On s'amuse

Without a TV,we are finding all sorts of things to do around here. Doug is going through "sports games and relaxing time with video games" withdrawal, but the other three seem to doing ok. I have to admit that I would like to be able to relax with a remote from time to time, but I just spend a lot of time reading or getting caught up on blogs and facebook. Now you're probably saying, "Uh, you're in Paris. Of course you have a lot of things to do!" That may be true, but would you like to explore Paris with a stroller in the non-stroller-friendly Metro system with 3 active boys while it's raining? No. I didn't think so. So, needless to say we found creative ways to keep ourselves busy. Again, let me apologize for the lack of sound. You probably don't want to hear some things anyway.
We keep getting hacky-sack balls in the cereal boxes. I have to keep reminding them that we do not throw balls in a house. They came up with another way to use them. Introducing:

Hacky-sack floor hockey with styrofoam lightsabers.

Anyway, things quieted down around here once Spring Break was over. Thomas and Timmy find all sorts of things to do together. They play with remote control dinosaurs. These dinos roar and had bright red glowing eyes. The boys play with them in the dark and it makes it extra scary. You can see the brown dinoasaur writhing in pain after Timmy knocks him down. It doesn't even phase him when the green one is coming in for the attack. Timmy-zilla wins again.



I got out the remote control cars a couple weeks ago. It was so funny when Timmy was controlling the car and it kept going around him. He kept turning around and around like a dog chasing his tail. Unfortunately I didn't get that video. But in this one Timmy keeps crashing into himself and then pushing the car away as if he's mad at it for crashing into him.



Of course, someone needed to drive the Jeep. I wonder if Obi-Wan prefers Jeeps to flying.
We play lots of games. Thomas decided to have the Star Wars people join in a game of Candy Land.We have a lot of boxes around here. A few of them are quite big. What better way to use a giant box than to turn it into a castle/fort? Doug made this and he had fun doing it.Thomas made a flag for the fort. He did this flag all by himself.

All four of my boys in their castle.

I also made a theater out of one of the big boxes. I try to encourage them to use their imagination and make stories, but my efforts are in vain because the only thing these puppets do is fight each other. Timmy throws them in and out again. He won't sit still for a "show" and the other boys get mad at him for "coming backstage". Oh well. Here is some footage of the latest show. You're not missing much without the sound. I did manage to get the actors to give a bow at the end.