1st part of week of Aug. 29th/ School Starts

The car that I test drove a week ago or so we ended up buying.  It is a 2009 Volvo XC 90.  It is a crossover with 7 seats.  It was for sale from a guy who works with Jason his friend was selling b/c his friend was an expat and had moved back to where they came from.   It is automatic which is hard to find, and they had 2 DVD players put in the back of the headrests of the driver and passenger seats.  So that is nice b/c we were never expecting our car here to have that.  The only thing is they only play zone 2 DVD's which are DVD's that have been purchased in Europe, DVD's from home are all zone 1, so none of our DVD's will work.  So the kids are excited they will get to pick out a few new movies.  So even though I miss my minivan this car is newer and hopefully will work out ok.  It took awhile to get all the money transfered and timing of things worked out so we just got the car tonight.  Now we need to work on getting the car insured and registered.  So we now will have 3 cars.  We cleared out room in the garage so the Volvo will stay parked there until we get all the paperwork figured out!  Unfortunately the people left the car a mess.  So we need to get the car cleaned out.  Figures I just had gotten my car all nice and cleaned at home and now I get this!
Tonight getting everyone cleaned up, saying goodbye to summer and getting the backpacks, snacks, and lunch boxes ready and clothes out for school tomorrow!
I didn't get their class lists until Friday, just a few days before school actually starts.  They send out via email the whole lower school list of teachers and students to everyone in the school, from preschool through 5th grade.  Jacob has another Jacob in his class.  Both boys have 20 kids in their classes and their are 4 classes per grade 1-4.  And I kept waiting for their school supply list to come out, and I guess they don't need any, they get everything at school.  For the amount the school charges I am glad to hear they buy the supplies!

Today was the boys first day of school.  I had to wake everyone up to get going.  We took pictures out in front of the house.

Then off to school.  We left on the earlier side since I have been worried about trying to park there, so we got a spot.  And then the kids line up on the playground by class.  So that was the same as home.  It was a high of 52 degrees when we were at school- a little cooler then the normal first day of school!

Amber had her meet and greet with her teachers and visit the classroom.  She has a nice man for a teacher, and he is from Sweden. And then one of the assistants is from Scotland, and then the other assistant floats between her class and the other 3 yr. old preschool class.  So for 18 preschoolers per class there are 2.5 teachers.  Overall everything seemed nice and she had a good time playing with things in the room.  She doesn't go back until Wed. morning just for 1/2 the time.

Then the boys school ended at 3:20 so we were there before 3pm to make sure we got a parking place and by 3pm the lot was full.  The boys get picked up in 2 different buildings so I went to get Sean first and by the time we were leaving Jacob was already on his way over to get us.  Sean's building is for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade.  The boys both had a great day at school and this is what they said about it.

Sean's teacher said he was "delightful today".  Boy does he have her fooled! Ha!  His teacher is from Australia.

Sean has lunch in a multipurpose room just like at his old school, but they are allowed to sit with anyone.  He said the room is divided in half.  So those that want hot lunch sit on one side and those bringing their lunch sit on the other side.  Everyday they offer hot lunch, or a pasta dish, or a sandwhich for the lunch choices.  He said on the tables in the hot lunch area there are cups and a water pitcher and then someone comes by and sees if they would rather have milk and pours milk in their cups.  So no buying just milk here.  They have a mid morning 20 min. recess outside and that is where they eat their snack they brought from home.

Jacob has 5 people from Sweden in his class, one of them being the other Jacob. He said his teacher is from Canada.  For his lunch he eats in a cafeteria like the high school kids have.  So grades 3-5 eats in this cafeteria.  The teacher in the morning writes down who is having hot lunch and what they want, same as at their old school, and Sean's class does this as well, and then our account gets billed quaterly for what they buy.  They can also eat with whoever at tables that seat 4 people.  There is a strict no peanut products at all, so that will be hard over the year with no peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches.  For lunch they have 30 minutes to eat and 30 minutes of recess, so the boys could tell they didn't feel so rushed eating lunch like they did at their old school.  They played tag and ran around at recess.  Jacob has lunch and recess from 12-1pm so a good time.  Both boys have lockers that they put their coats and backpack in every day which is right outside their classrooms.  They don't lock. 

Their calendars are a little different, they run on a 7 day schedule.  I don't really know how to explain this well.  But today was A,and then tomorrow B, etc. On Friday it is E, then next Monday is F, and Tuesday is G, then Wed. starts over at A.  So then the diferent PE, music, French, etc.  are listed that we do that every A and C day or D and G days and such.  So this will take some getting used too.

They each had some homework tonight, not too bad.

After school we went to a park with a friend and the kids all played except Amber who was screaming most of the time.  After the park we walked down the street to where I had a referal from someone for a haircuting place and got the boy's a haircut.  The lady is from Iceland.  She has an apt. in this building and then on the next floor up she has a salon where she does hair.  So it went well.  And she gave the kids a gummy bear when they were done so they were happy.   

Sean and his spiked hair!

Tues. after the kids lined up on the blacktop and school started some of the moms (and Amber since she hadn't started school yet) went into the cafeteria.  It stays open for people to come in and chat and you can have a snack, coffee, juice. So that was nice.

I forgot to mention last week we did try the pears after letting them rippen on the counter, and they were ok.  A lot of them were rotten on the inside.  Too bad.

Today I went the grocery store and had a cart full of stuff and was carrying a big garbage can to the check out line ( you know the kind you step on and then  the lid opens to put in the kitchen).  Try carrying that and pushing a cart full of groceries with a child in it that rolls forward and sideways! So I get to the check out line and it is too big for the belt thing and there is someone in front of me so I just set it down at the end of the check out line.  Then between Amber and unloading the groceries and packing the groceries up into my bags , you bag your own groceries here,  I forgot to buy the trash can and it was the last one!  I didn't even realize until I got home I had forgotten it- ugh!

Wednesday was Amber's first day of school where her and I went into school and I stayed there with her for 1 1/2 hours and 1/2 her class was there.  It was nice.  Some of the kids in her class are from New Zealand, Uraguay, Norway, and Israel.  And some of the kids were born in Luxembourg but their parents are from different countries.   And one of the mom's name was Kerry!  I have rarely met another girl with her name spelled the same as me.  There are 11 girls in her class out of 18 kids so that will be good for her to have many girlfriends!

Wednesdays the boys get out of school at 2:20.  So we went with friends over to the park.  As soon as we got there Jacob did the zip line and fell right on his face and shoulder.  As I had mentioned earlier when I first saw this that is exactly why we don't have these things at home.  His poor face is all scraped up on 1 side and his shoulder all bruised.  Figures that pictures are next week. 
I hired a cleaning lady and she is from Brazil.  She started today.  She ironed for a little over an hour and then cleaned the house for 5 hours.  That isn't even including the basement.  It is a lot of work to clean this house with the other 3 floors and no carpeting (some rugs) so it is vaccuming, and washing so it takes twice as long.  She was very nice and we could speak Portuguese since she knows just a little English, and I know no French.  I am working on getting lessons.  So that was nice.  I think she will come twice a month.