Drunk with power...

It has finally arrived: the weekend before our trip to Euro Disney near Paris. I have never seen the kids so excited about anything. Upon discovering our vacation plans, many Europeans have turned up their noses, finding it clichéd that an American family would go to Disney in Europe. But I can assure you there is no other destination more dear to the hearts of young children (not even castle ruins, vineyards and museums).

Now for the real purpose of this post. I recently saw a story on CNN.com about a site where one can submit an electronic confession. The obviously heartfelt (although in some cases odd) confessions inspired me to bare my soul here. When we first planned our trip to Disney, we began using it to "inspire" our kids to behave themselves. It started out so innocently. As the date has gotten closer, I must admit (confess?) that I've begun abusing my parental power to cancel the trip.

It all seemed so reasonable a few weeks ago, when we started using this oldest form of extortion to get the kids to behave in public, clean the play room or do their homework. I'm still not sure exactly when or where I let this tactic get the better of me. Perhaps it was last Wednesday when I went to see if Robert had missed any spots while waxing the van. You see, I tripped over Sophia, who was shining my work shoes. Her crying woke up Emily, who had passed out from exhaustion while scrubbing the floors. I felt so bad I decided I'd let them wait until today to wash the windows (time allowing after making our breakfast).

Since Robert did such a good job bringing the groceries up from the van (which was as shiny as we've seen it after his excellent wax job), I decided to take him to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in Mannheim, about 20 minutes from here. The Cinemaxx there shows some films in English at certain hours. We originally planned to see Spider-man but got lost and missed the English showing. While I'm sure "Pirates" is a good flick, I fell asleep and Robert asked to leave early. Good thing too as I would have hated for him to have to weed the common grounds of our building in the dark (like he did last weekend).

As a mildly interesting aside about German theaters, you get an assigned seat and pay a different price (I believe) depending on where you sit. The outrageously overpriced popcorn and Coke are the same as in the States.

Anyway, all the kids' hard work will be rewarded when we arrive in Disneyland tomorrow. We plan to leave at 8:00 or so to make the 6 hour journey. We'll be back in Heidelberg Thursday night. Later today we're going to Thomas and Luciana's house to celebrate Lúcio's (Luciana's brother) birthday.

As long as I'm confessing, I'm starting to plan a jaunt to Legoland (we might even make the trip some day). The kids are dying to go and if it helps improve their behavior, I figure it's a win-win. Note to self: never use this power for (anything more) evil.

By the way, B bought an electric grill-like device to sate her desire for churrasco here at the ranch. After trying the meat and linguiça she made on Friday, I remain unconvinced as to its being an adequate substitute for the real thing. Better than nothing I suppose.
Finally, see below gratuitous photos of the kids. More to come after the party this afternoon.