10.5 hours in a plane with 2 kids who will be awake

It's 8:30 pm Paris time. We left Chantal's today at 10 am. Chantal made crepes for dessert last night, breakfast this morning, sent us off with crepes she made this morning to snack on today.  She was an overly generous hostess and we're going to be indebted to Tata Chantal for a very long time!

We drove straight through other than an hour lunch, and got to the hotel around 5.  Paris traffic was pretty crazy.  A 4.5 hour drive (per GPS) that took 7 hours... 

When G left us to return the rental car, Louis slammed Marcelles fingers in the bathroom door.  That was fun running to the ice machine with my hotel ice bucket to deal with that. All is fine. But there is never ever ever a dull moment.  (Wouldn't  dull be divine?) 

We did the math on our flight tomorrow.  Our flight takes off at 11:30 am Paris Time, which is 4:30 am CST.  We land at 3 pm CST which is 10 pm Paris Time.  

Think about it for a second:

By our body clocks, we take of at 11:30 am and land at 10 pm.  The flight over was 7.5 hours in the middle of the night, so L slept a good 4 hours, and M slept more.  This flight is three hours longer AND the kids are going to be fully awake like it's daytime. Oh. My. God.  All I can think about is that flight to Philly that was so awful because the kids were awake... And it was only 3 hours long... 

Help!

Please.

Pray for us. Do a rain dance. Send us good vibes. Talk to the good flight gods. We are going to need all the help we can get.

We are heading to the airport 3 Hours before our flight time tomorrow.  We realized when you arrived 2 Hours Before, the kids spend the whole 2 hours sitting because you're at the ticket counter, going through security, getting to the gate, then flights board 30 mins early (domestic) or 45 - 60 mins early (international).  They're already sitting for 2 hours (plus drive time) before you board.  I'm hoping 3 hours early should give us an hour to run around Charles De Gualle and play before we are cooped up on a plane for an entire day (following a full day of driving). 

I'm also worried Marcelle and I are coming down with a sore throat. I really would have preferred to run this marathon at my best.

Once we get to Dallas, we just have to make it back to ELP under the state of complete exhaustion of being awake with 2 kids on a plane all day and it being like 5 am or something crazy. I don't want to do the math on that one. 

Wish us luck! Bonne nuit!