The Demmerle’s are definitely getting used to city living. I have a great little city garden, which consists of 4 window boxes. I am getting used to the little space we have (learning to live with less is always good). Our kids are pro’s on the metro and even the dog is enjoying the city view. Oh yeah I am also becoming one of those people running thru the streets with their dog off-leash (I am happy there are no leash laws here). Don’t get me wrong I am not a city girl nor will I ever be. On the contrary, this just confirms I am definitely a country girl. I miss my green space!!!

Wow, alot has been going on the last few months, I think I am going to make this post a 2 parter.

Lets see I think we go all the way back to Easter. Prior to Easter I was determined to find an Easter egg hunt in Paris. So what do I do, what I always do in these cases, I google it. Voila, I didn’t just find an Easter egg hunt, I found a list of the best Easter egg hunts in the world and there was one about an hour outside of Paris. So the Saturday prior to Easter, the Demmerles rented a car and headed to Chateau Vaux le Vicomte. It was awesome!! There were Easter egg hunts separated by age groups and they even had it for adults (of course I participated). The amount of eggs they were expected to give out for three days was over 85k eggs….crazy!!!! Let's just say our kids got plenty. Besides the egg hunt, there was face painting, crafts and even a chocolate demonstration for the kids. Oh yeah and we even ran into some of our best friends there, which made the day even better. We all had such a blast, we will definitely be back next year. The kids were so exhausted I don’t think they were in the car 5 minutes and they were out for the count. (Love those days)

Kids are sooo happy...of course they are, their easter baskets are full of chocolate eggs.

Then Easter morning arrived and although the French believe in Easter Bells bringing candy, but we just chose to keep with the American Easter Bunny traditions. Why confuse the kids? So the Easter bunny came all the way to Paris and the kids made out! (not sure they were that good ..LOL)

After the Easter eggs were found and Easter baskets were tapped into, we were off to London. LONDON BABY (I am a huge Friends fan) I haven’t been to London in 20 years and it was just as fun as I remember. Of course we did all the tourist things. The Tower Bridge is just so beautiful and who could get tired of looking at Big Ben. For some reason I always take so many pictures of Big Ben. The kids had a blast, although I think their favorite thing was riding on the red double decker bus, they were lucky enough to get a front row seat in the top…oh yeah and M&M’s world (which I have to admit was mine also). Question to everyone, did you know the story behind the Hard Rock Cafe? I feel ridiculous in saying I did not until we went to the original one in London. Amazing what a few American expats can do.....there is hope for me yet.

The Crown Jewels.  We couldn't take pictures but they were amazing! — The Crown Jewels. We couldn't take pictures but they were amazing!

Tower Bridge, I have the exact picture 20 years ago with my good friend Loretta! (need to find that picture)

Not sure we were supposed to be on this lawn.  Buckingham Palace. — Not sure we were supposed to be on this lawn. Buckingham Palace.

Then it was my Pey Poppers (Peyton’s) 4th Birthday . We decided to go to Disney for the day. We promised her a princess dress for her birthday plus we wanted to get one more visit in before our yearly passes expire. Even though it was a rainy day we had a great time. Peyton also picked out her princess dress. It wasn’t Elsa (which at the time they had plenty of and if I knew they were in such high demand I would have bought them and sold them on ebay). She picked out Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I need to mention that Peyton has never actually seen the movie. It made her happy and it was her birthday present so what could we say. Keith is convinced that the dress should have come with a warning since we had glitter in our house for weeks because of this dress. Lance had a good time in Disney since they now have a lego store in the village. He walked in, plopped down and did not move. We had to pry him out. The birthday weekend ended with a castle cake and lots of presents. Peyton was a lucky girl…..and so are we to have her!!!

Woo hoo,  she is 4! — Woo hoo, she is 4!

Then came May day. France is pretty much shut down for May day and we had a long weekend, which gave me a chance to head home for a long weekend. I haven’t seen my mom in over a year and I really needed to go see her. I think preparing myself to see her helped me a great deal, of course it was still really hard. What made me happy was that the second day I saw her she actually knew who I was. I also brought a photo album of all of us for her to look at and keep in her room. The sad thing is that I know when I left she wouldn’t even remember I was there. On a lighter side I got to visit with so many of my friends and family when I was home. I dragged my aunt around shopping one day. I met with all of my best friends thru the weekend and I was able to meet up with my sister and catchup. I can’t believe my niece (and godchild) is graduating highschool this year...tomorrow!

One the highlights of my trip home was visiting my house. It is not a huge house but it is the house that Keith and I both fell in love with the day we stepped into it. Wow, do I miss it. We are just so lucky that we have such great renters that are taking such great care of it.

When I returned from the US Keith’s mom and brother were already in Paris visiting. The kids were very happy to have some grandma time. During their stay we decided to take a road trip. We headed do to Mont Saint Michel, which is in the south west area of Normandy. It was awesome. It is a little town surrounding an Abby , which is then surrounded by the ocean. It was just so beautiful.

We then headed to the Normandy beaches but stayed at a chateau first which was just such a highlight of our trip. We stayed at the Moat house, which was awesome! The grounds were equally as beautiful. The kids loved the horses around the back, the cat on the grounds and let's not forget the frog, which also serenaded us at night.

Next day we headed to Point du Hoc and then to Omaha beach. Each of these areas are just so spectacular and sentimental at the same time. There was something about being there with the 70th anniversary of D-Day going on. We had been there before and if it was up to my husband we would go up many many more times.