My internal battle is as follows:
Hallie goes to (is signed up to go to) preschool every morning for a few hours.

Hallie fights us EVERY morning about going.

Were Hallie of regular school age she would have no choice in the matter and school is not optional.

Hallie is not of regular school age. She is three (four in a month and a half).

Is she just too young to have to go to school every morning?

Should I be teaching her now that school is not optional? Or wait for another year when she starts kindergarden?

Hallie is always very happy when I pick her up from school every day and tells me about all the fun things she did....it's getting her there to begin with that seems to be the problem.

She is learning german there...and I really want her to learn the language so she can talk to/play with kids in the neighborhood.

Is she just too young?????

Advise me!!!

We had a picnic with friends from Church today!

Have you seen the Hunchback lately?

Hallie watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame (disney) the other day for the first time (I haven't seen it since I was a kid). I was thinking to myself, oh FUN! a Disney she hasn't seen. Now I'm not an overprotective crazy Mom about what my kids watch...but I do like to keep it carefree and scary-free for their little brains. That movie is HORRIBLE! All about suduction and obsession and killing people on the steps of the church. It's dark and creepy. Hallie keeps asking to watch it, but I'm thinking this one is for the recycle bin. As I watched it with her my mouth was literally hanging open for most of the movie. (I'm shaking my head as I write this). Disney...I am shocked. :)

We went to AMERICA! And this is what we did....

Blew bubbles at Nana's house with Owen and Uncle Michael.

Tried to do cartwheels in the sand at the beach.

Played in the water with Uncle Zach and his puppy, Zeb.

Threw lots and lots of sand while my Mommy kept yelling at me "Don't throw sand!!"

Made a trench with Zeb.

Took a rest on the beach with the puppy.

Went to Utah....then went to go and see Katie's horse.

Rode on Katie's horse, Buster. (I swear to you Hallie will work on a ranch someday...it's where she belongs).

Got to see my very best friends.

Who take really great pictures.

And drank lots of diet coke together, and learned how to make flowers for Julie's wedding.

And had so much fun getting to spend time with Julie....I love her so so much.

And got to be bridesmaids at the wedding (I was the maid of honor....ok, not really). So here's a funny story about that: Julie didn't ask her three best friends to be bridesmaids because we are "married" (or so she says) so we joked around with her about it. WELL, when I showed Kirsti (middle) the dress I got for the wedding, she pulled out the same one in green (from target). So then we had a really great idea (our best ideas always come to us when we're together) and we ran to target and got Nicole(left) the purple one. So we made ourselves bridesmaids and Julie was lucky enough to have TWO sets of bridemaids at her wedding. Not many girls have friends that are good enough to take the initiative to make themselves bridesmaids. Julie is so lucky to have us. :)

Got to go to the wedding and reception. Julie looked GORGEOUS and I had so so much fun.

Went with Grandma Jan, Grandpa Steve, and Broadie to the Dinosaur Museum.

Dug trenches at the museum.

Watched a 3D dinosaur movie...

wearing SUPER cool glasses.

Made it home yesterday....and now we're loving having Matt back.

Smooth sailing..

We made it back to California with very few glitches. Our portable DVD player got stolen from the air terminal in Germany (sucky sucky) and I thought that would mean two very bored children for 15 hours. But they slept almost the whole time and we made it here safely. We leave Sunday morning for Utah and will be there for a week and a half for Julie's wedding and to spend time with Matt's family and my sister and her family. I'm so so so excited to get to see all of my friends who I've missed so much at Julie's wedding.....can't wait!

Misc. pictures from France

Here is the end of our ridiculous amount of Paris Pictures. They are just the random from the whole weekend....

Here is me taking a picture of me

Matt taking a picture of me video recording Paris

Just standing there.

Arc de Triumph

aaaaand again.

again.

Hallie and Chase breaking free from the stroller for a little while to play in the fountain. It was a famous fountain for some reason...don't remember why.

we will NEVER take the Metro with two kids and a double stroller again. NEVER.

Cool graveyard shot.

Hallie running like a mad woman through Paris.

Thank you Sarah for sending us to Laduree's to eat the most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth. This is a Macaroon. If I told you how much money I spent on Macaroons while we were in Paris....you would die. I know Matt did.

When Matt took a bite of his Macaroon he said, "This is the best thing I have ever eaten".

Some of the delicious-ness of Laduree's.

The arc again....:)

The kids at Jardin du Luxembourg.

So that's that. End of the Paris pics. We had a really good time there and look forward to taking friends and family that come out to visit us back.

Versailles

On Saturday evening before we drove back home, we made the trip out to Versailles. Unfortunately we made it there just as they were kicking everyone out of the (palace?) I don't really know what you'd call it. It's used for congress type stuff now, but has been lots of different things at different times. Anyways, we could still walk around the grounds and see the AMAZING gardens. They were HUGE. Like unbelievable.

Standing in the courtyard in the back.

This, I'm pretty sure, is my very favorite picture ever.

Hallie taking her turn to hang out with a statue.

And out in front of the gardens.

Notre Dame

Here's the next wave of Paris pics....from at and around Notre Dame.
This is me wishing I had paid a little more attention in history classes all my life....trying to soak in as much French history as I can.

Hallie in the Gardens behind Notre Dame

Chase being so stinkin handsome. His lips just look so kissable.

Me and the kids standing next to Notre Dame. Crazy how big it is huh?

Just a cool picture.

Me and my girl....we love chillin in Paris.