in the oven. I know, crazy, right?? 

Oh well, it still worked. I was so excited that it did!! After they were cool, I took them off of the rods and tied them onto the tutu.

Here is the finished product with all of the ribbons on it:

Lily could not wait to try it on!!

She is so excited to wear this at her party!! =)