The Richards Family Fairytale: Gargoyles, parks, and dead birds.

We took a family day Saturday and went to another park. I think it's funny we never bother to actually learn the real names of all these parks. We just give them the name that suits them. "Paris Park"(Champs de Mars-Eiffel tower), "Our Park"(Invalids-closest to our house), Cotton Candy Park(obvious), and now "Dad's Work Park". So the newest, "Dad's Work Park", is a big park that is over near where Todd works. It's a really cute area, very "neighborhoodie" and I like that. We walked there and discovered when we got home we had gone 8 miles round trip so that makes it about 4 miles away. The sun was out and was nice enough to stay out for most of our trip. We brought some stuff and picket up some goodies on the way there for a picnic. The kids found a play structure and played a while and then ended up playing soccer. There was a couple different play areas within the park so we explored them all. There was also a hand cranked merry go round. We walked through a shopping area and the kids watched as people made these amazing cakes. They must be good because there was a line out the door for them. We had a blast and then walked home trying to beat the rain. We made it 2 blocks from home before it started to sprinkle.

Training for the circus.

These cakes were amazing, I would have bought one but the act of letting people watch them be made allows them to demand a pretty high price for them.

What our picnic looks like...they have all these bizarre chip flavors that I cannot resist buying just to try them. This one was rotisserie chicken. I am dying to find the mustard and pickles chips.

Sometimes the temptation is too great.

The girls ware jumping off this table together repeatedly.

Mc Donald's

"Sist' Hair" with attitude

Yup.

Austin trying to look like he does not know them.

I know we still have 2 weeks here but I think the reality we are going to have to leave is a little hard for us to grasp. Yesterday was a totally slow day, at 9:30pm the guilt of having squandered the day away in our apartment finally got to me and I grabbed the girls and we went out for a walk. It was sprinkling and I could not get Sierra to put her rain coat on. I finally said we would go get dessert if she would put her jacket on and that worked. The only place I could see open was Mc Donald's so we went in and had some ice cream. We sat and ate and people watched. We then walked home and got everyone to bed. I was not ready for today to be Monday and as the rest of the kids classmates are out for summer(not that they know that) I decided to give them the day off school and we went on a "field trip." Todd happens to be sick:( so I asked if he could keep an eye on the girls if I took boys. He agreed and I left them with Chocolate Croissants and an iPad and was off. The boys and I went to Notre Dame. You can go up the towers and see the bells and view from up there. It was about an hour long line but it was not raining so that was a plus. We saw a dead pigeon on the ground and the boys were really interested in it. It also happened to be right below a gargoyle so I told them that if birds flew too close to the gargoyle it would bite the birds. I got about 10 seconds of silence out of that one before I was told that was impossible. I miss my little boys who just believed whatever I told them. The stairs spiral up the towers. Each step is worn down by the centuries of people huffing it up to get the view. Once up there the view is very rewarding. It's about as central as you can get so you can see just about everything. The gargoyles up there are really cool. Each one is different and they almost seem like they could come to life at any moment and growl at you. You first walk up to level that is the highest still connected cross way between the towers. Then you can take the stairs up to the top of one of the towers. Austin was a little uncomfortable but did his best to enjoy himself. Jackson did his best to put himself in situations that made Austin uncomfortable. I had no problem going up the stairs but when we got to the bottom I realized my legs were shaking.