Vacation Redux - Rouen, France 2011

Our first full day with the Maguires was spent in Rouen, France. It's home to many famous and historical sites. Our hotel was very cute, except for the part where Tim and I had to trudge up three flights of narrow stairs to the attic room we were assigned. 

Our view was pretty much only peripheral, but we could see the Notre Dame cathedral only a short walk away...

This was also the first morning of our Patisserie tour of France. While the boys took all of our bags back to the car, KC and I wandered back to a bakery we had found the night before. (Oh, dear sweet Pain au Chocolat...how I miss thee.) We all met up in the courtyard in front of the cathedral for our morning breakfast. 

Once inside the magnificent cathedral, we found Richard the Lionheart...

 And McColley insisted on having his photograph taken multiple times.

We left the cathedral and walked towards the city center. On our way, we walked under the famous Gros Horloge, an astronomical clock that has been around since the 15th century.

 Like many sites in Europe, we were able to pay a fee to climb into the tower and listen to an audio tour. Here's a view of one of Rouen's streets from the clock...

 We walked all the way to the top, via some tight spiral staircases, to see the view of the city. That's the Notre Dame Cathedral behind Tim and me.

There were several signs inside the tower basically saying "These bells are very loud! You may not want to be in here."

Seeing how it was only a few, short minutes until Noon, Tim and I took the boys out of the tower to watch the changing clock. Do you see the bottom portion of the clock? How it's turning from light blue to dark blue? The photo changes at noon everyday. 

After the clock, we walked farther towards the city center and got lunch. We followed that up with some photos in front of Place du Vieux Marche or the modern chuch of St. Joan of Arc...

And a quick walk through the fish market, where we had to take a picture of a stunned McColley...

Yes, those are lobsters.

Our next stop was the Tour Jeanne D'Arc, but we passed a park along the way and the boys just had to play. This is still one of our favorite pictures, just for McColley's face. 

I don't remember the actual purpose of the tower, but I do remember standing with KC in the bottom while the boys jumped on the wooden doors on the floor above us. You know what? Towers echo A LOT! 

After our tour of the Tour (ha...you see what I just did there?), we jumped back in the car and headed towards Bayeux. 

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Vacation Redux - Paris, France 2011

It's been awhile when your browser doesn't remember the web address automatically...

My wonderful sister has given up pestering me about posting photos from our various trips to visit them over the last 12 months. So of course, now I'm going to post some pictures. :-)

While it's been almost a full year since our trip to Italy and France, I hate to not share some of the photos from our time in Northern France with our nephews and their parents. For my sister's perspective, you can visit her blog here: Maguire Madness. And to see where I previously left off, you can go back to this post: Manic in Milano.

From Milan, we left SUPER early and flew to Paris. We had a few hours in the city before we had to catch our train to Calais to meet the family. We decided to walk towards the Notre Dame Cathedral, a much longer walk than we anticipated! And it didn't help that I felt SO sick.

 Tim loved taking (or attempting to take) pictures of the beautiful stained glass inside the cathedrals.

After visiting this landmark, we got on a train back to the station, retrieved our luggage from the lockers and waited to board. A word to the wise: Don't sit on your suitcase in a busy train station...I fell over and looked like a total doofus, but Tim got a good laugh out of it. :-)

The train ride was a few hours and we had to switch to a commuter train closer to Calais. We had been told that we would have a 30 minute layover between trains, but when we got off the first one, there was an earlier train to Calais leaving in about 5 minutes. We jumped on that one and were able to get to Calais right on time to meeting KC, B, and the boys! Then it was a long drive to Rouen.

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Snow and Show.

I've been told I need to blog more...

In case you're not aware, it snowed this week. And for our area, it was quite a lot! 

Instead of being productive and actually getting anything done...we watched movies and played in the snow. I refused to do anything right outside our condo (dog poop bombs everywhere!), so we trekked down to the tennis court. 

Our snowman has a top hat! 

 Things have been busy around here. Tim is working most weekends and I have been at rehearsals almost every evening. Tim got his first taste of acting a few weeks ago when we filmed a commercial for my next show, Black Comedy.

I can't figure out how to insert the video, because it's only uploaded on to Facebook, so I'm going to give you the link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2811728186775

Can you spot us?

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The theater, the theater...

(Can you finish the above lyric, from a popular Holiday movie?)


I had my first rehearsal last night for my new show Black Comedy. (For those of you wondering, I got the part of Carol. She is described as quacking...still figuring that out.)

It was my first time reading through the script and...I never leave the stage. Ever. ::freakingout:: Tim pointed out that, at least, I don't have any costume or hair changes. That's a plus!

IN OTHER NEWS:
Most of our days have been filled with work. Tim is working 7 days a week, so our adventures have been very, very limited. This is my excuse for such a lackluster blog. There hasn't been a whole lot I'd like to remember!

I guess my only story is a cute anecdote from this Sunday...

We have season tickets to the 5th for the evening performance. I love this time, because after the show, members of the cast come out and do a "talkback" with anyone who wants to stick around. It's a good chance to ask questions about the show, their career, etc.

The show playing now is Cinderella by Rogers & Hammerstein. There were a lot of kids in the audience, which is pretty much the norm during the holiday season. However, I wasn't expecting too many of those kids to stick around the talkback, I mean it started at 9:00pm! But they did stick around, and they were so funny.

There was one boy, probably 7 or 8, who was literally jumping off his seat to ask questions. His first question was about how the Fairy Godmother changed Cinderella's dress into the ball gown. The emcee/artistic director of the 5th told him "I can't tell you that, it's magic!" Well, lucky for this little boy, the Fairy Godmother came out! Again, he jumped off his seat and he was called on to ask a second question. This time, he went straight to the source and asked the FG how she magically appeared on stage. The actress started going into a long, detailed description of pyrotechnics and stage safety, while the little boy started sinking farther and farther back into his seat. The actress finished her explanation, but sensing that the boy wasn't so into this answer, she ended it with "Never mind, that's all wrong, it's magic!"

Of course, all of the adults started laughing and the little boy perked up at that response. It was probably more of a "the adults are all laughing, so I'm going to smile" situation, but he seemed much happier afterwards. :-)

Can you believe it's only 10 days to Christmas?!

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Oh, Christmas Tree.

Welcome back! It was a good (and much needed) weekend off for the blog.

I thought I'd post some pictures of our super sweet christmas tree. 

Daytime...

Night time...

I found a tutorial online for taking pictures of christmas trees and it was all good and dandy, but you couldn't see Santa. At. All. So I made Tim pose for a picture with a candle. You can imagine how exciting that was for him...

Of course, no tree is complete without a little mickey mouse. :-)

And, just because it's awesome, here's our Hershey, PA nativity scene...

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Finally.

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Jingle Bell Card Display.

I love receiving Christmas cards.

But I've struggled for a long time on how to display them. Not this year.

This year I had a plan.

I google searched and I found the BEST idea.

Jingle Bells.

The inspiration...

From Centsationalgirl.com

My supplies...

I wrapped the green bead garland around the silver garland to give the bells something to "hang on" to, so that they wouldn't slide around. Plus, it was a pretty cheap silver garland, so the green adds just the right amount of pizzazz!

Laying it all out...

Our carpet is covered in glitter. As it should be.

The finished product...

 I made the wreath last year from some leftover ribbon and felt. Not too shabby. 

When Tim and I tried the bells the first time, the cards slid right out. It might have been because of the size of the bells (or the cheapness), but I made it work. 

It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! And the best part, is that I can disassemble everything at the end of the season and either re-use it or change it up. I think I might try a lighted garland next time...or maybe a holly garland...or maybe different color ribbon...the possibilities are ENDLESS! :-)

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