But the word Casemates means a bomb proof vaulted room with one or more areas intended to accommodate troops and equipment. So this was basically a bunch on tunnels in the fortress walls underground. This was really cool. The kids loved it. We spent about an hour in here walking along the cold corridors and peeking out the holes where they used to have cannons. There were a few cannons left on display too.
These were built in 1745. There used to be a fortress on top of these but they dismantled part of that in 1867. These casemates could hold up to 50 cannons and 1200 soldiers. Here is a picture of it from the outside.
Mondays I would say are the worst. It is hard to get up in the morning after the weekend, I really have to drag the kids out of bed as well, I normally have a ton of laundry b/c I never got to it on the weekend, and the house is a mess with everyone home for 2 days. It doesn't help that Amber decides to change her clothes normally at least once throught out the day and usually into summer wear. All of a sudden I will turn around and she will have a different outfit on. Hopefully this is not a forecast of what is to come. And then Sean doesn't seem to agree that fall is here and still comes down dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. So I tell him that it is too cold to wear these clothes and he needs to go back upstairs and change. So then he stomps back up the stairs and always seems to throw the summer clothes he had on for 5 minutes in the dirty clothes basket? Which in turn means more laundry that I need to try and shove in that tiny washing machine- ugh! I am going to need to pack away their summer clothes so they can't get to them.
It is now gotten cold enough that we turned on our heat here. There is no air conditioning and no central heating. The heat is through individual radiators in each room. It is a new concept to me so we will see how this works. So far the rooms are warm.
Last night when I went to bed I went in to check on Amber and she and her pillow were gone. So there were 2 possibilites as to where she could be, either in my bed, or sleeping with Sean. She wasn't in my bed so I went and looked in Sean's room and there the 2 of them are separted by a pile of animals. Sean has a full bed on the bottom of his bunk bed and I think she must have gone in there last night while Sean was looking at his books in bed and either asked to sleep with him or just climbed in. They have done this before a few times. Of course they have this pile of animals in the middle of them and last time Amber fell out of his bed. So we put the bean bag next to her on the floor. They both slept through the night and I had to drag them both out of bed this morning. I was just thinking last week how Amber hasn't been waking up much in the middle of the night. She has always been a horrible sleeper, and then both nights we had the sitter she woke up and I think it really must be to check that we came home.
This morning after drop off I gave the room parent presentation for the parents of the preschoolers. Here the room moms have to have a Get to Know you Coffee for the parents. It went well and we had a big turnout so that was good. The preschool has a couple of events that need volunteers for- 2 of them are different from home. One is United Nations week since the school is so diverse they want parents to come in and tell or show the children a little bit something about their country. And the preschool teachers also are looking for parents to come in throught out the year and talk about a certain festival or celebration that their country celebrates. So those events should be neat for the children.
Amber and I practiced our counting in French today while watching Go Diego Go in French!
Today Jason got to meet the Prince of Luxembourg. Jason's company was celebrating an event and the Prince came as well. I told Jason let me know if he has any son's for Amber, we can arrange something in 22 years! But Jason said he wasn't married, so it didn't look good for Amber.
When I came back to pick up the boys after their ball skills class as usual Sean had forgotten something. Today it was the school sweatshirt/track suit top that I had just bought on Sat. He had gym today and just grabbed it this morning and so of course I forgot to write his name in it. He went back and looked around and couldn't find it. Of course these are all over the school so we probably won't be seeing that again and of course it wasn't cheap.
On Tuesday to try and keep focused during French I decided I would excerise right before class. So that worked but then I was sweating the first half of class.
Today I heard 2 pieces of bad news, one that a man that lived down the street a bit from us at home in our subdivision was killed by a drunk driver- horrible. And then another family who moved out of our subdivision this summer and had a boy Sean's age, the mom has been having some hemorrhaging in the brain and is not doing well. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to these 2 families.
After I picked up Amber at school we met Jason at his office and went out to lunch down the street from his office. It is a nice little Italian place and we got some thin crust pizzas. The boys were glad we brought home leftovers so they got it for dinner (: Sean found his sweatshirt/track suit top today at school and his teacher was nice enough to write his name in it before he lost it again! Sean had a new friend over after school and enjoyed playing. The days here seem to go by pretty fast.
Wednesday was Amber's first class field trip. We walked to a park which was about 15 min. from the school- long for the kids. They had to wear these little yellow bright crossingguard vests. They looked so cute and bright with that many kids in a group wearing them!
We, the room parents, bought snacks and brought them with us to serve at snack time. But the weather today was drizzeling all morning so not a nice day to be at the park. They were looking for signs of Autumn so they each had little bags to collect their things in. The kids seem to have a good time, but about 2/3 into the walk back Amber started to melt down. She was just too tired of walking, but since it was 1 adult for every 2 children I also had another little girl with me who was as quite as a mouse. So Amber was not happy about walking. After the field trip, I got her home, feed her and put her to bed for a nap. She was exhausted.
This morning also was the whole 4th grade get to know you coffee at a cafe in the mall. I was disappointed I could not make that this morning, as I don't know many parents of 4th graders. But I had already volunteered for Amber's field trip.
Tonight about 5 minutes after I put Sean to bed I heard him moaning something. I opened his door and the goofy light that it is on his ceiling was on fire. There was a flame coming out of it. He was standing next to his book shelf and I think he was just in shock. I turned his light off right away and then the flame went out but his room smelled of something burnt. Scary. This light is right above his bed and if he had fallen asleep the ashes/flames could have fallen on his bed and caught the bedding on fire! He is always leaving his light on too. Of course after this he was so scared so he went to sleep in my bed.
Last night was a late one. Sean was scared to sleep so he was up late and finally feel asleep in my bed with about 8 of his animals. Jason went and slept in Sean's bed and since Amber had a nap she was up past my bed time and finally ended up bringing in her lady bug sleeping bag and sleeping next to my bed.
In French class today I understood most of the conversations my teacher was having with me so I guess I am making progress. I can't respond well, but hopefully that will improve.
I went and got gas today for the first time. Last month I made Jason come with me so I made sure I knew which gas to put in. They sell unleaded gas here but mostly diesel. Jason is now calling my car "The Tank". It does kind of look like a box on wheels. It has a bigger engine and being the diesel it is noisey. When he first looked under the hood he couldn't believe how much padding they had in there to try and absorb some of the noise.
When I opened the fridge to make lunch for Amber and I, I saw one of the boys sandwiches had fallen to the back of the shelf, oh crap I thought. One of the boys didn't get a sandwich with his lunch today. Later I found out it was Sean- sorry!
I got blocked in again today at Amber's gymnastics class, but this time the person shouldn't have parked there. It was not suppose to be a spot. So I went in and asked the girl at the desk if she could ask the parents to see whos car it was. The lady went and moved her car so we could get to school to pick up the boys. She shouldn't have park their anyway so I didn't feel bad about asking her to move. I hate this parking lot!
Both the boys ended up going over to same person's house after school so they were excited to go and play! Amber and I ended up hanging around the school talking with the few friends for about an hour.
So everyone had a nice afternoon.
Tonight I went ahead and made reservations- since they look at you funny if you don't have them, at a little Italian place about a 10 min. walk away. I had seen this and a bakery as well on some of my walks so I thought we would try it out and also a friend had recommended it. We walked there as well. They had good spaghetti and big, thin crust pizzas so we spilt all that. By the time we left around 7:30 the place was packed and alot of families from school there, and there was a line waiting for tables. So it will be nice to go back in the summer and sit at their outside tables and just walk!
Sat. we had to go and buy Sean a new light for his room. Then we went to the factory outlet of Villeroy and Boch. This is a famous china maker who started out as just Boch in 1748 in Germany. Over time he added added a partner and after their success in Europe their products started shipping to North and South America as well. It is still family owned in the 8th generation. They make everything from kitchen dishes to bathtubs. The pattern I bought is called Vieux Luxembourg. I bought a tea kettle!
In the afternoon Amber and I went to a b'day party at a friend's house. We had a very nice time. In the evening Jason and I rented a movie on the Ipad, Horrible Bosses- funny.
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