Three's a crowd

Nana and Grampa visited us for a weekend. Grampa read "How Little Lori Visited Times Square", our new favorite book.

We did a whirlwind tour of Boston, stopping first at the North End for coffee and pastries

Then to the USS Constitution

But only Caroline wanted to board the ship and see the cannons

We made it to the Public Garden in time to ride the final Swan Boat of the day

As always there were baby ducks. Who can tell that they're animatronic?

Our little strawberry pickers

Mommy's birthday

Caroline brought home a ukelele from school and we brought out the big stringed instrument

Riding to West Farm for our summer picnic

It was a perfect day

Caroline's graduation ceremony from pre-K

There it is, the little growing body that will turn our lives upside-down come December. Because of her advanced maternal age, Heather gets special attention, including this early ultrasound. Boy or girl? Too early to tell. Caroline and Erin took the news well, although we think that Erin is the less happy of the two.

Paris in the spring

For our 10th anniversary we planned a week in Paris without the kids.

Our hotel was within sight of the Eiffel Tower.

For breakfasts we picked up pain au chocolate from this famous bakery.

Even the trashy birds eat well in Paris

Much of our planning for this vacation revolved around the food. We had a memorable meal at Brasserie Julien. For these profiteroles they poured the chocolate sauce at the table out of a coffee pot!

As opposed to our previous blitzes through Europe, this time we moved at a more leisurely pace. Caroline has been infatuated with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" lately and we promised to stop by and look for Quasimodo.

He couldn't be found, but we did find some of his gargoyle friends.

The nearby Sainte Chapelle stained glass was breathtaking.

The Louvre was not on our to-do list, but we did tour the D'Orsay and the Pompidou Center.

The grounds of the Rodin Museum were a perfect place to relax for an afternoon cafe au lait.

After crepes the night before we decided to bring home street food for this meal. The roast chicken was magnifique.

We took on the Tower, but the line for the elevator was so long that instead we took the stairs up to the mid level, all 720 of them!

After the sun set we witnessed the Tower's illumination up close from the mid level deck.

Speaking of illumination, the following day we headed out to Versailles to see the Sun King's palace.

 

The view from the palace defies photography. It was so hazy that the gardens and lake stretched literally into the horizon. In the heat we trudged out to Marie Antoinette's fairy-tale village. The tram ride back up the hill to the exit was worth every euro.

For our last night in the City of Lights we splurged on a Seine River dinner cruise aboard the Bateaux Parisiens. We had a front-row seat through the city as night fell. The Pont Neuf.

Ile de la Cite

And a psychedelic light show? No, that's just what happened when we tried to photograph the French Statue of Liberty..

Quick Frodo, drop down to avoid the Eye!

As a coda to our vacation we took the Eurostar to London to see old friends Sarah & Sean and their two kids, Owen & Claire.

The weather was very un-British and beautiful as we walked through St. James Park on our way to the Churchill War Room Museum.

Finally back home in Boston where Super-Grandma Joan and Grampa Ed were thanked a thousand times for caring for the girls. Caroline was fine while we were gone, but only after receiving her Eiffel Tower lollipop did Erin appear to have forgiven us.