Trick or treating

It's our last trick or treating in Sicily. The boys dressed up as the Final Four NASA Astronauts. Everyone loved their costumes, especially because the Final Four real astronauts had recently visited our base.

The rainy season is here, and it poured out tonight. We only made it a few blocks, but the boys were happy to come home with a little candy and watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on itunes. Tom is away on a work trip for a few days but the boys each picked out their Gummy Bears to save for him. With it only being me, I wasn't able to get as many cute shots as I was hoping. Maybe I'll have them dress up tomorrow so I can take a few more.

Max was not thrilled with his costume.

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He was trying to find a way out of it!

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Once we got outside, he forgot about how unhappy he was. The other boys loved dressing up!

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A Paudler record?

Lincoln, who is 2 years and 10 months old, learned to ride his bike with NO training wheels yesterday. Now he's riding all over the place. He's so proud of himself, and we're proud of him too. We think this might be a new Paudler record?? :) We posted a short video clip below the pictures.

Possibly even better than learning to ride a bike, Lincoln is officially potty trained too! Good job Lincoln!

Lincoln's victory dance!

A peak into our classroom.

Taking our homeschooling on the road to Normandy and Paris.

Over Columbus Day weekend, we took a three hour flight to Paris. Then we rented a car and drove about two hours to Normandy. Tom found a cute, little hotel on the beaches of Normandy (near Gold Beach). That's where we stayed for our first two nights.

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For the past month, we've been studying D-Day. We watched about a half dozen documentaries, memorized facts from our Normandy iPad app, and took a trip to the library to check out a D-Day book. DJ, who is just about to turn ten, knows more about D-Day than most college students. I'm amazed. This is one of the things I love about homeschooling. It's fun to watch our kids get excited about learning.

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We walked through the American Cemetery.

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We shook their hands and thanked them.

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Good view of what is left of Mulberry harbor which was critical to the success of the Allied victory in WWII.

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Omaha Beach

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Bomb craters left from the bombing of Pointe Du Hoc.

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Army Rangers scaled these cliffs.

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German cemetery where over 20,000 Germans were buried. This was first an American Cemetery until it became a German one. Stark contrast between this cemetery and the American one.

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So much history. Time to leave Normandy and drive back to Paris. We stayed a night in Paris and even had a view of the Eiffel Tower from our hotel room! We were able to watch it light up and sparkle at night.

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A little side trip to Toys R Us. Look what they had built in the Lego section!

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We spent two full days in Paris. It reminded me a lot of NYC. This picture is in front of the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa. We learned that Mona Lisa was Italian!

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Time to go back to Sicily. Au revoir Paris!