The Richards Family Fairytale: Oh we have a schedule and we are sticking to it.

Poor Todd's mom may not have realized what she signed up for but we have a week of sightseeing packed fun for her. Packed being the operative word. So Wednesday started out with us heading over to the Invalids which is where Napoleon is buried in an obnoxiously large tomb, and they have a vast military museum. My brother Daniel I'm guessing would have loved it. So it started with a walk to the Farmers market which was "on the way" to the Invalids. The farmers market was fun and the kids and Marcie took turning making faces at all the bazaar things. I tried my best to pretend like I did not know them. After we grabbed a couple things we walked the half mile or so to the invalids. It's a beautiful domed building that I still don't quite understand how or why it's there but there are a bunch of buried war people and they have an amazing collection of armor and old war collections. It's amazing how far we have come in our ability to kill each other.

After that we were all pretty worn out so we came home and had a little rest and then dinner.

So I think it's funny that we are standing in the middle of this building but they are way more interested in the small model of it....I bet if you asked them at that moment they would not even realize that's the building they are in.

So next on our list(yes there is an actual list) we went on a night boat tour on the Seine. It was really beautiful. We were on a smaller boat so it was actually nice, not too crowded or crazy. We sat on the top deck so we could see everything but it actually started to rain part way through and soon we realized we had the whole deck to ourselves which whether that was due to the rain or our noisy children I don't know but either way it was nice. We got to see the Eiffel tower sparkle and all the major sites along the river. As this is where we run a lot it all looked pretty familiar but I was still very fun to just float down a river on a boat and take in Paris and all it's beauty. By the time we got home it was like 12am. We actually walked all the way home, which for us is not a huge deal but Todd's mom was a real trooper. She had the choice to walk up the nonworking single escalator 2 stories to the metro platform or walk the mile or so home....she chose walking home.

So the next day the Orsay Museum was on the list. I had taken the boys there a few weeks ago and had little desire to do the whole thing with all the kids so Todd took his mom. They had fun and I took the kids to the Latin Quarter and other areas around the Cite. That was actually the first time I have taken all of them on the metro by my self. It went well even though it was crowded. They enjoyed the craziness of the Right bank and had fun watching all the street performers. There were some brake dancers and there was a woman who was amazing. Jackson looks at me and says "A girl can do that?!" I gave him a disapproving look and he quickly said "Sorry mom...can you do that?" So the kids and I walked over to Notre Dame. About then Todd texted me that he and Marcie were coming out of Orsay. The kids and I went through the cathedral and then sat on a bench waiting for Marcia and Todd. As we sat there a lady sat down by us. Jackson was banning on this fence by her and I told him to stop...until she started to smoke and I asked him to resume his banging which worked because about 30 seconds later she left. yay.