Carnival Vacation 2012

Friday we took the kids out of school, but of course first I had them complete all their homework for the week and I asked their teachers to give them their spelling tests on Thursday.  So we packed up Jason's car- tightly, and off we drove about 2 1/2 hours to Maastricht in the Netherlands, or shall I say Pays-Bas in French as they call it.  We drove to one of the main squares in town- The Vrijthof and they had underground parking right there.  Here they were starting to set up the square for the big carnival celebrations to start later in the day.  So mostly beer booths and some brat and fries booths too.  The 2 famous churches are here so we were able to see them both, but only enter one.

Basilick Sint Servaas and Sint Jan Kerk, this one is the longest church in the Netherlands.   It is very pretty.

This one also has a tresure room.  So of course this church you have to pay to enter.  So it was about 4 rooms of church tresure items.  From here we walked across the street to this cute little restaurant and had lunch.  In the Netherlands they speak Dutch, and we didn't have a clue what anything was and they didn't have a children's menu.  So the kids each got a hamburger.  They came out on a hoagie roll, open faced, mayo, salad like lettuce, sliced tomato and a whole burger (not well done) sitting in the middle with a toothpick holding it on there.  Jason had one of the tradational dishes.  The waiter knew a little English and was trying to explain what it was.  So Jason got these 2 big fried balls of something.  It looked like melted darker cheddar cheese, but not sure.  Then it came with a hoagie roll and some tiny little cold cooked shrimps.  Mine was delicious.  I got a potato and leek soup.  After lunch we walked around the square and saw a lot of bars all getting ready for the carnival parties. 

This is one store selling Carnival costumes.

Even the streets already had remanents of confetti and things.  At a couple of bars we saw children playing outside or inside all dressed up in elarobrate costumes. 

Some funcky statues in the square.

Then we left as the kids were getting cold walking around.  It was a misty, kind of colder windy day.  We had trouble trying to figure out how to pay our parking ticket to get out of the garage.  Once we got that paid we drove over to see the old city gate- Helpoort.  Just a neat, narrow passage way into the city.

Here even thought the weather was bad there were many people on their bikes. 

We drove down a street, we were just kind of following a bus and didn't see any signs about not going down the street, that was not meant for cars.  It was a narrow brick pavered road, but I guess ok for buses.  One guy on his bike started waving his finger at us and shaking his head.  Then we were wondering how to get out b/c it had one of those pillars up over the exit.  So we drove up to it and it sensed us and went into the ground and we got outa there!
From here we drove about 1:15 minutes to a Center Parcs Resort in Belgium.  These are family orientated resorts.  They have some in France, Germany and 3 in Belgium.  So we thought we would do this for the kids since the rest of our trips are always sightseeing and walking around.  So these resorts resemble maybe something like the WI Dells. 
I had printed out our E-ticket for this place.  So when we get there we just drive up to this window and they give you your packet of info and the keys to your cottage.  We drive down this narrow one lane path to the cottage.  Unload ALL of our stuff and we are looking around and are not that pleased with this cottage.  It is fairly small for 5 of us and it only has 4 beds.  I open our packet up and it has someone elses name on it.  Crap- they gave us the wrong package at the check in!  So Jason calls to complain and they say we have to pack up our stuff again and go back to the check in lady and get the right package.  We barely got all the stuff to fit in the car the first time and now we have to put it ALL back in and Jason is not happy!  We get the stuff and everyone back in and go back and get the right package.  We go to the other cottage and are a bit happier to see that it is bigger and has 3 bedrooms.  But these places are pretty basic.  And they both even came with ants- yuck!  I just kept walking around killing them and praying they stayed out of our food!  The cottage has 3 bedrooms, each with 2 single beds, a small kitchen with a mini fridge, a eating area and a family room.  It has a bathroom with only a tub and 2 sinks by the bedrooms.   But if you need to use the bathroom you walk out the door to the inside of the cottage into like this little foyer area that has the main door to the cottage and a storage closet and here is the potty room.  I kind of feel like this is an outhouse!
Once we got settled we pack up everyone's swim stuff and walk over to the center with everything. Of course not before Sean had tried to plug in the portable DVD player with the right plug but not the voltage converter.  So he blew that up!  That is 2 for him and one for Jason now!
 I had requested a close cottage and it wasn't too far so that was nice considering it was cold, raining or snowing most days.  And once you unload you have to drive your car back to the main parking lot at the begining of the resort and walk back to your cottage.  That took Jason a bit!
In the center area is where they have 3 restaurants, pool, stores, and kids clubs and activities.

We ate dinner at the buffet restaurant which was having an American buffet night.   Not really sure what was American on the buffet but we all found something to eat.  When the waitress comes to deliver the drinks she completely dumps a whole sprite on Sean and his food.  Poor guy.  His plate looked like soup and he had sprite from his head down to his pants.  So after we got him dried off Jason and Sean when up to go get some more food for him. 
After dinner Jason took the boys to the pool and Amber and I ran to the store right there for a few groceries.  It was quite a large grocery store.  We ran the food back to our cottage and then went to the pool.  The pool has a couple of body slides, a kid's area and then a wave pool and a lazy river, but no tubes.  And then a rapids river that was so crowded with people.  Here there are no lifeguards.  You have people placed a few places, but fully dressed not like they are going to jump in the water.  And even at the top of some of the slides there is no one there either.  It has a lot of trees in this dome with a glass top so it was nice during the day if it wasn't cloudy to see out. 
The kids enjoyed the pool.  Only one problem- you have to bring your own towels.  I had called earlier in the week and asked if we needed towels for the pool.  The lady told me "You don't need to bring towels for the indoor pool, but you do need them if you do the outdoor pool"  Ok that is fine we don't plan on being outside so I didn't bring any.  They have this area in the pool that has soft pads and you can lay down on them and there is some light shining on them so like a warming area, so we dried off that way tonight.
When we got back to our cottage they had delivered a little gift basket with some things inside to apolize for the mess up with the check in so that was nice. 

Saturday- Last night Amber fell out of bed.  I wasn't suprised.  The way that girl sleeps I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of her bed rail.  Luckily her bed was close to the ground and her bag was right there as well so she was ok.  When I leave her room I notice a huge black spider outside the boy's room.  It was about the size of a 50 cent piece!  What is it with the spiders here in Europe, they are monster size, steroid looking spiders!  So I woke Jason up to kill the spider.  Even he thought it was big- yuck!
Today was the day most everyone else left to go skiing around the Alps.  This is the most popular ski week of the year. 
The whole trip the kids slept in great.  Today they all slept in until 8am when they heard me in the kitchen.  This morning Jacob was doing a Rapid River kid's class.  Unfortunatly, all the sports activities you had to be 8 for and Sean is not quite 8 yet.  This place has a ton of activities for kids, and families to do it is overwhelming.  Since it is winter all the outside activities were closed which is probably half of their program.  The resort is built around lakes.  So it is out in the forest with these little cottages spaced around the lakes.  Then in the summer they have swimming and a lot of water activities as well. 
So I went into the store today to buy some towels for us, only to see that each towel costs around $45!  I was just starring at them, are you kidding me!  Then the lady in the store says you can also just rent them down at the activities desk.  I thank her for letting me know.  I wish they would have that posted someplace!
So for an hour Jacob got to take a boogie board and a helmet and go down the rapid river before the pool opened.  He loved it!  After this we met up with them at the indoor pirate ship play area.  It is a huge half of a pirate ship that the kids can climb up, down and all around.  It is in the sand with a mote around it.  Amber didn't like being up on the ship, so she stayed down in the water and sand.

 A lot of kids didn't wear their suits and so ended up running around in their underwear since they got soaked.
So in this area was a high ropes adventure course only Jacob could do.  He loved it as well!

We stayed here and ate lunch and then headed over to the pool. One area in the pool you put on your googles and you swim outside and go underwater and they have an aquarium there.
For dinner tonight we had ordered the fondue package.  So they bring all the stuff to your cottage in a refridgerated bin and then you cook it when ever you want.  It was like 3 big packages of meat.  It was way too much.  I don't know how they thought we could have eaten all of this.  It came with a ton of sauces and yummy potato salad.  I thought it would have included a cheese or chocolate fondue, but all we got were 2 loaves of bread and pudding cups for dessert.
After dinner the kids were seeing how many ants they could each squish- gross!
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Sunday morning I heard Sean get up around 7:30 and play quitely in the family room and then around 8am the lovely rooster we had seen on Friday night was making its morning rounds cock a doodle dooing!  Damn rooster.
This morning the boys did a 2 hour cooking class where they made pizzas and ate them for lunch there.

While the boys did this, Jason took Amber to the pool, and I got to go and get a back and neck massage and a mini facial.  It was lovely!  We then all went back to the cottage for lunch.  After lunch Amber did the Princess and knight kid's class.  It was so cute.  Once the girls got there they went into this castle looking room and all got dressed in the same pink dress.  They all got their faces painted.  When I peeked in they were getting their crowns on and all looking in the mirror.

 They then went and saw a puppet show.  Then they got to race around with horses on a stick and do some other activities in the room.

During this time that Amber had this class Jacob was signed up to do the zip line, but it was outside.  So we went outside where they said they were still having it this morning when we signed up.  The zip line is from a climbing tower at the edge of the lake and you zip to an island and then take a boat back.  As I am standing there I am wondering how they are going to be taking a boat back since the lake is frozen.  Soon the instructer comes over and says b/c of the frozen lake they can't do the zip line today.  Like they didn't know this this morning?  So instead she said they would open the indoor climbing wall for the 3 people who had signed up to do this zip line.  So we walked inside and Jacob spent the next 1 1/2 hours doing the climbing wall.  He did a great job and just shimmed up the wall. 

During all of the Jason took Sean to the pool and then when the other 2 finished their activities we went and joined them.  We stayed until dinner and just had dinner at one of the restaurants there in the market place.  After dinner Jason and the boys signed up to rent a tennis court and played tennis.

Some things Amber did while the boys were playing tennis.

By the end of the days here the kids are exhausted and easily go to bed!   Although not without killing some ants first.

Monday-  last night was not very peaceful.  I went to bed at 10:30.  I woke up when Jason came to bed at 11:30.  Then Amber started coughing at 12:30 so I got up and got her some water.  1am Sean came in crying that his ear hurt.  I think he got swimmer's ear.  I didn't have any ear drops, so I gave him some pain medicine.  At 3am he came back in and asked if it was time to get up-ugh!  Get up, I have hardly been to sleep!
About 7:30 we got up and started getting things packed up.  Jason had to walk back to the main parking lot and pick up our car.  Around 10am we left and as you follow the one lane traffic path and there is a guy standing there with a bucket that you just drop your keys off in.  This type of resort if you check in on Friday you have to check out on Monday.  So everyone is on the same schedule.
From here we drove to Antwerp about 1 hour away.  Here I booked this a little later and couldn't get us a room in the historic district so we were in a central location but about 20 min. walk from the historic district.  Here we stayed at the Radisson.  We had to have 2 rooms to get us together.  It was nice to be in an American hotel.  It had a big elevator that we could all fit in with our luggage!  It had king size beds and underground parking. 
Antwerp is a bigger city then I realized.  I read later that it is Belgium's second biggest city, and one of the world's largest ports.   This is where our sea shipment arrived as well.  This city hosted the Olympics twice in the 1920's.  So the story goes that this town got its name from a solider who challenged a giant that was attacking ships on the river.  The solider cut off the giant's hand and threw it in the river.  This is why the city's coat of arms is 2 severed hands.  The word handwerpen means to throw a hand and it eventually got turned into Antwerp.
Our hotel was in the diamond district and across the square from Centraal Station, very pretty building.

Right in front of our hotel was busy.  It had bus stops, tram stops and the underground subway.  So we got on the tram and went to the historical district and the Grote Market, had lunch and walked around.

These buildings in Grote Market where built in the 16 and 17 century.

This statue is in the center of the square and is of the solider throwing the giant's hand into the river.

We saw the Cathedral of Our Lady Church.  This church took over 169 years to build.  It is the largest in Belgium.  It was suppose to have 5 towers but only 1 and 1/4 got built.

We stopped and picked up some Belgium chocolate squares.  We just walked around that area, but it was pretty cold out so we headed back, about a 20 min. walk.  From here Jason took the 2 younger ones back to the hotel and Jacob and I went to the Diamond Museum.  Antwerp is know for its diamonds.   They say that 8 of our every 10 rough diamonds come through Antwerp.  We learned about how they mined them and saw some on display.  Jacob played this computer game they had called Steal the Diamond and he won, so when we left they gave him a tiny real diamond!  From here we walked through Centraal Station, very pretty.  It remined me a bit of the train station in the Hugo Movie.  Next to Centraal Station is the diamond district with all the shops.  So it is a bunch of stores selling gold, jewerly and diamonds.  We walked along a bit but kind of a seedy area.   I think the nicer stores were a few streets over.  This street was actually being torn up and was a big pile of sand.  They were laying new cobblestone.  So we just walked back to the hotel.  Once back in the room we picked up Amber and went to the aquarium place right next to the hotel.  It was really neat.  At one point you take an elevator down and it looks like you are going into a shark's mouth.
After this we went back to the room and found a restaurant for dinner and made reservations.  People in Europe love their reservations.  It is also harder here to sit 5 people if they don't know we are coming since they are smaller places.  Jason wanted Thai and we had seen an ad for a nice looking place so we called and made reservations.  We walked about a 1/4 of the way and stopped at a park for the kids to play at. 

Then headed over to the restaurant.  We wanted to get a cab, but never saw any.  Here as well they have a red lane that is for bikes only.  With all the bikes, trams, buses, and subway they probably don't have a need for many cabs.
The streets here are crazy zig zag, little narrow cobblestone and the tram goes down one side and there is only only one other lane.  For traffic going which way we have no idea.  And a lot of the streets are under construction.  So we just ended up walking to the restaurant.  It was a cute cozy place and had great food.  After dinner I didn't feel comfortable walking all the way back to our hotel b/c some of the streets just had no one around almost a creepy feeling, and it was really cold out.  No carnival partying here.  So we ask the waitress where can we get a cab.  She says just go either way down the street and you will see them.  Ok the way we came we didn't see any, so lets try the other way.  Some of these streets by the center sqaure are pedestrian only so we need to get back to a main street.  We walked a bit and end up down by the port and saw the fortress there.  Jason luckily spotted a van taxi so we hopped in it and headed back to the hotel.  I am glad none of us get car sick b/c with the just have eaten dinner, the bumpy cobblestone roads, and the sudden stopping and going would have definately gotten us!
Here all the signs are in Flemish, but everyone can speak English. 
Back at the hotel I took the kids to the pool.  It had a hot tub and a nice pool that overlooked the Centraal Station square- very pretty at night. And Jason was able to finish up some work.

Tuesday.  The nice thing about staying at a big hotel is they serve a big American style buffet breakfast that is included with your room.  So we had a wonderful big breakfast, even though it didn't stop Amber from asking as soon as we got in the car if she could have a snack!
The boys must have gone up to the buffet like 3 times for more juice and food.
Before we left last week Jason decided he needed to go to Paris for work this week, so we decided just to go with him.  So today we drove to Paris.  It was about a 3 1/2 hours to Paris.  Of course Jason seems to not completely understand the exact distance when the GPS is telling him to turn left and he passes it as we are trying to leave Antwerp!  So after 5 min. of trying to find our way out of the messed up streets and almost getting hit by a tram, we end up back where we missed the turn. 
We got to the hotel, it is on the outside of the downtown Paris area since Jason needs to go to work not too far or easier to get to from this side of town.
So we took a cab then to the Eiffel Tower- this was one of Jacob's things he has on his list to see in Europe.   The Eiffel tower was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889.  It took a little over 2 years to build.  He built it for the 1889 World Fair.  Supposably the people of Paris didn't like it and wanted to take it down after the Fair.  Of course it never got taken down and now look at what tourism it brings!   It wasn't too crowded, but out of the 4 legs that go up the tower only 2 were open.  One is for the lift which is a 3 hour wait, the other for the stairs.  So we chose the short line and did the stairs.

To get to the first level not too bad probably took about 8 min.  Jason had to carry Amber a bit.

Can you tell we are getting hot after walking up all the stairs as our hats, mittens and some coats have now come off!

Then we walked around and went up to the 2nd level- great views! 

So the total number of steps from the ground to the 2nd level is 704!  The very tip top of the tower was not open.

Jason and I did the Eiffel Tower about 1 1/2 ago and the weather was horrible.  It was summer and it was rainy, windy and cold.  Today was a great day.  It was sunny and high 30's- doable.
Going down all the stairs was much easier.  Amber was counting, but would only get to 20 and then would start over again also missing some in between.  When we get to the bottom I told her I think she missed a number.  She said "Oh, did I miss 60?".  I told her, "Yeah, that would be one of them!" 

From here they have a red hop on hop off bus tour that stops here, so we hopped on.

We toured on the bus for a little over an hour and then got off at the 7th stop the Arc de Triomphe. It was built to honor those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.  It was started sometime after 1806.   We just walked around it.  You can go up to the top of it, but Jason thought it might be more stairs and the kids were done with the stairs for today. 

  This is one of the most crazy intersections here. 12 roads all come to this Arc and there is a roundabout for people to get from one street to the next. I should have taken a picture of it. It is a mess.

Here is one picture from the internet on world wide traffic intersection photos.  So this is just one of the streets coming into the roundabout, there are 11 more! There are just way too many cars in this city for the roads. There are no lanes at the big roundabouts. It is so crazy, you have cars all over the road in the roundabouts.   I was in a cab here and I was scared and I wasn't even driving! On some of the larger roads there doesn't seem to be an official left turn lane b/c you have people going around the person who is turning left to go wait in front of them just further out into the intersection, and it will be like 4 cars deep like this. A lot of honking going on. Basically it seems like a traffic nightmare!

So we walked down the street famous Champs Elysees Avenue, all the shopping you could want.  We were only a block away from the Disney store when we finally found a cab that would take 5 of us.  We went to this American Grill place that Jason had seen to try and have dinner, only to remember nothing opens before 7pm.  Rats, it is like 5:15.  So we end up going to some sandwich place down the street and then got a cab back to the hotel.

Wednesday Jason went to work, so I took the kids to finish exploring today.  I got a cab and we went to the Louve.  This is one of the world's largest and most visited art museums.

We got there around 9:30 and it wasn't too crowded.  We easily got our tickets and went in.  The Louve has the glass pyramid out front and that is where you enter and go down the escalator to buy tickets.

 It consists of 3 buildings in a U shape. 

Here is a beautiful night picture of it from the Wikipedia web page.

We only covered part of the musuem in about a little over an hour as that was all Amber could handle. 

We saw a lot of the Eyptian exhibits.  When we came out of the Louve it was very crowded and there was a long line to get in.

 From here we walked down about 4 blocks and crossed the Seine river to pick up the hop on bus going in the direction we wanted. 

We took this back to the Arc and got off.  I had seen a McDonalds over here the day before.  Hate the fact we had to eat at McD in Paris, but better to keep them happy while sight seeing.  McDonalds is quite large here with 2 floors.  It was packed, not with many children either.  After this we walked over to the Disney Store.  This is a 2 level store as well.  They don't have a Disney store or any of our stores in Luxembourg.
After this we walk back and get back on the tour bus and finish the last couple stops on the tour.

The Opera House.

Notre Dame.  It is beautiful inside and out.  This is just the front picture. It is a long church.  Jason and I had done the tour of it last time we were here.  It took about 182 years to complete the whole thing, crazy!  It has beautiful blue stained glass windows on the inside.

 The last stop on the bus tour was across a bit from the Eiffel tower which is great for pictures of the whole tower. 

Everytime Amber sees the Eiffel Tower she says "Look it is Paris!"  Too funny.  So here we took a few more pictures. Then right next store was a naval museum so we did that.

It was full of big model ships and paintings.  The boys loved it.  After this we got a cab back.  A nice day of touring, and the kids did really well.  Jason got home for a late dinner we had at the hotel.  They give you a little appetizer that was wonderful.  It was a little dish with duck pieces on the bottom and a mashed potato puree on top.  It was so good.  All the kids ate theirs as well.
We actually got some sun on our faces today sitting on the top of the open tour buses.  A little chilly, but a great view. 
Here in Paris we saw the Police people in their cars, always could hear sirens going off, on motorcycles, on bikes and on these huge beautiful horses.
Tonight I finished that Playing With The Enemy  Book.  It was very good.  I didn't realize this but in the book they talk about the German sub the Americans caught in WWII.  This is the sub that we have seen that is on display at the Musuem of Science and Industry in Chicago!  It was very interesting how the rest of his life turns out.  I cried many times in the last half of the book.

Thursday Jason left to go on to another town in France.  We hung out at the hotel for a bit, then took a long, very long, cab ride to the train station.  I think we might have spent half the time in the cab not actually moving, just waiting in traffic. 
Here they have a speed train that goes between Paris and Luxembourg in 2 hours.  Once at the train station I was suppose to pick up my tickets at a machine using my credit card here.  Well it was asking for my pin and it wasn't working or I have the wrong pin code.  So I go and find the ticket office, not very well labeled.  And tried to pick up my tickets and she said I couldn't and would have to rebuy my tickets- ugh!  They will refund the first one back to my card.  So now I go to use my debit card and it isn't working either.  Thank goodness I had enough money on me to pay for them.  The train station is huge, 2 floors.  But not very nice.  They have one set of bathrooms way in the bottom corner and you have to pay for them.  What is it with Europe and its lack of bathrooms?  We wait out by the covered area before you get to the train where there are still some food places.  We sit and have lunch.  This station is kind of creepy.  There are security guards walking around and then these 3 guys dressed in army garb with their hands on and ready with their machine guns- nice!  About 20 min. before our train leaves they post which train it is.  I have to validate our tickets at some machine and then find our right car and seats.  All is well and we make it back.  A cab takes us back to our place.  We are glad to be back.  Unfortunatly since we took the train we only took our back packs and I took one small bag that had mostly clean clothes in it.  So Jason had all the stinky clothes and I needed to wait for him to come back to start all that post vacation wash.

Friday we ran to the store early to get some food.  I vowed I would never take all 3 kids to the store after my experience about 1 1/2 years ago with them, but I had no choice today.  But 1 1 /2 years ago I had to take all of them to Target shopping.  I had a full cart and I turned away to get something.  Amber was standing on one side of the cart.  Sean went and stood on her side as well.  The next thing I know I here a crashing sound and the card has tipped over on top of Amber and Sean.  My groceries are just rolling out of the cart.  Thank goodness they weren't hurt.  The cart fell resting ontop of Sean since he was bigger.  After that I decided no more store with everyone we will eat peanut butter and jelly until I can get back to the store!
Later in the morning I took Amber back to the dr. office.  We were just there a few weeks ago and now she has a type of bronchitis.  We had been doing so well staying out of the dr. office.  I think the last time we went was in May for the boy's check ups.  Of course I think she has passed this on to me as well.  So when I go to the Pharmacy and waited like 30 min. for someone to help me b/c it was so crowded, I asked them what they recommended for me.  It definatley helped. 
Later in the afternoon, Jacob had a friend over.  His friend had just come back from his vacation in Dubai.  Then Amber and I were busy baking things.  We made some donuts for the weekend, chili and corn bread muffins (import).
Jason got back later and we were all exhausted.

Saturday was a lazy day, spent doing laundry, making some cupcakes for Amber's b'day, getting the goodie bags ready for school and just hanging out!  I now seem to have come down with an awful head cold.
Out of the Wall Street Journal an article talking about the new McDonalds sandwich they are bringing to France said this:
"France's national Bread Observatory, which studies and promotes bread, says the French each consume about 150 grams of it a day, or roughly 55 kilograms a year. Many of them eat it with most meals, viewing bread almost as an extension of the knife and fork in pushing food around on the plate. French research center Credoc found that 98% of French people eat bread every day."
 I must be turning into a French person, now if I could only speak it!

Week of February 12

Sunday was the big day of Amber's b'day party!  She was so excited!  We had a nice outfit picked out and she wanted to put it on the minute she woke up, but since her party wasn't until after lunch and her top was white I made her wait until after lunch.  She must have asked me like every 15 minutes when she could put on her pretty outfit, too funny!
So we had 13 kids and it was at her Little Gym place.  All the kids had so much fun, and even Jacob and Sean participated with all the little kids.  Then we had brought a bunch of snacks and cakes for the food since it was after lunch.

The cake didn't quite look like the 3 layered checkered cake in the picture, but it was a nice layer cake that people thought was neat and enjoyed.

This is a picture of it after the party.  The people at the party place cut the cake wrong so it ended up falling over when they were done cutting all the pieces, so this is 2 of the 3 layers.  The layers ran together a bit in the pan, so it is more like a tie dye cake!

So these are the cupcake favor boxes, that we put the cupcakes in and gave away as favors!

After the party she spent the rest of the afternoon playing with all her new toys.  She had so much fun!


Monday Jason got up around 3:30am to get ready and fly out to the states.  Two states in 3 days and then a flight back.  Talk about time travel!
After I dropped the kids off I went to the ER, or what they have here to get my ribs checked out.  I have had this pain in the bottom of one of my ribs for a bit and it just seems to be hurting a bit more so I thought I would go and see if they could x-ray it and see if they saw anything.  They said everything looked normal so that is good, and he gave me some anti- inflammatory medicine.  It seemed to help right away, but still don't really understand why it was hurting. 
The hospital is just up the street from me, and they have a small underground 3 floor parking garage.  Since I was there early in the morning I was able to get a spot, but if you drive by there later, you will see a line down the street of cars waiting to get a spot in the garage.  They just wait until someone leaves and then the gate will let one car in.  So then you still have to walk outside to get to the hospital and once there I asked if they had an emergency room and you wait in line to get a ticket.  Then you register with the lady when she calls your number. Then you go to the urgency secretary and she checks you in and then you wait in their waiting room until you are called.  Then once called they take you back in a little room for evaluation.  Then I just walked around the corner for the x-ray, waited about 5 min. then the dr. came back and saw me.  So it was a good process and I was there for a little more then an hour. 
I use my phone to take most of our pictures here and then just send them to my email to download on the computer.  Well they just aren't going through.  So I tried something new.  I sent them to myself and then put my phone on the window sill facing the window and whala!  My picture arrive right away in my email.  Crazy houses here!
This afternoon Amber was just having so much fun playing with her new toys!  We played games, playdoo, barbies and crafts.  I actually lost track of the time and was almost late getting back to school.
One of Amber's girl friends is having a party this weekend, but we won't be able to make it so we gave her her gift, a bright pink dress up dress!  When she comes over here she loves getting into the dress up clothes as she didn't have any yet.
In Sean's class today it was someone's b'day and he brought in a pinada to do in class!  I haven't even seen those here at all. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids were excited to see little Valentines gift for themselves this morning!  Amber was so excited to bring her valentine's cards in to school that she had done for her friends.  Only the American's at school were dressed in red and valentine clothes.  No one else did valentines in her class.  In preschool they did make some valentine crafts and cookies.  Here there really were no valentine decorations anywhere, and not really any special treats in the stores.  They did have a few of their type of small cakes in pink hearts. 
Jason called me from Walmart today.  He was there at 6am shopping for a few things.  I am jealous he got to go shopping there, although not at 6am!  He was down the barbie aisle looking to bring a little something back for Amber and was completely overwhelmed by the choices.  Then he went over to the girls section since I wanted to see if they had any valentine clothes left that he could pick her up something for next year.  They didn't but he said that it looked like a pink bomb had exploded there!
Today it was snowing those really big pretty snowflakes, but not as cold.  There is a little bit of snow on the roads, but not much and it seems to be melting on the roads since it isn't that cold.  My French teacher calls me, before 10am thank goodness, and tells me it is too dangerous to be out on the roads today she would prefer to stay home.  Ok.  Guess she wouldn't do good in the midwest in the winter months!
Just yesterday at school someone was talking about the smell coming up from the drain in their laundry room. I had that same thing happen in the fall and I poured vinager and hot water down it and then it was fine, but haven't had to do it since.  Well then today we had that smell as well.  It must be at certain times of the year or something!  So I dumped the vinager and water down it today and then the smell goes away.
At school today Jacob was saying that one of his friends brought in flowers for a girl he likes.  Jacob also said that the upper school was selling flowers and then would deliver them to the person.  So I guess one of the girls in his class got a flower from her sister that way.  I asked if he did that who would he want to send a flower to and he said "Amber"  so I thought that was nice of him.
One of the gifts Amber got for her b'day was the book The Original Velveteen Rabbit.  The boys even each borrowered her book and read it which I thought was cute.

Wednesday Amber got to dress up for Carnival at school since the preschool was going to do a parade through the school.  She dressed up as snow white, just a costume I had bought here.

The kids all looked so cute.  It was like Halloween!

Amber's teacher dressed up as a princess, so funny, and he even had a long Rapunzel like braid.

Then later in the morning her class put on 2 little plays that had gone along with the books they were reading, The Three Billy Goat Gruffs, and The Mitten.

They did a great job and it was very cute.

In the afternoon I received another package for our neighbors.  I took it over in the evening and stepped inside their house.  It is a very nice house, compared to our very basic house right next door.  She was very polite and we talked for a few minutes.  They are both from here.  And they also have a house in the south part of France near the ocean. 

I am loving my new alarm clock I got.  No buzzing, and this one you can wake up to nature sounds.  It is nice to wake up to the birds churping on my alarm clock.

Thursday I ran to the store for a few quick things since my coffee was canceled, but don't get me wrong I still stopped there and picked up my little cinnamin pastry to eat as I walked over to the store!  Although I must admit it does taste better with tea!  When I went to check out at the store I had 17 items.  There were 3 lanes open and no other people waiting to be checked out.  So I go up to the first one and it says less then 10 items, I have 17 but there is no one around.  So I ask if I can check out here, she makes a funny face and points that I have to walk down to another one.  There are 20 checkout lanes across the entrance to the store but only the 3 are open, and I see that the next one says 10 items or less as well.  The last check out line open says priority for handicapped, elderly and pregnant.  So I go in this one.  I guess I am elederly today, annoyed!

Then I decided to try and talk to someone at the cleaners to see if they do sewing.  I have not seen it written on their board, but I thought I would try.  I have seen 2 stores that do repairs on one of the main streets closer to downtown, but this is easier.  I don't know the word for sewing, but it is pretty obvious what needs to be done since the coat is completely ripped open from the arm pit all the way down.  So the lady there gets what needs to be done but says it will be 2 weeks, something to do with the holiday I think.  Ok.  And I have to have the coat cleaned as well in order to get it sewed.  So for $24 I will have a cleaned, and sewed good looking coat, hopefully!

Amber went to a friend's house after school so I didn't even have to pick her up from school.  I got a whole afternoon to myself!  I didn't even think of it until I was eating lunch that I should have seen if a friend wanted to do lunch!  So I ended up driving out to the import store to get our Cheerios and things we can't live without (: (Like Pop Tart Fridays for the kids!)

After school the side of the car Sean needs to get in on didn't have enough room so I told him to crawl in through the trunk, not too uncommon of an occurance here!  His boots were all dirty so I pulled them off as he climbed in the back.  When I look at his socks I see the same hole that was in his sock yesterday that I had told him to throw away and change his socks before bed anyway.  So I ask him "how many days do you think we wear the same pair of socks for?"  Needless to say they were off his feet once at home!

Jacob had his last bball practice after school and then the coaches celebrated with them by buying them pizza.  The older players will continue on for about 2 more weeks in the finals, but they are all away games and 4th grade can't travel.

Jason got back tonight after his trip to MI and NY in 4 days.  So of course I want to see what goodies he brought us back.  He told me he couldn't bring much back b/c he was just bringing his bag via carry on.  When I look in his suitcase he brought back the couple things I had asked for and like 5 different kinds of bags of candy.  Are you kidding me?  You go to Walmart and this is what you bring back!

Week of Feb. 5th, 2012

Sunday it was still so cold out.  It has been one of the coldest winters here in Europe.  Many people in the Eastern part of Europe have died due to the cold weather. 
Today we took the kids to an indoor play place that is right next to the bowling alley we went to a couple of weeks ago and that was how we found it.  We had lunch there as well and the kids had fun climbing. bouncing on the trampolines, and the boys even played pool.  One of Amber's friends from school was there as well, so she enjoyed having a girl to run around and play with.

Once we got home Amber again fell asleep on the couch for a nap.  She napped most days this past week as well. 
There was something I was reading the other day that talked about why French woman tend to not be heavy.  The reason being is that they tend to walk more.  More people take the bus, even if you drive there are no parking lots so you find a place on the street and have to walk to your destination.  There are no elevators in buildings so you have to walk up the stairs.  This is true of here as well.  I see people out walking their dogs and their children, even babies all bundled up in this cold, cold weather.  And people are thinner here as well.  Unfortunetly it doesn't seem to be helping me.  Could be I am probably eating too much of the delicious bread here!  Oh well.
Today I saw a woman walking her beautiful dalmation dog in her long fur coat.  Then a bit later I saw an older man wearing a fur coat out for a walk.  I had never seen a man wearing a knee length fur coat before!
Tonight is the super bowl.  A few bars were advertising they would be broadcasting it from 11:30pm-6am due to the time change.  One of Jason's friends invited him to a friend's house to watch it but Jason thought it might be a little difficult to go to work the next day after being up all night!

Monday morning was the PTO meeting, so that was my morning.
This afternoon while Amber was busy in her craft area, I got everyone's Valentine's gifts put together for next week.  Here they celebrate it, so there are some cards out, but I didn't see any Valentine's bags or wrapping paper, so everyones gifts are wrapped really pretty- in left over Meijer/Walmart bags from one of Jason's trips home!  I don't think they will mind, especially since they each got a packet of candy from home that Jason had bought.  They also do not have children's valentines here like we do at home. 
This afternoon my one friend told me they were moving next month to Sweden!  They were always planning on moving this summer, but they decided to move it up.  They have a little girl Amber's age, and then a boy between my boys.   So we will be sorry to see them go.   They have lived here for like 10 years.  She is from the states and he is from Norway.

Tuesday during my French class the teacher told me that here European's only wash their hair 1 to 2 times a week- yuck!  She asked me how often I wash my hair and I said everyday.  She made some American comment, and I thought well at least our whole bodies are clean!
Amber's gymnastics class had a few more kids in it today, and this class has mostly English speakers in it, so I was excited for Amber.  Her friend from last week was not there, but another girl was there and the 2 of them were playing and hanging together during class.  So that is nice b/c otherwise she doesn't seem to enjoy it unless she feels like she has a friend there.
After school Jacob and his friend had bball practice and so his mom and her kids came over for a little playdate while the boys had bball.  So that was nice.
When Jacob got home he told me his winter coat got stuck on something today and it ripped all the way down the side and just sliced his coat open!  It was getting a little small on him and I have another one ready for him thank goodness especially with this cold weather.  But so much for passing it on to Sean!
Tonight it really started snowing again.  It has covered the ground, but not sure how much more it will accumulate.
I called Amber's gymnastics place to ask them a question about her b'day party, and when I call anywhere my first sentence in French is always do you speak English.  So tonight when I call and say this, Jacob tells me I am not saying it right b/c I am saying it with an American accent.  Ah ya,  this is how I speak French!

Wednesday I had a coffee at school with some preschool moms and then to work out.  I also got Amber's cakes made for her party.  We are going to try a triple layer checkered cake.  So she picked out pink, purple and yellow.  So I got the cakes made, but some of the colors ran together a bit, so we will see how it looks when we cut into it.  I froze them and will decorate them later.
We had a last minute luncheon here with one of Amber's other little boy friends, his mom and the baby for lunch and a playdate.  So that was nice. 
This afternoon a delivery truck came to my neighbors with a box and they weren't home so he dropped off the package at our house.    He didn't speak much English, but was pointing to the neighbors house next store.  I am really suprised he just dropped it off with me.  He definately didn't want to bother coming back.  Here people don't really know their neighbors that well. So I took over the package when I saw her in her car later in the evening and I gave it to her.  And let me tell you she spoke English perfectly.  So now I know that she is not ignoring me b/c she can't speak English, she is just ignoring me!
Today I went online and ordered some winter things that are half off what they have left in stock.  Since Sean will now be needing a new winter jacket for next year, thanks to Jacob!
I am finally getting around to reading this good book called Playing with the Enemy.  So awhile back I went to this luncheon and the author of this book was the guest speaker, so of course I bought his book and he signed it as well.  He said it was going to be made into a movie but I don't know if it ever did.  But it is a true story about his father.  It is suppose to be an inspirational story about his life and what happened and how he turned it around.  I am only half way through it right  now.  It is not what I normally read, but I am really enjoying it.  His dad was a great baseball player and at 15 the Dodgers wanted to sign him.  But then WWII came and he was enlisted at an early age to play baseball for the milatary.  It talks about different parts of the war, and now we are living close to some of these places.  It talks about Normandy Beach ( someplace we want to go, but friends have already been), and Cologne, Germany was the first German city to be captured by the Americans and we went there in the fall.  It talks about General George Patton and we saw his grave in the American Milatary Cementary here.  It is a sad, but beautiful area of all white cross on the lawn.  General Patton didn't die here with his troops but he requested when he died to be laid to rest with the rest of his troops here.
So maybe there is a reason I never got around to reading this book a year ago or so.  This month last year was when Jason decided to take this job.  What a year!

Thursday was a quick coffee at the mall with a friend and then home for French. 
Today during Sean's lunch he turned around right into a teacher carring a tray and got a huge bruise on his forehead.  He ended up in the nurse's office for an ice pack!
A friend of mine is doing something cute for her husband's birthday and collecting different beers so I gave her 3 different kinds that we had.

Friday I bought a new alarm clock.  The one I have is from someone who moved away and every 10 days or so the buzzer on the alarm goes off instead of the radio.  It scares the crap out of both of us and sometimes wakes up the kids.  Why in the world anyone would purposely set their alarm to wake up to that boggles me! Jason keeps saying that it is user error, but I keep telling him that there is a certain button for buzzer and I am not turning it on!  So I have had enough of that alarm clock, and we will try a new one and see.
Today I also got the re-enrollment forms for school next year already.  They increased their prices for next year.  Since Amber will stay all day next year- it is called the 1st year of Kindergarten, her prices are almost as much as the boys. So for my 3 kids to go to school next year it will be a little over $50,000, just for tuition!   Thank goodness the company pays for this!
We had a busy afternoon then.  We brought 2 of Amber's friends home for a playdate and lunch.  And one of them, today was her b'day.  So I had gotten a little fairy cake and we got to sing to her and have some cake after lunch.  Then dropped them off and we picked up the boys and Jacob went to a lazer tag b'day party and so my friend and I each took our 2 younger ones to the indoor climby/play place just down the road.  Then after Jacob and his friend finished with the party we met Jason at a kind of American restaurant with them as well for dinner.   My friend ordered a salad for dinner.  It was called a mountain salad, and it said something about chicken, potatoes and we really weren't sure exactely what kind of salad it was.  So she gets it and we are all dying laughing.  It is a lettuce salad with a big, cold baked potato in the middle of it with salsa on top of that and then sliced chicken on the lettuce around the potato.  Never heard of this one before!  Jason was trying to ask for salsa for his dinner and the waitress had no idea what he was talking about, and he was like I should have just pointed to her salad.  But the kids all loved their meals most of the boys got bbq chicken wings.

The boys got their report cards today.  They are longer and more in depth then the ones at home, but graded the same.  Then each extra teacher does there own section, Art, French, Gym, music, not only checking boxes but each writes a paragraph.

Sat. was a busy day getting all the cakes and cupcakes frosted and things ready for Amber's party tomorrow.  The handyman came in the morning and saw the 3 layer pink frosted cake and said with his British accent "Wow that cake looks smashing!"  So I thought that was nice.  Even if the kids didn't like it the handyman thought it looked smashing!  I was cracking up and all I could think of was Austin Powers, smashing baby!
Jason took the boys and one of Sean's friend and went to the reptile show that was in town this weekend.  They had their picture taken with a big snake around all of their necks- yuck!  They saw a 2 headed snake and a 2 headed turtle.  Sean's friend then came over and had lunch with us and had a nice playdate with Sean.  After lunch we realized that the heat had gone out and there was no hot water, nice.  So we called the relocation agent that works for Jason's company and she got a heater person out within about 2 hours.  The guy only spoke Luxembourgish, so Jason had no idea what he said was wrong, but he seemed content that is was fixed.  Ok.  Which was good since we had a sitter coming over in a bit.  We had a new girl coming over to babysit.  She is from South Africa and is a senior at the kids school and lives pretty close by.  Jason and I went out to dinner with another guy that he works with and his wife is one of the girls I have coffee with at the mall.  We had a very nice evening.  We went to this Luxembourghish restaurant in the downtown area.  It was a very neat looking restaurant.  There was brick built into the restaurant all over and it was I think 4 floors, but cozy little areas, not just a big floor.

Here is a picture of the brick going into the bottom floor and this is where the wine cellar is as well.

So if you ask if they have more wine then what is on the wine list they will give you a key and you go down here and open this narrow door into their wine cellar which is just built into the stone and everything is all dusty.

So here is a picture of the wine cellar with Jason inside.  It was neat. 

Unfortunatley this family will be moving back to the states this summer as they were here for 5 years.  Another one bites the dust!

Week of Jan. 29th, 2012

Sunday was a nice low key day.  Jason took our friends to the airport early in the morning to catch their flight.  Later in the day Amber got some cleaning bug in her, and I didn't even ask her to clean things up, and went crazy cleaning up the basement playroom and then her play area on the first floor as well!  She did a great job.  Boy, too bad she can't do that every time I ask her to clean up.
 Later in the afternoon I asked the boys to empty the laundry basket and put their clothes away.  So then at dinner I asked if they had done that.  Jacob answers "Well I did part of it"  I said "Ok, next time I am only going to give you part of dinner.  The part I am not going to give you is dessert!  Ugh!
Tonight the boys were messing around while they were suppose to be getting ready for bed and Jacob ends up hitting his head against the door frame.  He had a huge bump on his head.  No dilated pupils or throwing up so I think he will be ok.
 The enter key seems to be broken on my computer now- lovely!  Tonight it started snowing.  The kids saw it right before bed.  

Monday morning the snow came back and it fluried all day.  Not alot of accumlation, just enough to make it a mess to drive in and harder to park on the streets.  After school Jacob and Amber shoveled the driveway! 
Here everyone has 2 sets of tires, one summer, one winter.  My friend told me the other day that the police were walking down her street making sure all the cars had on their winter tires and were fining those who didn't.  The fines could be as high as 130 euros!
This morning I had an appt. at a Dr. office.  My appt. was at 8:15 and so Jason took the kids to school.  It was the first appt. of the day.  I got their around 8:05 or so.  At 8:35 I asked the receptionist if the dr. was in yet and she said that she was coming from the hospital and should be here soon.  A little before 9am she starts by calling in a patient.  Then 10 min. later another patient is called in.  So I go back to the receptionist desk and ask why I haven't been called yet.  She said oh the dr. called you and said you weren't there.  I was not happy.  I said she never even came in the waiting room.  She is calling people from the hallway and I am sorry but I must not have heard her and you know I was in there, so how could you cross my name off the list without even checking the room.  Did you ever see me leave?  So by the time I left it was close to 10am!
From here I went to the tennis club close to our house to see about lessons for the kids.  The boys had been taking tennis now for 3 years and Jacob more then that.  The lady told me that tennis school runs from Sept. to July and they are full for the boys ages, but have room for Amber.  I couldn't believe that they don't have different sessions that you could sign up for throught the year.  So they got put on a waiting list I guess.  I think sign up is in July for the whole next year!
I volunteered in Sean's classroom this morning as they were doing a craft activity. 

Tuesday it was very icy in the morning and after I dropped the kids off I was walking back through the gravel inbetween the cars parked and slipped and almost fell on the hood of the Mercedes next to me with my keys in my hand- that would not have ended pretty!
My driveway is a little bit icy on the top part and I was worried the car would slide down it since it is so step!

This is a picture of the driveway in the fall, so no snow.

Before I picked Amber up I ran over to the Woman's club.  I was there a few weeks ago and had picked up some cake mixes for Amber's b'day cake.  I am making a 3 layer checkered cake.  And I picked up 2 white cake mixes and one lemon by accident instead of white.  So I found the other white one I needed and then got Jason a nice Luxembourg picture book for Valentine's day as well. 
After I picked Amber up and we had lunch we went to her gymnastics class.  Today was the start of the new session and I switched days to Tuesdays.  On Thursdays the class was full at 16 kids.  Todays class had 4 kids.  And normally it was only around 8 or so.  So it was a nice small class.
I had met a woman before that had her daughter in this class and the mom spoke English great and for some reason I thought they were from the UK and I told Amber she would have a little girl in the class that would speak English.  So when we get there and I start talking to the little girl I guess English is the only language she doesn't know.  The mom speaks Danish to her, the father French, with her one set of grandparents she speaks German, with local friends she speaks Luxembourgish!  Oh my- 4 languages she knows and she is only 4- pretty cool!  Unfortunalty for Amber, English is not one of the languages the little girl knows.
Here I have met a few people who don't really believe in marriage.  They live with their partner and have children together but never want to get married.
Tonight Jacob came home from school and said that one of the boys in 4th grade was leaving for boarding school.  He just found out about it and said goodbye to everyone today.  He is suppose to be like one of the best swimmers here for his age group so I think it was something to do with that?  Of course Jacob didn't really know the details.  He didn't really play with him much.

Wednesday morning Amber woke up with a cold and drainage coming out of her eyes.  So she stayed home from school.  Her eyes were completely crusted shut this morning.   My friend had refered me to a pediatric clinic close by.  I called a little after 8 and got an appt. for 8:45.  So of course there is no parking so we had to walk a bit to get there from the car, but it was a nice office with quite a few dr.s there.  We even saw another friend there with her 2 younger ones as well.  So Amber has a virus and she got some cough medicine and eye drops.  The eye drops do not go over well, so we will see how long this takes to heal! 
We had to go to the pharmacy to get all the stuff, and she prescribed a dose of Vit. D as well.  She said children until age 5 get a vit. dose in Nov. and Feb.  It is a tube of liquid that I just dump in her drink.  So I bought the medicines, a fever/pain reducer and a thermometer and my total bill was 33 euros!  I don't have any insurance here b/c we have to submit everything back home so I just pay out of pocket and then submit it later.  But considering how expensive things are here, this was cheap and the dr. visit was 44 euros.             
So Amber and I had a nice morning.  We did her valentines that Jason had brought back from the states and we put stickers and lollypops on them.  She is so excited to give them to her friends.  The week of valentines they will be celebrating Carnival at school, and she gets to dress up and do a parade at school.  This is kind of like Halloween.  So now all the costumes are out at the stores.  I got her the snow white dress for this.   Then she took a nice 2 hour nap this afternoon.  Sure, 2 years ago I could barely get her down for naps, now when she stays home I ask her if she would like to take a nap she glady goes upstairs and gets all cozy in her bed!
Jacob's guitar teacher had to cancel lessions tonight so I didn't mind not having to go back out in the freezing cold.  It is 10 degress and windy!

Thursday Amber was crying and crying for an hour this morning about her ear hurting.  Oh no, we were just at the dr. yesterday and they didn't say anything about her ears looking infected.  So she stayed home today as well.  I give her some tylenol, drop the boys off at school and call the dr. back to get another appt.  It was later in the morning and we got in and saw a different dr. Another woman, but I liked her a little better.  She said that Amber doesn't have an ear infection but that her drums were red, so she gave her some ear drops.    So back to the pharmacy which has 3 parking spots.  Today they were all full so I sat right by them with my turn signal on and waited until someone left.   This street goes into a round about and then onto a major road so not a lot of street parking.  Amber was a little more willing to take the ear drops verse the eye drops.
Then today I could go back and pick up Jacob's passport at the Embassy.  It was still so cold out and last time we were there we had to wait outside for 45 min.  So I bundled Amber up in her snow pants, scarf, etc.  With her being sick and I had no idea if we would have to wait.  The street over I found one spot that my car barely fit in, so the tail end of my parallel parking was sticking out a bit, oh well.
We got there and hallelujah there was not a line!  You can only pick up passports from 11:30-12:30 so this is about 5 till 11:30.  The lady took our passports and let us right in.  So we were in and out in about 10 min- whew!
Today was groundhogs day.  I don't think they really get into that here, but Jacob's class was waiting to hear if he saw his shawdow and of course he did.  But they had to wait until early afternoon to see the video due to the time difference!
Jacob's good friend here started writing a blog about all places they have visited here.  Jacob enjoyed reading it!
Today, here is a tradation that they have a celebration of light.  Basically a celebration that the days are starting to get longer with light- thank goodness!  So you will see kids go around to houses with candles in a lantern and singing and then of course they want candy or a little something in return.  We saw a group of boys walking down the other street doing this tonight.  And so when we got home after bball practice Jacob got out some candy and put it by the door, but unfortunately no one came by.  But my friend here did come by with a plate full of homemade good old usa chocolate chip cookie bars!  The kids were very excited about that!  That was very thoughtful of her, especially since they don't sell chocolate chips like that here.  They were yummy!

Friday Amber was back off to school, yeah!  I had coffee with a few moms and then off to the store which is not fun on a Friday since it is super crowded.  On Friday's I normally go to the superstore since I always need something more then groceries.  Here in the stores in addition to having meat, deli, fish, and bakery counters, they also have a big cheese counter.  Here people just buy chuncks of cheese.  It smells so bad by this counter.  I am not a big cheese fan so I haven't bought any chuncks of cheese yet.  Of course they have a refrigerated section right next to the counter with package cheese as well.  They do sell packets of cheese for cheese fondue.  That I like and we eat every once an awhile.
This week in Amber's class they have been reading the book The Three Billy Goats Gruff and doing crafts, playing and doing things related to the book.  So one day when Amber was absent it was cooking day and they made toast and put on goat cheese and some honey on it and baked it.  I guess the kids liked it!
When I picked Amber up from school she asked if she could have a friend over and I said not today with her being out the last 2 days.  So then she starts crying.  We get home, have lunch and then I find her in a little bed she made for herself on the couch ottaman falling asleep.  Good thing we didn't have that friend over!  So she got a little over an hour nap in.
Jacob went to a friend's house after school and then the mom brought them back to school for their basketball game.    One of Sean's friends was there and he came up to talk to Sean and stared at Amber and then said to Sean "Your sister looks nothing like you."  So funny.
Tonight we watched Tangled (Disney's Rapunzel ) for our movie night.  Can you guess who picked it out?  Sean.  So Amber got the Tangled movie for Christmas along with some other Rapunzel toys and just loves this right now.  Every time Amber goes to watch this movie the boys always end up watching it with her.  They both like it as well.  I don't blame them.  It is like a musical with all the singing and dancing and I enjoy it as well!

Sat. Jacob had another bball game and he didn't get much playing time, but he was able to score a basket so we were happy for him! 
My nice friend from home had shipped us a box of things and I had gotten the notice this week that when they tried to deliver it I wasn't home.  So that means we have to go to the post office in a busy area and pick it up.  So I left that for Jason (:  So we were mailing them something as well.  It was one of those padded envelopes and it cost almost as much as her bigger box she had shipped - crazy costs here!  Someone also had ripped the side of her box to see what was in there.  Good thing for us they didn't like the foam stickers and things (:
After the game we went to Aldi in Germany.  It is about 30 min, away.  You cross the border and then it is just a few minutes away.  Some people had been talking about this place where things were so much cheapier.  So we got an almost full cart and it was only 82 euros! Here in town just about one layer in your cart will be close to 100 euros.  It is a smaller store, and they only carry some things and of course everything is in German. 
Tonight Jason and I rented The Help movie.  I had gotten to see only half of it on the plane ride home so I am glad I got to see the other half.  It is a good movie.