Making Mama's Dream Come True on the Way Home

Well, one of them anyway!  I've wanted to go to Monet's gardens and home in Giverny for a good while.  I naively thought that my kids would think it was cool too, but they cleared that misunderstanding up before we got there.  We've been reading about the history of art all year.  My two art history related, non-museum places in Europe that I wanted to visit were Givery, France and Delft, Holland because there's an alley that is supposed to look the same today as when it was painted by Pieter De Hooch.  They are both quick stops, or should be.

However, we didn't quite get the apartment tidied up and out the door in time to make it at the opening time so the line was rather long.  In fact, we did so poorly on time that it was too close to lunch once we got there to do the gardens first.  This meant we were even later getting in line since we had to eat first.  We had a quick lunch at a hot dog stand and went looking for the entrance.  It was such a small town that we thought we'd find it easily, but we went the wrong way first for a little bit until we saw signs for Monet's grave.  The children were not happy waiting in line in the "hot" sun.  It was about 85 degrees.  That's not that bad, people!

Luckily, I came with my big girl pants on, expecting tired and unhappy kids.  I decided that I was going to enjoy it no matter what the children did.  I'd say that Operation Big Girl Pants was a success.

Hannah has an honest face.  One thing about her is she is real and not ever fake.

Judah had some really big meltdowns because Brian was done carrying him in the backpack and Judah can't seem to take five steps without his legs turning into spaghetti from exhaustion.  That's a long story that nobody wants to hear.  Let's just say that I knew we'd pushed them beyond what they could gracefully handle and it was a chance I couldn't pass up.  I'm making it sound worse than it really was, I'm sure.

I took a picture of this lily because it was one of many that reminded me of my Lillian.  This was the 7th anniversary of my miscarriage.  The fourth of July is always bittersweet for that reason. 

Japanese Bridge with my family on it!

This was a worthwhile stop, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I bought a Monet tea cup for my collection.  The gardens are so well tended and has some very unique flowers in them as well.

You can walk through his house as well.  My favorite was his kitchen that had blue decorative design on white tiles covering the walls.  I took quite a few pictures of it because I like the idea at least for my final and more permanent home

Monet's bedroom window view!

Brian said that Judah's response to this window was, "Wow!"

The tiles may be hard to make out individually, but as a group you can still see the effect in this photo.

Brian had to take him through the house separately from me since he was crying for me to carry him in the Ergo.  He doesn't give Daddy nearly the trouble he gives me.  By the end he was fine, and who isn't cheered up by a few noisy chickens?