Spring Breaks

I am on the cusp of spring breaks for my kids. Grace's spring break is wrapping up while Spencer and Tucker are both beginning their spring breaks.
Grace's spring break has been fairly laid back. She went to a local Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
She tried out for a spring production, The Graduate, and got the part of Elaine -- that's Mrs. Robinson's daughter for anyone who doesn't remember. And Benjamin falls in love with Elaine after having the affair with Mrs. Robinson. I think she'll do a great job.
We ate lots of yummy meals, like breakfasts of chocolate croissants or croissants, and goat cheese pasta, and we cracked open a bottle of dessert wine to go with some chocolate lava cakes. Yum.
We also did some babysitting for Grant, Earl's niece's son.

Look at the belly on that little guy! He's 14 months old and almost always in a good mood.
I love spending time with Grace and hate to see her going back to school, but I know that's what happens with kids grow up.
Spencer goes to college in Florida, so I could hardly hope for him to come back to cold Ohio. Instead, he went to Miami. He is staying at a friend's parents' condo on Miami Beach.
I texted him yesterday asking, "How is Miami?"
Here's the picture he responded with:

I haven't seen Spencer since January. I miss see him.

This morning, Tucker and I are leaving on a road trip. One more college visit before he has to decide.

Maybe -- but doubtful -- I'll get a picture of me and Tucker on our road trip. That boy avoids the camera. I tell him he'll regret it someday.

So we're driving 9 hours to Missouri. Hope he likes the campus. I'd love for him to fall in love with a college and be passionate about going there.

Here's a photo from his birthday.

Hope you all get a chance to relax and enjoy some decent weather this spring. At our destination, they're predicting snow.

All Things France

Is it just me or does everyone keep running into things French? Okay, let me be upfront that I am obsessed with France. I've visited probably 8-10 times and it has been the site of my best vacations ever. Lately, everywhere I turn I'm faced with French people, French discussions, French joie de vivre.
Every morning, when I'm home, my husband turns on the Tour de France. Mostly, it's a view of bicylists butts, but sometimes I get to see the countryside. Last night on the way home from the swim meet, we turned on The Prairie Home Companion and it was the French show. Every skit they used had a connection to France. Today as I'm updating my syllabus for summer session, I turned on Rick Steve's and his show was about Paris. The entire time people talked about things they'd seen and done in Paris. Mais, oui. It makes me feel a longing like homesickness because I want to go back so badly.
It makes me think of being there with the kids the last time when we were on the Bateaux Mouches and the lights of the Eiffel Tower sparkled behind them. And I remember our favorite meal there, on a side street near the Arc de Triomphe. We sat outside and we had a Parisian waiter who joked with the kids and didn't try to correct our crass American ways.
On another trip to Paris with my friend Michelle, I was oblivious to French men flirting with me. I asked a waiter at a tea shop how long they were open and he said, "For you, we are always open." I turned back to Michelle and said, "Oh, good, they're open 24 hours." She called me an idiot but my brain was too filled with babies back then to notice flirtation.
Earl and I have fleeting vacations through Paris, heading to Provence for long bicycle rides, but we've managed on recent trips to visit The Cluny to see the unicorn tapestry. Next time, I want to take him to l'Orangerie to see Monet's waterlily paintings in the round.
Earl says we are running into lots of French things because of the Bastille Day celebration on July 14th. Is it just a conincidence that Marie, a 17-year-old French student will arrive here on July 18th to spend six weeks? Maybe I'm attracting French things to myself. Keep it coming baby. Soon the attraction will be so great I'll be sucked across the ocean and land in the middle of the Champs Elysee