Week of April 21st, 2013

Sunday was a relaxing day.  Jacob's friend that spent the night got picked up a bit before lunch.   The boys played at the park for a bit too but otherwise just a relaxing day at home.   The basement at home will just be drying out this week.  So we will see how it goes. 

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.

This is a chocolate replica of the town hall!We walked down one of the first covered walkways here.  It is just an area with stores where they put this neat glass archway over it so people wouldn't get wet, etc.  From here we walked to one of their famous churches that looked just like the one in Paris! 

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! 

Week of April 14th, 2013

Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel.  I was hoping for more of an American breakfast but no such luck, we got a European breakfast.  Meats, cheeses, croissants, jams, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and fruit.  They did have some crepes which are similar to pancakes but much thinner that tasted good with jelly on them. 
When we were packing up the car, the guy with the Aston Martin was trying to put 6 cases of champagne in his trunk!  I hope they didn't have any luggage!
Today Jason had to fly out to the states.  So we drove to a bigger town about 25 min. north of us and he got on the speed train there headed to Paris and then just took a direct flight out to the states.  So that worked out well for him.  Then I had to drive back to Lux from there so it was still about 2:20 min. I picked up the boys and they had had a great time.  We went home and ate a late lunch and then my friend came over with Amber and her family and we all went to the park.  It was a gorgeous day out. 
The kids had fun.

This is the front of the new park!

We had dinner, got everyone cleaned up and to bed as everyone was tired.

Monday after drop off I drove to my stores out in Germany.  One of the stores I go to just built a new one in a new little shopping center so I tried out 2 of the stores in there too.  One was a cheaper clothing store, but their prices were so good I couldn't resist and I bought some capris and a few other things.  The store next to it was a shoe store and I couldn't believe how cheap these shoes were!  I got 6 pairs of shoes between me, and the kids and it was a total of 80 euros for 6 pairs!  That is great for here!  I will be back next week (:  Then on to my last store, the grocery one.  Jason's trunk was loaded down!  Since Jason wasn't here I took his car since it is nicer then mine and drives so well on the highway! 
After school Jacob went home with a friend, and Sean had a friend over. 

Tuesday was another sunny day so I decided to go for a walk this morning.  I did remember to take my charge card just in case (:  I walked down to the city center which takes about 30 min.  I did end up shopping and got some summer clothes for the kids, picked up another egg tray at my favorite dish store b/c for some reason I had only bought 2, but I have 3 kids coloring eggs!  It was smelling so good downtown with all the restaurants and bakeries so I picked up a piece of quiche and a carrot cake cupcake, new, for lunch.  Then on the way back I stopped at this one hair salon.  It is the only one here that I have seen some of my Redken products I buy, but the one I wanted they didn't seem to have today, bummer.  So I walked back home.
Today I didn't have to be back at school until 4:30 since all the kids had something going on.  It was lovely to have like 2 extra hours!  I went back and got Sean at school then dropped him off at tennis then went to pick up Amber at a playdate she had.  This mom told me she lived right by school so I was thinking that this will work out great b/c I am driving back and forth to the school this afternoon and I can just swing by and get her.  Ok 20 min. from school on the other side of town is not what I consider close by!  So I ran to get her then back to school to pick up Jacob from track and then over to tennis to get Sean. Tuesdays we have to eat left overs unless I cook something during the day b/c everyone is starving by the time we get home!  In Sean's class today they all were happy.  Their student teacher from last semester knocked on the classroom door and surprised all the kids.  They were so happy to see her.  She is from the states and came back for a week to work in the classroom. 

Wednesday morning was Amber's concert.  She was so excited for it!  She did a great job.  For once, out of all the concerts she has done this year and last, she got to be in the front row.  Normally she is always in the back.  I even got a front row seat.  Then once she came out her face was blocked by this big flower they had put on the railing to go up to the stage, figures.  She loved the concert and did a great job.  I could actually hear her singing from my seat.

Today Sean started swimming lessons for PE.  I had done the scheduling of volunteers to help the kids.  They need one volunteer for the girls locker room to help the girls, and one for the boys.  Even after doing this I forgot to send Sean with his swimming stuff- ugh!  Luckily he remembered once at school and found me and told me so I was able to bring it back when I came for Amber's concert.
For lunch her ballet friend came over and then we went back for ballet lessons.  Jacob had RE and Sean had a b'day party to go to after school.  It was at a trampoline/play place in Germany about 40 min. away.  The boy's parents drove both their cars and took all the boys.  So that was nice and Sean had a great time.  We picked him up from the boy's house after dinner.
The sun was shining today and it was in the 60's.  We played outside for a bit after school.  The sun feels so good!
Because of our travel plans over the past weekend Jason didn't drive to the airport, so his car has been sitting out in front of the house this week.  We have a 2 car deep garage, but with all the bikes in things in front of my car we can't really fit them both in so Jason parks on the street.  Plus one of us would always be backing out to let the other one out.  Today I found a ticket on his car!  I couldn't believe it.  We have lived here for almost 2 years now and I have never seen the ticket person out by us.  Our street dead ends into a culdasac and it is pretty quite and there is a ton of parking.  To park on the streets here you need to either pay the parking meter and put the ticket in your car or what I have is the town sticker in my car and I can park in my neighborhood whenever.   But the car is right in front of our house and no one else is there on this little side street so I can't believe it. Of course he is wrong for not having the sticker but I can't believe he got a ticket it was clearly our car.  We had asked the relocation lady with the company to get him one since it is the company car and they never did.  So we will see if he gets one now! 

Thursday morning my friends came over with her son and we went walking outside.  It was nice and a good workout up the hills here! 
This afternoon I had a meeting about the Switzerland trip the 5th graders will go on this year!  His grade will go to Switzerland for a week!  I can't believe it.  Pretty cool 5th grade trip!  I kept telling him I was going to volunteer to come, but I never really was, they are going camping for one night and I don't really care to do that!  But their trip sounds like they will have a lot of fun.  It is pretty much all outdoor activities.  Hopefully they won't have too much rain.  They are right there surrounded by the alps.  It looks beautiful.  So Jacob was relieved that I finally told him I wasn't coming.  They don't even take volunteers it is just teachers and people that work at the school that go, but he didn't know that!
After school Jacob had track, Sean bball and Amber went home with a friend. 
Once home I found out that mom and dad were over at our house and we had a tremendous amount of rain at home and it flooded the basement ):  As soon as they stepped off that last step going to the basement, squish there was water.  It had gotten the whole basement.  Jason was in the states but heading to the airport today but he was able to get ahold of the insurance agent and we got put on a list for someone to come clean it all up.  Meanwhile my parents spent the whole day there picking up as many things as they could off the floor or things that had gotten wet in the storage room and drying things off and wiping up what water they could.  Most of my stuff in storage I put in plastic bins in case something like this happened but we did have some furniture in there and some things just on the floor.  So our sump pump and the back up sump pump had broken.  My dad ended up spending the night so he could keep plugging it in and then unplugging to get it to manually work a bit.  The workers weren't able to get to our house today so the water just sat.  Amber thought this sounded neat and was ready to have a swimming pool in her basement! 

Friday morning Jason came back home right as I was leaving for tennis.  I had picked us up a gyros salad for lunch so after tennis we shared that with some good bread.  The salad was really good. 
I checked in throughout the day with mom and dad as the contractor and plumber had arrived around 7:30 this morning there to start working. 
Today Jacob had his first track meet and so he got to leave school a little after 1pm and they got on a bus and went to the stadium in town where the meet was.  They practiced and then it started a little bit later.  After Jason took a nap he went over and watched it.  He stayed awhile but then had to leave for a conference call.  I went to school and picked up the other 2 and they each brought a friend home.  Then I was on the phone some more with home.  They got the 2 sump pumps out but when they went around town to buy them they were all sold out so they had to come back and put them back in and so they could be used a bit.  They got all the carpet up today and the pad and the baseboards and started cutting the drywall out where the water had soaked up into it.  The workers were there until 7pm tonight.
Later I dropped off Amber's friend and we took Sean's friend to the track meet to meet his mom there.  I picked up Jacob and the 2 boys we were housing.  I never got the email with their names and if they had any dietary restrictions.  Jason had started grilling the sausages and the one boys says he is vegetarian, rats!  So I already had most of the dinner prepared, all the sides he could eat if he wanted too.  But I didn't have anything else for him at the moment so he said he would just take 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I felt bad I wasn't prepared to make him something else.  Amber and I quickly ate dinner and then we had tickets for the Snow White Ballet.  We went with my friend and her girls.

 

It was a kids group that put it on.  From lower school kids all the way up to high school.  It was great, but it was 3 hours long!  I thought it was going to be like an hour.  We didn't get home until 10:30!  Jason normally goes to bed around 7pm after he gets back from those long trips and now he had to clean up everything from dinner and put it all away and I had a lot of food out, then make sure the 4 boys were all ok and put them all to bed hopefully before he fell asleep.  Amber was pretty squirmy in her seat.  She enjoyed it but it was just looong!   

Sat. morning I fixed a big breakfast for all the kids!  It still surprises me how many other kids don't eat fruit!  So then the boys played all morning and we had an early lunch and then around 12 Jason left with Jacob and the 2 boys for the track meet.  It was at a different stadium then yesterday and about 20 min. away.  Jason stayed the whole time today- 5 hours.  It was pretty cold out so he even brought a blanket.  I dropped Sean off at a friend's house and Amber and I stayed for a bit and then she took the boys to the track meet and they played there at the park some more and then Sean just stayed with Jason.  Amber and I ended up staying here.  I was back and forth on the phone with mom and dad seeing how things were going and then the contractor too.  The workers and my dad arrived back at the house at 6:30 am this morning to wrap things up.  They finished cutting all the drywall and we lost 2 feet from the bottom up of it. 

This is a picture of the playroom in the basement.
And today the contractor brought with him a sump pump and a back up one he had to buy in Chicago and got those installed.  So now we just wait to see how everything dries out.  What a way for my parents to spend 3 days!  Thank goodness they were able to help us with all of this.
One of Jacob's friends came back with them from track and spent the night tonight.  I was busy washing/redoing the sheets from the 2 boys who were here last night so Jacob and his friend could sleep back in his room tonight.
Once all the boys got back from the track meet and cleaned up we meet another family out for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant not too far from us.  The food was ok and they messed up Jason's order.  We had a nice time with our friends though!  Tonight the boys rented a movie.  While Jason was in the states he picked up the Apple TV he had ordered.  It is really neat.  The pictures and everything comes through so much clearer then our sling box.  It is cool that it can link up with everything on the Ipads and computer. 

Week of April 7th, 2013

Sunday was our last day of spring break!  We had a great 2 weeks with the kids off of school and our trip to Dubai.  So today was more laundry and just relaxing.  We had some egg salad for lunch with our colored eggs.  The eggs that baked in the oven weren't cooked all the way through- too bad, we won't be doing that method again!   Jason hooked the net back up on the trampoline and the kids were so excited to get back out there and use it again.  I think Sean and Amber were on it for about an hour.  Jason and the boys also went over to the new park today and played catch and played at the park for a bit.  It was only in the high 40's here today. 
I decided that the boys need to help me more with getting meals ready especially on the weekends.  When they are busy with school work or have friends over that is fine.  I feel like I am always in the kitchen, preparing, cooking and doing dishes.  And here my kitchen is a little room, while everyone else is in the family room.  So I had the boys do some helping last week with meals and today Jacob was in charge of getting the egg salad ready to make, so peeling the eggs and chopping them up.  It helped me. 

Monday was hard to get everyone up and moving back to school!  I ran to get some errands done and then back home to finish the laundry and just put the clothes away and clean things up with everyone out of the house! 
Before school pickup I left early to go to the English bookstore.  I even looked up their hours on their business card b/c a lot of places are closed here on Mondays.  So I drive over there and they changed their hours and are now closed on Mondays- ugh!  So I just drove to school but I was totally early.  Thank goodness one of my friends was too and so we just sat and chatted about our breaks so it worked out ok.
After school Jacob showed up with a friend and asked if he could come over and play so he had a play date.  The boys all went to the new park.  It opened but the area around it isn't really done yet.  It was sprinkling on and off a bit and wasn't too warm. 
It was a little before 7 pm when Jacob's friend got picked up.  I was getting a little worried maybe they forgot he was here! 
Tonight was online registration for a safety town program back at home that I was signing Amber up for with her friend.  It took me 45 min. to get on the website, then once on I waited 45 more min. in an electronic line before I could register!  I was so annoyed.  Thank goodness I got the spot I wanted and they will be in the same class together so we can carpool too.

Tuesday I got Jason's cake made.  We are celebrating his b'day tonight since we are going away for the weekend that way he can enjoy his cake before we leave.  My friend had asked me what he had requested for a cake and I told her that I hadn't even asked him!  I had found a recipe last summer that had oreos, cool whip, and chocolate pudding in it and those are all his favorites so I was making that.  After school Jacob had track, Sean math and Amber and I hung out with friends at school.  Then took Sean to tennis.  Later back to school for Jacob and back to tennis!  Tonight we celebrated Jason's birthday!  Lordy, Lordy look who's 40!

He loved the cake.  Amber really didn't care for it too much.  He enjoyed his presents especially about the weekend away without the kids!  I had written down what we were doing and it started out by saying Sat. morning drop the kids off and then run! (:  Jacob looked so confused when we told them we were going away for the weekend.  He was like, well who is going to take care of us?  We told him he was in charge this weekend, ha!  He was like I am not even 12.  I can't stay here by myself!  Of course not.  Amber was jumping up and down when she found out she was going to her friend's house and then the boys are both going over to one of Sean's friends.  When this boy comes over here all 3 boys play so well together so it worked out fine.  Tonight I baked some blueberry muffins for tea at a friend's house tomorrow.

Wednesday after drop off I went to a friend's house for tea with another friend.  I brought my blueberry muffins.  I also brought my computer over there and we all looked at everyone's pictures from their trips.  Here everyone goes to neat places for break so it is nice to see/hear about other places.  This Easter break I had some friends go skiing, one to Greece, one home to Norway, one did a Mediterranean cruise, and some stayed here or just did a few day trips to places close by. 
We had a nice time and ended up staying until after 11am!  We decided on a couple of girls days and a weekend trip!  So when I came home I emailed Jason the dates so he could be home with the kids and then told him we were going to take a trip in the fall too!  He emailed me back that I couldn't go to her house anymore, too funny!
Amber went home with my friend for lunch and then she brought the girls back for ballet.  Amber was telling her friend what we had gotten for her brother for his b'day b/c it will be this weekend while she is at their house.  The mom was telling her not to tell the brother and talk quiet so he can't hear them and this is what Amber says, "I just have so many things in my head I can't keep them all in!"  Ok too funny!
I got myself and Amber all packed for the weekend.  The boys were in charge of packing themselves.  Then after ballet we waited for the boys to finish RE and headed home. 

Thursday and other days too I did a lot of work on downloading all the pictures and working on the blog from the Dubai trip.  It takes a long time to write the blog, then once the pictures are downloaded I have to add them in the right spots in the blog.  The cleaning lady came today and she did a good job getting everything cleaned how I had asked.  I gave her a bag of clothes for her boys and some chocolates too.
Two friends and I went out to lunch.  It was a healthy little place.  They only have a few things on their menu.  So I had gotten there maybe at 11:50 and I saw the board with the menu and then sat down.  My 2 friends came and must not have seen the board.  So the lady comes to take our order and she is speaking English and is telling us about their main salad for today and I said I would have the cod special that is on the board and my other 2 friends said the same.  So when our food comes it is the bean salad she was telling us about and I said I thought we ordered the cod.  She said that was yesterday's menu.  I said but it is on the board, she says well it isn't now!  Ok like when we had asked for cod at the table why didn't she mention this!  This is the customer service we have here!!!
Today I was at school to pick up Amber and then she had a friend over.  After school we drove to the Conservatory which is just around the corner to see about snow white ballet tickets, but I guess the lady that sells tickets has been out sick this week so they said we could call or try back later, ok thanks! 
Then I had to be back at school at 4:30 to pick up Sean from Bball.  Then back at school again at 5:30 to pick up Jacob from track.  Then back at 6:30 for guitar, geesh! 

Friday morning I met a friend at a cafe.  It was nice to catch up!  Then tennis which felt good since it had been 3 weeks since I last played due to vacation.  Then baked 2 batches of cookies to give to my friends that are watching the kids this weekend.  After school Amber and Sean had friends over. 

Sat. morning we got up and got everyone ready for the weekend! 

I first took the boys and dropped them off at one of Sean's friend's house.  The 3 of the boys play so well together and they live close by.  So that was around 8 am.  The boys were both excited to for a full weekend sleepover.  They went to the pool with them today, indoors, and then went with them to a friend's house for dinner and playing at the park.  So they had a good day!
After dropping the boys off we loaded up Amber's bike and drove her to her friend's house.  She was so excited!  She has spent the night here before for a sleepover so I knew she would be fine.  They had a great day of playing, bike riding, visiting a park and another friend's house so a busy day for her too! 
After we dropped off Amber, Jason and I drove about 2 1/2 hours to Epernay, France.  It is in the Champagne region of France.

We had never been before and not really a place for kids since it is just visiting Champagne houses and tasting.  We got into town, not really too big of a town and they were having a market set up. 

This stone piece was really cool looking and old and out of place.  It is just in the middle of town.  I believe it was an entrance area to a church from the 1500's. 
So we parked in the center of town and walked around and had lunch at a nice brasserie.  These are all over Europe.  They open early in the morning for people to go in and have their coffees and teas and breads.  Then they offer a small bar like menu for meals but then offer starting at noon a meal.  So I had a sandwich and Jason had their chicken meal of the day.  The sun had come out and it was on a busy street and we sat by the window so it was very nice.  From here we drove down the street and tried to check into the hotel.  It was around 1pm but the room wasn't ready.  I had booked us at a cute bread and breakfast at the end of the Champagne street so we could just walk to everything.  The house was beautiful.  This is the back of the house.  So that room coming off the back is kind of like a sun room and that is where they serve breakfast.  You can't really see it too well but here they also have an inground pool.

This is a picture of the side of the house, and the bar is to the left and then the parking lot.  When we pulled in, 3 of the cars in the lot, you can see 2 of them, where a Porsche, Ferrari and a Aston Martin all from the UK.  Long drive!

Inside the bar.   Jason loved the bar.

The front of the house.

It was a formal house of the family of one of the champagne houses that is next store.  But when no one lived in it for at least 20 years it became very much in ruins.  So someone bought it and restored it.  Beautiful house maybe originally built in the 1800's.  The pictures on the wall were from the year 1900.  This place has about 15 rooms in it.
So since the room wasn't ready we started walking down the street since we had a tour scheduled for 2 pm at the famous Moet and Chandon champagne house.  These places were all closed from 12-2.  The street was so nice and clean.  It was a brick paved street and nice stone wide sidewalks.  Not many people out.  Beautiful old estate houses all down the street and there were maybe 4 Champagne houses on the street.

 

 

 

We got to the one at the end of the street where I had booked the tour for 2pm.  We go inside the Moet and Chandon house and she tells me that the tour at 2 pm is only in French but there is an English one at 3pm.  So I was a bit annoyed but we took the 3pm one.  I had prebooked all of this and they gave me a receipt with a tour for 2pm in English.  So since we had an hour we walked back up to another Champagne place where you could do the tour or just the tastings.  We really one wanted to do one tour b/c how different can they be?  So we sat and did a tasting.  You got 3 small glasses for 5 euros, not bad.  Then Jason tried 2 more bigger glasses of another brand they had.  I thought they were all ok.  We bought some Champagne and a nice Champagne bucket to chill it in.  It was a little bar area where we did the tasting.  It was neat.  2-3 other couples came in too and everyone was speaking English. 

After this we headed back down to where we were doing our tour.  It was an hour long, in English!  This company has a huge amount of property here with houses across the street too.  Everything so beautiful.  Their cellars were 28 kilometers long, crazy!

Our tour guide telling us this barrel was a gift from Napoleon.

 

Halls in their cellars.

 

They had to be under the city and she had said they had also bought cellars from other houses so they must have torn down the walls between them.  So we learned how Champagne is made and saw lots of bottles at different stages of the process.  Their champagne was very smooth tasting and this is b/c they have smaller bubbles in their champagne.  I do wish these places would have some pretzels or something to cleanse the pallet with b/c after awhile they all start tasting alike!  This is the company that makes that really expensive champagne, Dom Perignon. 

The last year they made it was 2003, b/c that was the last year they had really excellent grapes.  So they had that brand of champagne for sale in their shop for 140 euros, so that would be about $182!  Needless to say we didn't buy any of that!  After the tour we tried 2 champagnes, one was their regular Imperial, and one was their Rose Imperial, so it is a rose color.  They add a red wine to it to give it a pink color.  We bought 2 bottles of the Rose one.  One to give to each of my friends for watching the kids for us.  After this tour we went to the Champagne house that had a huge property just off the main street and a big tower. 

We didn't want to do another tour, so we bought a ticket to see the Champagne museum, the tower and you get a glass of champagne with that.  The museum was neat. 

 

We weren't sure what this was.  Maybe an old post office?  Love the old stairs in the second picture.

 

 

We climbed up all the stairs to the top as far as they let you go and had a good view of the town and surrounding area. 

 

 

Then back down and got our sample. 
Here is where their wine tour started, through the barrel and down the stairs!

This wine has one more gram of sugar in it then the others, so 10 grams and I liked it better.  It was sweeter.  They give you the Brut to sample, but since I like the sweeter one we then tried the Demi-Sec and I really liked that one, so we bought a couple bottles here too!  Good thing we didn't have far too walk b/c we were getting weighted down with bottles!  Also good thing I had brought a bag for us to carry most of this in!  Right next to our hotel was another Champagne house but you couldn't taste unless you did the tour and we didn't want that so we left and went back to the hotel. 
A picture of a barrel from their house.

I can't believe that they turn people away who are willing to pay for the tastings!  We loaded all our champagne into the car and then checked in.  I had gotten the Superior room.  So there was a standard room and then a deluxe room which was bigger then superior.  The room was awesome.  It just used to be a big grand room.  It had a fireplace on one side and then they added a toilet room and a big bathroom. 

And the bathroom had a lovely claw footed tub and a fireplace that was probably just on the other side of the big room back in the day. 

Everything was so nice and cosy looking.  Before dinner we went down to the hotel bar for a drink. 

It had started to rain so we had the hotel call a cab for us.  I had made dinner reservations at a Grill place the hotel had recommended.  Here is Jason holding the book of wine choices!

Jason loved his meal.  It was a starter of sea scallops, then the main dish was a lamb with potato casserole.  I normally don't care for lamb b/c it taste too lamby and it has a strong flavor, but this was wonderful.  I had a grilled sea bass with a lentil salad.  It was good.  Then Jason's favorite Chocolate lava cake for dessert.  It was a small, family run place with about 10 tables.  After dinner we just walked back to the hotel.  Jason had a great b'day and we had a lovely day!