Happy 5th Birthday, Daphne-Doodle!

Well, since we are miles and miles away from our family and home, we just had a little impromptu gathering for Daphne's birthday. I have no oven or mixer, so I let her choose a cake at the commissary and she decided she wanted to let the kids decorate their cake with candy. Then we had chocolate ice cream. It was a severe sugar-overload for all of us, but they loved it! Two sweet families that we have met here were kind enough to come and help us celebrate Daphne's special day. Daphne loves being around people, so the extra audience was perfect for her!

Daphne has been asking for a music box since April and I found a perfect choice in a cute little German Toy shop here. I love their toy shops- they offer very open-ended, sturdy toys that encourage imaginative play. I love just taking the kids there to check stuff out. No electronic "educational" toys.

Anyway, this music box is sturdy enough for her but not so great that I will die if she breaks it. There is a dancing fairy inside and it plays "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". She loves listening to it and loves to show it to complete stragers whenever possible.

Daphne was feeling generous and let her brother help unwrap her presents, which was cute to watch!

Here she is sporting some of her new clothes!

We plan to have a big family party when we return home, but this was a great way to spend the day with Daphne. Thanks to the Abercrombies and Overfelts for making her day so much fun!
We really appreciate yall taking time out to celebrate Daphne's life with us!

Happy Birthday, my little Daffodil! I can't believe Kindergarten is just around the corner...

Forget Paris- Day 2- Versailles!

So after the aforementioned "unfortunate incident"- we ended up getting to Versailles kind of late in the day and the line to actually tour the palace was tremendously long. There is no way our poor kids could handle it, and Matthew simply would not allow me in another line in France, so we just decided to tour the grounds. I use the term "just tour the grounds" loosely. Let me try to describe Versailles for you...
Excessive, Beautiful, Massive, Over-the-top, Too much, Gorgeous, Breath-taking, Ridiculously Large and, well- you get the point.
Here I am with Isaac and Daffodil in front of the golden gates! And on to the incredible grounds. Truly Overwhelming.

Isaac in front of one of the many pools...

The Fam! Note Daphne's face. This is the best picture we got at Versailles because her already creative posing turned into what could only be described as a little blonde girl flashing gang signs. She was completely done with having her picture taken!

The back of the palace (or part of the palace I should say) It really is no wonder that they beheaded King Louis- The amount of France's money used on this ostentaious display is staggering.

Daphne emerged from her royal chariot (also know as our ginormous stroller) in order for one more quick photo op infront of these bushes. The kids thought they looked like aliens:

So, remember that scene from Alice in Wonderland, where the queen is chasing Alice through this maze of green bushes. Versailles felt like an over-sized version of that. You could absolutely get lost in these aisles, everywhere you turned there were more of them!

More cool bushes- trophies. Not cool enough for Daphne this time.

Here are a few of our favorite fountains:

Being in Europe has been very educational for all of us. We have had lots of watered -down history lessons for the children (and for us, too!) But seeing all of these places presents many opportunities for sculptures such as this that leave you sort of speechless when your 5 year old says, "Mom, What are they doing?" After the first few weeks, she stopped saying, "That girl is being UNmodest!" But you can imagine why NEKID became their favorite word this week. "Your socks are neckid", "my teeth are neckid" and so on and so on. It gets pretty interesting.

This was our favorite fountain section!

They also had these really spectacular mounds of flowers... Matt and I decided we are going to put one of these right in the middle of our lawn. And then we'll spray paint our door gold!

More breath-taking views!

So as we left Versailles, we were bombarded once more by some very distinguished businessmen trying to sell us souveneirs, etc... For those of you who know my husband, you know that he loves any chance to save some money and haggle. These "salesmen" were asking ridiculous prices for little Eiffel Tower statues and for these really cool flying bird toys. On both occasions, Matt just kept trying to push the price as low as he could, eventually walking away from the guys. And in both cases, the guys came running back, acquiescing to Matt's low bid. You can imagine the smiles on the kids' faces as they watched their Dad get them souveniers. It was so cool to see the awe in their faces as he haggled with those guys. I almost wish I had busted out the video camera.

So after our unfortunate incident and touring the amazing gardens, we decided to head back "home" to Stuttgart. We were pleased with the idea of getting back to our home away from home, but not thrilled about going back through all the ridiculous French toll roads. We paid like $40 just in Tolls one way! We thought that was pretty outrageous. While we love many of the things France has given us, Fries, quiches, kisses, it wasn't our favorite destination. But very, very memorable!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Versailles....

*****I wrote this post a year and half ago.... a day or two after the incident. I am adding it in now so that it will be included when I have the blog printed in March.*****

This is all prefaced by another post telling about how the French people have had little respect for lines and pushed past us at any given opportunity- including pushing my children out of their way, and strangers picking up my baby. It got pretty old after all the lines we stood in…

So, we drove out of Paris (eating the most magnificent quiche and eclairs of my life) and on to Versailles to see the palace…
We arrived there and found that the parking lot was full (Ugh!)and that there was a long line of cars waiting to enter. As one car left, the parking attendant would let another car in…. So, we sat there waiting to get in. We ran through other options, but decided that waiting was probably our best bet. We waited for several minutes as they slowly and gradually let each car in one by one. And then, true to form in France, two cars came zooming up on the left of us, trying to cut in line in front of the car in front of us. There was a huge line of cars in front of us and behind us waiting for their turn to get into the lot. The car in front of us tried to edge the cutting car out, but the rude drivers pushed on through. Perhaps Matt and I were just fed up with people shoving past us time and time again. We had been waiting so long and it was so frustrating. The second car was going to try to cut in front of us. Matt edged up in our nice rental SUV, trying to show them that they weren’t welcome in front of us. But they were in a tiny little junker car and just revved their engine as if to say they had no intention of backing down. Matt looked at me and said, “I’m not going to crash into them.” Of course not, that would be ridiculous. But I guess something inside me just said, “We have been pushed aside for the last time today. They can’t just cut in front of us and all these other people.” And I got out of the car. In hindsight- that was probably my first mistake. I suppose I should have just turned the other cheek again and let these rude people walk all over us and everyone else in line. That would have been the more mature thing to do. But, sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I’m not the most mature person. So, I got out of the car and leaned toward them and said, “ I don’t know if you speak English, but all of these cars have been waiting a long time to get in to the lot, and it’s not fair for you to cut in front of us. So, I’m just going to stand here while my husband goes in the lot, okay?” The car was full of college aged girls, who were smiling and saying okay to me all along. And so I stood there. For about 1 minute.
Feeling content with my assertiveness, I think: “They see that they behaved badly and they are going to wait their turn, just like the rest of us.” And then I realized that the two cars who were cutting in line were together. The first car who had already succeeded was just ahead of me and the second car was waiting to cut in front of us when they time was right. At this moment, the girls in the second car were yelling in French to their friends and waving their hands in a motion as if to say, “Come here”. I half-heartedly hoped that they were just trying to explain to their friends that they would have to be split up because the second car wouldn’t be able to cut in line. Surely that is all they were saying , right?
And then my jaw dropped as I realized that the first car threw into reverse and started trying to back up into me. And then, the second car started driving into me. I planted my hands on the hood of her car and said “Oh are you going to run me down, right here in the middle of the street? Stop this right now! I have children in the car!” The first car stopped, but the second car kept trying.
So naturally, I decided to sit on her car in a display of my obstinance. And this is where you get to see a side of my personality that can be , well, shall we say, stubborn? I would not move. There was no way they could get up enough momentum to run me down in the space available. So, I just waited.
And then....
out of the first car, emerged a large girl with long black hair, storming at me and yelling obscenities. My face must have displayed my shock at her demeanor. Although I had been stubborn, I wasn’t yelling or cursing or even behaving angrily. Just firm and matter of fact. Right? At least that’s how I thought I was coming across. And then, the big girl pushed me into the second car. Hard.
Now, I’ve seen COPS and most outrageous videos and whatnot. I always watch these people and think, “What is wrong with them? Why can’t they behave like adults? I mean who breaks into a fight in the middle of the street over, …fill in the blank.” Perhaps I was not behaving like an adult by getting out of the car in the first place. It certainly wasn’t the most Christ-like decision of my life. But here is where my judgement gets worse. There was no moment of clear thought, no millisecond where I decided what to do. I felt threatened… ‘fight or flight’ I guess. The adrenaline must have been coursing through my body- she was trying to hurt me- her arms lifted to come at me again and…. my body just reacted:
I shoved her back. And then, all the sudden, without feeling as if I had made any decision to do so, I was in a fist fight in the middle of the street.
Now, you may be questioning my sanity at this point. As soon as it started, I certainly was. This was my second mistake. I should have just walked away. The rest was just a blur. I remember a whirl of activity in little snippets:
Her friends jumping out of the car and converging on me, at least five or six girls pulling and pushing me; The words, Love is …not easily provoked” running through my brain; Someone’s fingernails clawing down my neck; my fist connecting with someone’s jaw. Images of My children in the car; Hands pulling me, stretching me; my panicked eyes staring at Matt, who was jumping out of the car and coming toward me now; someone pulling my hair from behind; my foot kicking her in the stomach.
And then Matt was there. Time seemed normal again all of the sudden and I heard his commanding deep voice among all the shrill French banter, “Don’t touch my wife.” He reached out his hands pulling them off of me and all of the girls suddenly stopped. The one woman who spoke English said, “Is she crazy?” Matt , his arms around me now, replied, “Yeah- so don’t mess with her.” Everyone was walking away now.... Back to their cars.
A security guard arrived and began waving to the second car to go in reverse and back out. They just drove forward, past him and cut us off like they were the queens of Sheba. We filed in behind and searched for a parking spot as if nothing had happened.
It all seemed so ridiculous… how had that happened? Had my children really just watched me get into a fistfight in front of the Versailles Palace? What kind of a person am I? I never thought I could get into a situation like this. My face felt hot. I was shaking- my neck stung from the scratch of the fingernails. I looked at my children in the back, who were staring wide-eyed and asking why those girls were hurting me. My heart broke a little to think that they had been exposed to such a scene. I am a Christian, a mother, a teacher, for crying out loud. How had this happened? Where had I gone wrong? Was it so wrong to tell someone that you weren’t going to let them take advantage of you? Should I have just stayed in the car and allowed them to behave however they pleased, regardless of the impact on myself and others? I have had some time to think about the situation and I tend to vascillate between conclusions. Certainly, I should have stayed in the car and been meek and lowly of heart. Did it really matter so much if they cut in front of us? The other part of me, perhaps the one more governed by the natural man, felt wronged for the umpteenth time that weekend. Someone had to tell these people that you ought not to go around behaving so badly and inconsiderate of others. I read in II Timothy this morning, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive , but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose….” (v.24-25) Certainly I wasn’t a shining example of Christ’s love to these people. I replay the situation in my head over and over and wonder what I should have done differently. Perhaps we should have just waved them through. I suppose I should have just waved and smiled and said, “Come on in…”- that may have been the best thing to do. I don’t feel like I set out to get in a fight or even to do something wrong, but I could have yielded to the Holy Spirit rather than the natural man. I could have just allowed one more car to go in and I would have gone to bed that night feeling like an honorable person; even if I had been taken advantage of.

In case you are worried, we spoke to the children. They all found it very exciting, but were also very frightened that I might have been hurt. We explained the entire situation and that I was only defending myself when I struck back at the girl. I did tell them that I should have walked away once I had defended myself. As many of you know, Isaac has already struggled with bullies and, being so tender-hearted, has been a little more passive than I would like; allowing himself to be hurt when he is larger and easily capable of defending himself. So, we told the children that it is okay to defend yourself if someone hurts you and that you can tell someone not to hurt you. But we emphasized getting help from a grown-up or walking away from a fight. I hope that the situation taught a lesson rather than scarring them for life…

It is difficult to avoid the natural man. Much of me embraces the tenacious spirit with which the Lord has blessed me. In many respects I truly believe it is a gift from Him that has enabled me to resist some temptations and to endure trials. I do feel that I should use it for His glory and His good, standing for truth and righteousness.

Was it true that these young women should not cut in a huge line of people?
Certainly.

Was is righteous for me to get out and cause a scene?
I think not.

And therein lies the rub- submitting to His will rather than my own- as strong as that will might be.

Forget Paris- Day 2

As mentioned in our Paris Day One Post, we sort of over-did it with the walking. We walked all over Paris and back again, if you want to see the route you can find it here. You can see there that we walked roughly 15 km!!!
For our second day in Paris, we decided to rest our aching feet on a cruise of the Seine River. It was a much more relaxing way to view some of the city's sites while getting interesting backstories and commentary. The kids were really excited to ride on the boat: We tried and tried with to get a cute smiling shot of them all looking over the side, but this is the best we could do...

If not for the ridiculous wind, it would have been positively perfect. The end of the cruise had us all shivering and trying to keep warm in spite of the chilly breeze...

We did get to see the sites from a new angle. We loved the back of the Notre Dame, which is less familiar, but more dimensional and very beautiful:

I spent most of the time just hanging on to Tori to keep her from going over-board...

We rode under the Romantic Bridge, where apparently you are supposed to kiss and make a wish. And so we did! But we decided not to post the pic. We'll spare you the mush!

Then we saw the narrowest building in all of Paris, which the kids thought was really funny. You can see it here:

More of the Eiffel Tower and more of Daphne's magnificent posing. I guess she thinks she has to be creative since we are like the paparazzi these days!

After the cruise, we needed some lunch. Our kids aren't really fancy French restaurant material, so we opted for a more casual way to sample French food: we headed to the market on Rue Cler. We stopped there for breakfast as well and were so pleased that we went back for lunch! We must give credit where credit is due: the French make good food! We had baguettes, eclairs, quiches, croquettes, merangues, tarts and more and we loved all of it! I loved Rue Cler. It was how I pictured France in my head and I wish we had time to stroll more, musing the street and shops, but alas, Versailles was calling. Here I am with the kiddos!

While we loved all of the bakery items and sweets, we thought we would try the Formagerie, or the Cheese shop. The French are supposed to make fabulous cheese. At the risk of wounding horrendously closed-minded and American, I must say that we did not find any fabulous cheese. On our way to the Formagerie, we walked into the street to head over there and I said, "What is that smell? Is the sewer right here?" After I took a few more steps, we realized that the smell was the Cheese Shop. Matt went in and there were French women in white coats rubbing the cheese with their bare hands, crumbling it and showing people the thick layers of green mold covering some of their more desirable specimens. And, although we really wanted to try all the local cuisine, our poor American noses and stomachs just couldn't take it.

We did love the bakery, however. Here is Tori munching on a baguette:

And Daphne with a cherry tart:

So we left the Formagerie and took our other delicious treasures for a little picnic on the way to see the Versailles Palace. Versailles is about thirty minutes or so outside of Paris. A Funny thing Happened on the Way to Versailles... I did write about it, but I have chosen not to blog about it (for various reasons)... It was kind of scary, very funny and somewhat horrifying. So for those of you die-hards who want to know every detail of the Hunter family (all two of you) , feel free to email me. Otherwise, let us suffice to say that we didn't exactly fall in love with France. Stay tuned for Versallies pics!!

Forget Paris!

Ever since we found out we would be spending the summer in Europe, Daphne has been asking to go to the Eiffel Tower for her birthday. I think she first saw it on a Strawberry Shortcake episode, where Strawberry meets Crepe Suzette, a little girl who lives in Paris. Since then, she has talked a lot about the Eiffel Tower. So, when our friends Steve and Liz told us they were heading to Paris the weekend before Daphne's birthday, we decided to tag along.

Because Matt had to work that day, we got on the road later than we hoped and hit some traffic, which put us into Paris at about midnight. If it had been any earlier, any earlier at all, I would have switched hotels right then and there. Let us suffice to say that we were not comfortable there. I'll spare you the details! I will tell you however, that when we arrived, Matt took Isaac and some of the bags up while I waited in the car with the girls. He came back down and said, "Just take the stairs. Don't take the elevator- it was the scariest thing that's ever happened to me." And when I laughed in response, he looked me in the eye and said, "I'm serious." And he was. Only two people could fit in the elevator- it closed with a little tiny gate. From our room, we could hear it running all night long...it sounded like a herd of elephants running up the stairs.

So bright and early the next morning, we made arrangements for a new hotel, packed up our things, headed to the new hotel and walked to the Eiffel Tower. First things First, you know!

Here we are on our way:
We walked all the way there and hopped right in line. (We weren't the only ones who wanted to see the Eiffel tower that day!) We brought our huge double jogging stroller, which could not remain at the bottom unattended, so poor Matt had to fold it up and carry it through all the narrow metal aisles. It is difficult to describe, but it was a huge pain for him... Having this extra burden and three children we were an easy target for the French. What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, basically I mean that French people don't care about lines. Apparently (at least those we encountered) had no respect for whose turn it was or whether we had children with us. While we were trying to gather our things up to buy our tickets, a whole French Family tried to push Matt aside so they could go in front of us. I'm not sure if they just skip "turn -taking" in French preschool or what, but it gets really old, really fast! Somehow we made it to the second floor. Once you get to the second floor, you have to wait in another long, windy line to get to the very top floor. During that wait, another French guy came and was *literally* pushing Isaac so he could go in front of us. I started saying, "Don't push my son! Why are you pushing him? " Repeated a few times. He didn't care. He just kept pushing him and went right on by. We'd only been in France for about 10 hours and already I was tired of the rudeness.


I will give the French some credit where credit is due: they all adored Victoria. I know, she is quite the cutie, so what can you expect? But at least they weren't rude to her. Unless you count taking pictures of her as rude. Which I might. I'm sure her cute little face is plastered all over the internet from random French people and several Asian tourists as well. They really loved Tori. I'm not sure if it is the blonde curls or what, but there was one group of tourists in particular who just wanted to hold her so bad. Fortunately, she clung to my hip which spared me the akwardness of saying no. But, while we were in line to get on the elevator to the 2nd floor, I was holding her finger and letting her walk around a bit. I looked up at Matt for a second and all the sudden, one of the Asian women was picking her up and having someone take a picture of them together. I was horrified and laughing nervously at all the grinning tourists who thought it was completely adorable to pick up a stranger's baby and hold an impromptu photo shoot of the two of you.

All these pictures are from the second level:

It was super windy that morning- even though it was relatively warm that day. The higher we got, the windier it became. Look at Daphne's face here:

even the second floor views were pretty remarkable:

And then to the top! Here's a panoramic shot that Matt got:

Tori had fallen asleep in line, but the wind woke her when we got to the "tippy top" as Daphne called it! She thought the view was pretty great, too!

Then, we got to wait in line to go back down (after our stroller was almost confiscated for being unattended) and when we finally got to the bottom, there were police everywhere! We couldn't figure out what was going on and then we realized everyone was staring up- at this guy who was getting ready to jump!

We decided to get out of dodge before things got much more dramatic. A friend of Steve and Matt's gave them a walking tour of some of the best sights in France, and we set out to hit as many as we could in one day. We found lots of fun things along the way, like George Washington. Apparently, even the French think he's awesome.

So our first stop after the Eiffel Tower was the Arc de Triomphe, which you can see in the background here:Here are the girls in the stroller, Isaac and me, and our friends Steve and Liz with their kids in the stroller.

Just after the Arc De Triomphe, we headed down the Champs de Elysees, which is the most famous boulevard in France. The Tour de France ends here, as well as any parade of merit. We took a long and leisurely stroll all the way down this lovely lane.

Here are Matt and a very cheerful Victoria along the Champ Elysees- when you look at this, you can hardly blame the tourists for thinking she is as photographable as the Eiffel Tower:

Then we found this guy- we're not sure who he is, but we think Isaac looks pretty cute posing like him:

After a long walk, we arrived at the Place de La Concorde, which is where Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the French Revolution:

And then, onto the La Madeleine

We had some lunch and found a playground, which was a nice break from the walking...

And then, onto the Louvre... here we are out front... We all felt bad (Daphne especially) for this guy who forgot his pants:

Matt and Isaac in front of the Louvre:

And the whole family!

More of the Louvre:

We decided that there was absolutely no way that the children could handle a museum like the Louvre, so although we would have loved to see the Mona Lisa, we skipped going inside. Apparently, if you took one minute to look at each piece of art in the Louvre, it would take you over two months to get through the entire museum! We spared the children that much art and walked on to more sights. You may have notived all the walking by this point... our feet were getting pretty achy. All Tori wanted was to walk and all Daphne wanted was to ride in the stroller.... it was a little tiring.

And finally, we made it to the Notre Dame:

One of the things we thought was interesting is that these kings across the top, who are the kings of Judah, were mistaken for the Kings of France during the Revolution. An angry mob stormed the cathedral demanding that the statues be beheaded! So, they were- and then they were Re-headed after things settled down a bit.

Just outside the Notre Dame were some very interesting characters who enjoyed feeding birds. Some of them enjoyed this a little too much. One guy was letting the birds eat from his mouth. These two people were a little more normal than the others...

Another spontaneous one- super cute and the kids loved this. It was a little creepy and germy, but we washed them up really well afterward- if you are worried!

By the time we were at the Notre Dame, we were pretty much done with our sights for the day, but were also VERY far from our hotel. We tried to find a cruise we could hop on, but ended up walking all the way back to our hotel. At least we found Thomas Jefferson along the way:

And the building housing Napoleon's Tomb: All in All we walked almost 14 kilometers, which is almost 9 miles!!!! Our poor feet barely made it back to our hotel! But, we did make it back and were very thankful to have a nice clean room with plenty of room for all of us! It was a long, fun day and we had lots more to do on day two!