Frankfurt!

Hanh and Eleanor moved to Frankfurt in Germany, so we went to see their new house and new city. We understand why they miss Rome, but we also found a lot that was nice about Frankfurt. They live near a huge, lovely park with a fun playground; they're right near the train (I still don't know what it's called; I just call it the tube); they have a big flat with tennis courts and playgrounds.

The bottom photo is of Eleanor and Lizzie saying goodbye.  Hanh said that Eleanor cried the whole drive to school because she was so sad that Lizzie was leaving.  This is fascinating because Lizzie is not very nice to Eleanor.  And by "not very nice", I mean that she is fairly mean some of the time.  And Eleanor responds to Lizzie's meanness with, "I love you, Lizzie" and "you're so pretty!" On the second day in Paris, I almost left Lizzie on the side of the road, I was so disgusted with her behavior...

Luckily, they had many nice moments and the rest of us got along.  Phew.

This was Eli's dinner. 

We went to a wine bar.  It was run by a French woman, so we had French wine.

He suggested that some of the paintings had been inappropriate, and when I said, "well, it's art", he answered "did you see the one called 'Blonde Nude'?"

I had to put this photo in because Lizzie pointed at a painting of a father getting ready to cut his child's throat with a long knife (Abraham and Isaac), waved her hands at it and said, "Mom, what's goin' on here, in this painting?"  So here I am explaining...

Paris!

We spent spring break in Paris and Frankfurt (which is where Hanh and Eleanor live now). Hanh and Eleanor came to meet us the day after we arrived in Paris.  (I wonder what I would have said to you when I met Hanh in Autumn of 2005 if you told me that ten plus years later we would be in Paris with three children).

Just so everyone is clear:  Paris with 4, 6 and 8 year old children is not the same as grownup Paris.  There is a lot more whining about walking, and the highlights of the trip are things like:

* a guy blowing huge bubbles
* the amazing playgrounds
* extra iPad time while your parents drink wine
* a ferris wheel
* a double-decker carousel
* pastry (okay, that's also part of grownup Paris)
* chasing pigeons
* browsing the Lego section of every store
* getting a fold-up seat on the Metro
* admiring all the dogs
* watching the French version of the coast guard do drills in the Seine, just across from the Notre Dame

But, even though we had one very cold and rainy day, we managed to have a lovely time in Paris and to daydream about living there.  (Although, we would need to dust off our French.  It is pretty horrifying.  Except Hanh's.  Hers is good.)  Here are quite a lot of photos.  I had a hard time choosing.

Here we are in the wine bar with the iPads.

I think these were our daily pushups, in furtherance of Tommy's new years resolution to build upper body strength.
Lizzie does them one handed due to the broken arm.  Eleanor requires assistance.

On the train to Frankfurt!