Early afternoon Jason went and picked up Sean and then they came back here and we left to go to Jacob's friend's house where they invited us over for an afternoon BBQ. I made some brownies and brought those. It was a lunch for them but more like an early dinner for us b/c I think we ate a little before 4pm. The kids had fun playing together. Here is a picture of the girls on the trampoline with one of their guinea pigs.
We came home and finished packing our suitcases and making piles around the house. The movers come tomorrow. So sad.... Hard to believe a week from today we will be in our new house.
Monday morning Jason took Jacob in for early morning band and then back later for the other 2. It was crazy hair day today for the lower school. Not too crazy.
The movers came around 8:45. I ran to the store for a few things and some morning snacks for them. There are 3 of them. They got our room, and Amber's room all packed. So all we have are our beds on the floor now. Then our closet upstairs and the bathroom up there as well is where 2 guys spent most of their day. The other guy was here in the dining room and play area/living room today since there were a lot of dishes and items there. I had a friend's b'day luncheon to go to. Her husband is one of the owners of a new little hotel/extended stay place and the restaurant just opened so she had her party there. It was nice and very good food. There were about 20 of us there today.
After school Sean went home with a friend. So I just picked up Amber and Jacob.
Twin day is suppose to be on Thursday but since Amber won't be here her and her best friend dressed up with their BFF shirts and matching skirts today.
The movers stayed until a little bit before 5pm. Tonight Jacob had his end of the year concert for band and choir. So that worked out perfect, but it was long. It was an hour and 1/2 since it was middle school and upper school. Jacob did well and enjoyed it.
Then as soon as we got home someone came to pick up the dryer. I was trying to get as many loads done today as I could and then I had to clean out the dryer. I will still wash for another day and just hope everything dries ok. Jason made some popcorn for Jacob to take to school for his little going away party in German class.
Tuesday was animal day at school. So Amber wore her favorite Dino costume. We had talked about it this weekend and so I pulled it out and set it aside so the movers didn't get it, but then this morning she said she would rather wear her my little pony costume. But it had been packed yesterday so she had to stick with the dino costume.
Jason drove the kids to school and then the movers came over and were here until about 5pm. They aren't the fastest packers so we will see if they finish packing everything up tomorrow as Thursday they are suppose to load the truck. Today I got some cookie bars made for Amber's little going away party at the park. Jason went for a long walk down in the valley area and took some really pretty pictures.
The weather here this week, mid- high 60's! I just sat outside in the sun for a bit. Soaking it in before I go back to the cold! I picked the kids up from school and started saying goodbye to a few people that I won't see tomorrow.
We had to have an early dinner again tonight as Sean had a French program tonight. They did a play in French. Sean just was in the chorus. They did a good job, and Jacob understood the play so I was happy he could understand it!
Amber and her French teacher who she just loved!
I have been in contact with Amber's new teacher at her school and she seems nice.
Every day after school one of the kids asks the same question about the rest of our week, where are we going, how are we getting from Copenhagen back to the states, which city do we stop in, and then when are we arriving at our new house.
Wednesday was a busy day. Today was the kids' last day of school here in Luxembourg.
I made popcorn for Jacob in the morning to bring in to French class for a little party. Amber took her 2 gifts for her teachers to school, but both boys seemed to have forgotten their gifts- ugh! When I got home Jason said that Jacob had called and he forgot to bring in his German workbook to turn back in. So I waited about 15 min. until the traffic died down and the movers came back, just 2 today. Then I headed back to school. I went and put in Jacob's locker the gift and German book, then over to Sean's school and went to his classroom where I gave his teacher the gift and a hug which brought tears to my eyes. She is a really great teacher and I am sorry to leave her. Another boy left last week and with Sean leaving their class is down to 16 kids! How great is that. I reached out to Sean's new teacher and with him in the class there are now 29 students- ugh way to many I think! There are only 3 teachers for his grade at his new school.
After the school drop offs I took this paperwork from the car that the relocation lady had dropped off which has to go back to the seller. She is from France so she has to export the car to then import the car. So I drove back over to her office and gave her this card she needed from the place where all the paperwork was completed. Once back home I got the last 2 loads of wash done and out on the drying rack and started cleaning out the washing machine for someone coming to buy it tonight- my last sale! Then once home I went over to the park by our house as Amber's grade was having a field trip here.
It was a great day and they played at the park. Jason came and stopped by for a bit too so that was nice.
Then the class gave her this huge castle drawing they did with little selfies drawn with words on them.
It was really cute. And then 2 books.
I brought over my cookie bars I baked and we all had a little treat. Then their day was over so Amber went home with her friend and another girl for one last lunch and playdate. I got some suitcases organized and weighed for our flight. Jason's secretary he had here came over to pick up some things she had bought. Then back at school for Sean's 2:20 early dismissal.
He had his percussion set and all his school stuff in a bag. Then he went home with a friend so he gave me all his stuff. We were there for awhile saying goodbye to friends, and hanging out with my good friend while her daughter finished up a class. Then an hour later Jacob got out. We went and picked up his report card. He was suppose to go home with a friend who just takes the local bus home, but it leaves shortly after school gets out and it is from a different building up the street. But Jacob got out late and then his friends were trying to say goodbye to him and he had to check out in the middle school office.
They gave him a school mug. So by this time his friend is like Jacob the bus leaves in 6 min. So I told the boys to run, and just call me if they miss it. Guess what they missed it. This boy lives on the other side of town, so I just told them to come to our house and they can go to the park. So we took them and then another one of Jacob's close friends home for one last play date. Once at home Jason took Amber and they unloaded our last load at the recycling center. Then a bit later I drove one of the boys home and Amber and I went to her BFF's house and mine too and we had to say goodbye.
They had made her these 2 super cute goodbye gifts.
It is always hard. They are such good friends and a great family. We are sad to leave. As we are anytime we have to leave good friends. So many tears..... Amber's friend made her a lovely 100 plus picture album of their friendship over the past 3 years. And a really cute hand print craft thing to hang in Amber's new room. We will miss them, until we meet up again!
From here we had to drive and pick up Sean at his friend's house and say goodbye there.
They our our friends from Norway and gave us some cute gifts from Norway. I can't wait until we visit them in Norway one day! It is hard to leave good friends, but great to have friends all around the world!! I would have never guessed one day I would have 2 good friends from Norway! Then we drove back home and picked up Jason, Jacob and Jacob's other friend and drove him home on the other side of town and said goodbye there. From here we drove into the city where we were 1/2 hour late for our dinner reservation. Jason wanted to go to this seafood restaurant downtown since it was the first place he ate out at here in Luxembourg so now it was our last. Just a crazy day to get there! I had lobster and loved it. Jason and Jacob shared a big seafood platter and the other 2 had some other seafood.
We sat outside it was another great weather day and nice evening. I had left a key with our good handyman and he came and helped the lady buying the washing machine so now that is all gone. Once home I get a text from Jacob's one friend we had dropped off that he left his bag in our car. So at 10:45pm his dad came over to get his book bag. Hope he didn't have much homework in there.
The whole house is now in boxes besides all our mattress on the floor. Sean was my saddest one tonight with many tears and asking to go to school tomorrow. Amber wants her and her BFF to live together. I said we are just going to have to ship the girls back and forth like 2 divorced families!
Thursday was our last day here ): The movers came again in the morning with the big crate and loaded the crate up today.
The kids didn't go to school today since we had to leave in the early afternoon. They didn't have much to do today as everything was packed so they spent most of the morning at the park and then after lunch Jason took them to the bigger park closer to school. We had a lot of visitors- the moving lady and relocation lady, then 2 friends, then before we left a group of my girl friends came over. That was nice to see them one last time before we left.
We took some pictures and then the van came and we drove away from our Luxembourg house for the last 3 years and on to the airport. It was sad. Today we were flying to Copenhagen for the weekend for one last European Adventure!! We got there around 7pm and got another big van which took us to the hotel. We hadn't been to Denmark before so that makes 18 countries in about 3 years we have visited! Pretty cool! We dropped off our bags and then went to this cute American Pub for dinner. It was really good and there was even a guy playing guitar and singing American songs. It was a nice way to end a long week. It was really cold here. We were freezing walking around. So after dinner we went back to the room as we were exhausted from this week. It is stressful and draining to move.
Friday we got up and had the sad little breakfast at the hotel and got ready to go. We walked for about 20 minutes in the cold windy weather to go to the castle grounds. Well the grounds were open but the castle and museum weren't open until 10am and it was 9am. So we hung out in the grounds for a bit but everyone was really cold, so we decided to go and find a café or someplace for hot chocolate. We walked toward the downtown area and found this great Joe and juice place. It had great juice mixes and hot chocolate. Everyone here speaks English fluently. After we warmed up we just walked around town.
They have great shopping here, but it is a very expensive city. A pop at a restaurant was about $10! For lunch we hit one of our favorite places- The Hard Rock Café!
So I believe now we have eaten at this restaurant in 10 countries! From here we walked back to the hotel room as everyone was a bit cold and Jason needed to do some work. We warmed up a bit and then Jason stayed in the room to work and I took the kids and we did the Hop on Hop off bus tour. I always like doing those b/c it takes you to most of the cities main sites. So we did that and then went back to the room and I took a nap. For dinner we just went out to a pizza place.
Saturday morning we slept in a bit then had another sad breakfast and left to get back on the hop on bus and take that to stop number 8 where we hopped on the canal boat tour. That was fun and thank goodness it was a glass covered boat and it was heated.
After the tour we walked to a big square and got lunch, but this was under construction as were a lot of things in the city we thought. Today I had wanted us to go to this amusement park they have right in the city, but it was closed and not opening until next week- ugh!
We walked through the downtown streets back to our hotel and hung out for a bit and then just went to a Thai place down the street as no one really wanted to be outside anymore in the cold. We went to bed early as we were flying out early tomorrow morning.
Sunday was our last official day in Europe. We got up at 4am and everyone got ready to go and the van came for us at 4:30am to take us to the airport. We were flying from here to Paris as there were no direct flights to the spot in the US we wanted. So the first flight was about 2 hours and then once in Paris by the time we got to the gate we had maybe 30 min before we boarded our last international flight. The flight was 8 hours. The kids did well but it is just so long to sit there.
Once we landed in the good old USA I had to rent a mini van as Jason didn't have his license on him b/c he was in the process of getting a new one and they had attached his license to his paperwork so it was just all in his car. So I got the van and then we drove to Jason's work which was about 45 min from the airport. He had taken a cab from work when he had left to fly back so he picked up his jeep. From here I just followed him as I had no idea where we were. We drove to Panera Bread and picked up some dinner. Then there was a grocery store right next door so Sean and I ran in and grabbed a few things. Then on to our new house. The kids were so excited! We got there and they just ran all over checking things out. There were boxes everywhere from the Chicago house being moved here. They really like the house. The first thing Amber wanted to know was when she could go swimming. I told her, lets let the snow melt and we will go from there! I walked through it very slowly just taking it all in. I can't believe this is now were we will be living. The house is nice but needs some love. So this is the end of the European Adventure for us. We really enjoyed our travels over in Europe and are even making plans to meet some friends in Iceland next summer already! We have had a great 3 years there and made some great friends along the way! So Addi, Au revoir, and Goodbye Luxembourg. Thanks for all the great memories and fun adventures! Hope you enjoyed reading about our life over there and whatever journey life has in store for you hope it is a good one!! Signing off, Cheers, Kerry (:
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