Monday was career day at school. The boys didn't dress up but Amber was a ballerina! She really wanted to dress up as a fairy, but Jason wouldn't let her, ha! So we thought of a ballerina.
I stayed and read to some of Amber's classmates for reading day.
For Jacob's Swiss trip he needs waterproof pants. I had ordered some from home but they are too big so he can't wear them. So I went to one of the sports stores here. I found some rain pants. The last xs mens and they weren't too outrageously priced and a smaller camping sleeping bag for their hike where they have to camp out one night. So I may still try the sports store in France if I feel like going out there or go with a friend since their stuff is much cheaper.
My neighbor friend called and wanted to go shopping at some stores here. Smets have an outlet store and a regular store here. So we went to the regular store first. It has some home stuff and then some clothes. Most of the clothes were from 200 euros up to 450 or so euros! Super expensive, crazy!! Needless to say we didn't buy anything. Then we went over to the outlet store and the stuff was still pretty expensive. She got a gift for someone.
After school I had brought Amber's scooter for her to scooter to the park with a friend. It was a long walk from school back to the park by our house. The mom said Amber was getting a little bit tired and mentioned this was a long walk, ha!
The boys each had a friend over but we had to make a quick stop at the ortho for Sean's retainer check. Nothing like taking 4 boys in an office! Everything looks good with Sean's retainer. He has had it for almost a year now and we can start weaning the time he wears it now until he just will wear it at night until it no longer fits is what I would like to do. So he was happy and we were very proud of him for watching over it more carefully and not losing it! So we don't even need to see her anymore which works out well b/c she is moving back home.
The boys all had fun playing between the park and the trampoline out back. Jacob's one friend was covered in sand when they came back from the park. I had to wipe all the sand off of him before I let him come back in the house! Sean's friend stayed for dinner as his mom was getting back later tonight.
Tuesday was animal day so the boys didn't do anything but Amber went as a dinosaur.
Today I joined my friend at the thermal pool again. It was very nice and relaxing. Some old guy told us to ssshh I guess. I told her I didn't hear him, I must have been too loud! Ha! So you go around the pool and the jets hit your body in different parts and there is an inside and outside part to the pool. After the pool we had lunch by the pool. The special was veal and we had just been talking about it and I said I had never prepared it. She is from Norway and it is popular there, but very expensive. So we had it for lunch. It wasn't too bad.
After school Sean had math. So I brought Amber's scooter and she scootered around outside the school with her friends. Jacob had track. After math we dropped Sean off at tennis and then in a bit back to school for track and on to tennis for Sean!
Wednesday was crazy hair day. The kids wanted colored hair but the only color I had was white. So Jacob just look like an old man. Hard to see it in the picture. It looked better from the back.
Sean spiked his hair but didn't want spray b/c he had swimming this afternoon and I did funky ponytails and spray for Amber's hair.
After drop off I met 4 other friends for coffee at a cafe close to school. It was nice. Then quickly to the store for some groceries and home for a quick salad and back to school for volunteering in Sean's class for swimming. His class has started swimming for PE. So we have one parent help with the boys and one parent help with the girls. They have to walk to another building about 5 min. away and then change. So I had never been to the pool before. They normally don't start swimming in PE until 4th grade and then they have to do it on their own.
Amber went home with her ballet friend for lunch and then back for ballet. When she finished I got her and we went outside to play while the boys did RE. About 20 min. later I see the boys and they said the teacher never showed up. So I told the 4 of them I would watch them on the playground until their moms came and got them from what would have been the end of class. I called the guy in charge of RE but he had no idea why the teacher didn't show up. So all the kids played outside. This afternoon was beautiful and about 70 degrees! We came home once all the boys moms got there. Jason was wanting to be outside this afternoon so at 4:15 he came home and went for a run!
Thursday was rock star or sports day. The boys wore sports jerseys and Amber was a rock star.
I bought a exercise video off our Apple TV and I was so excited to use it! So I did that this morning and then my friend and I were meeting at the mall down south a bit for lunch at this Italian place I wanted to try and they have our favorite jewelry store there. So as I am heading down there Jason calls and asks if he can join us for lunch. So he joined us too! It was nice. Then he went back to work and my friend and I went to one of our favorite stores there!
This afternoon my kids each had something after school so I didn't even have to go to school until 5:30, crazy! Amber went to a friend's house, Sean had bball and the girl up the street is in the class too so we will car pool and she picked up today. So that will be nice. And then I picked Jacob up from track at 5:30 only to hand him a waffle, chocolate egg and his guitar because the teacher needed to move up the time. Poor Jacob, he didn't leave school until about 6:15!
It was a beautiful day and when Jason finished his stuff at work he was able to swing by and pick up Amber at her friend's house and then we met up at home and all went to pick Jacob up and then headed downtown. They were having some festival going on downtown with game and food booths or little housed restaurants. So we went there and had dinner and the kids played some games. It was nice to be outside and enjoy the last nice day for awhile!
Friday was the last day of spirit week and it was pj day!
Everyone was good with it. Right away after school started Jacob's class had their economic graduation ceremony. His teacher had them start in preschool and they had to go all the way through college and they had to pay for rent, etc. Jacob even had to apply to college. So it was good for them. The principle came and handed out their certificates. It was nice. Right when it was Jacob's turn I went to take a picture and the camera battery died- rats!
Some kids after college had gotten through 2 years of graduate schooling too. After this the kids each had their stores set up. They worked in groups of 3 people and made their own stores. Jacob did the lottery and his 2 partners did the snack shop. The kids gave the parents a gift card with some left over money they had earned. The teacher said the kids had given the parents between 100-500 euros to spend at the stores. So what do you think we got from Jacob? 100 euros. So we were kidding him why didn't why get 500! He said only one kid had done that. Too funny! So we went shopping at the kids stores. One was a jewelry making one, scrapbook one, arcade with 3 games and then you get tickets to get your prize. A craft one then too. It was fun. Jason made it in too for it. After this I ran to a smaller grocery by me for some things then home to drop things off and tennis. After tennis the homeowners had the chimney cleaner people coming today. I thought they were suppose to clean it from the roof and the furnace room, but it was raining today, imagine that, so they just did the furnace room.
After school Amber went to a friend's house, and the boys had a playdate with 2 brothers who are in their classes too! So the older ones went to his house and I took the younger ones. Sean and his friend here had a good time. The family lives close enough to school to walk but it was raining and they had to ride the 2 bikes over there so they got a bit wet especially since Jacob lost his sweatshirt at school today and he didn't listen to me about taking a coat!
Saturday we had nothing going on and it was suppose to be cold and rainy here so we decided to drive to Brussels, Belgium. It was a 2 hour drive. We left at 8am and got home at 8pm. Jason didn't enjoy driving around this town. At least 5 times when the GPS told us to turn we couldn't b/c they had it blocked off now.
We first went to the Royal Belgian Institute of National Sciences. Here they have the world's largest permanent dino exhibit. It was pretty neat. One section had maybe 6-8 huge dinos reconstructed and they were only standing on their back legs.
Here the kids are digging for fossils.
These were some of the first dino bones put together around the 1850's and at that time they thought they stood only on their hind legs. Then later people came to realize they didn't walk standing up, but it was like 100 years ago these bones were put together and they were too fragile to take apart so they left them like this. This area is also one of the first places they found dino bones! The rest of the museum was all different types of real animals that had been stuffed.
I couldn't believe how many animals they had. I am not sure how they got all of them, but they did say that some of them customs found of people trying to import them! The whale section was cool, no stuffed whales but the whale bones on the ceiling were huge!
From here we drove down into the city center. It was really pretty. Here they opened one of our favorite restaurants last summer! I knew this before we went of course, so we went and had lunch! That puts us at 8 countries for eating at one!
It was good as usual. Afterwards we walked around the square and tried to go in and tour the neat town hall, but it is only open on Wed. and Sunday, kind of strange!
Then we just walked down some of the side streets.
We went in and there was a wedding going on! So we couldn't really walk around much. Then we got in the car and drove a bit north of the city to a Brussels icon, the Atomium. This was built for the 1958 World Fair as a model of an iron molecule- blown up 165 billion times.
So we went up there. There are 9 atoms in there, but you can only go in 5 of them. One that we didn't see you can rent out for parties, etc. That would be cool! So after we bought tickets we had to stand in line probably for half an hour and take the elevator up to the top one. There you have a view of Brussels.
On the second floor of this atom is a cafe/restaurant. We went up there to see about getting a drink or something but it wasn't really very neat and just small tables. So then you go back down the elevator and start taking escalates and stairs up to the other 4 atoms.
Nothing really too exciting, but fun to go up into them!
From here we saw everything I wanted to see so we drove back home. We ordered some pizza from Pizza Hut on the way home and just picked it up and had it at home. It was a long day, but fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment