One year! Looking back on our first year, it feels like the time has passed quickly, and when we think of all we still want to do while we live here, it feels like our time is running short. But living in Washington feels far in the past, and the time in between has been a mixture of hard, frustrating, amazing and enriching. Some highlights from our 12th month in Luxembourg:
Rainy day at the bus and tram museum, and Ryan chillin’ in his sleep.
Saturday morning on the couch – Nate and the boys holding up the “B” “Y” and “U” signs while they watched the BYU football game (from the night before); and Eliza with 2 pacifiers when I went in to get her from her nap.
Group date night with 8 of our couple friends. We all got babysitters and went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, then had games and desserts at the Mullins’ afterwards. We happened to plan the group date the night before my birthday, and although I said I didn’t intend it to be a birthday celebration, Nate surprised me with strawberry tarts for dessert.
Since my birthday was on Sunday, we didn’t do anything too exciting. Nate and the kids had deep-cleaned and organized the laundry room on Saturday (what a great bday present!) and on Sunday we went for a walk around Fort Thüngen after dinner, then Nate and the kids used one of our precious imported boxes of Devil’s Food cake mix to make me some homemade oreos. The next morning, my friends organized a fun birthday brunch for me, with yummy croissants, fruit, yogurt and hot chocolate. It was a great birthday, and I was grateful to hear from so many family & friends.
Bennett at Fort Thüngen, and the boys cleaning the bowl after Nate made oreos.
A rainy afternoon at the bike park with the Oates. We felt like we really needed to get out, and in theory the bike park isn’t as muddy as the other parks if it’s wet and/or rainy, but we had to take Eliza’s pants off before she got in the car, and they all came home soaked and muddy. At least they had fun! And picture on the right – I had bought these shoes for Bennett in a size too big a while ago. They were in a drawer in his room and Eliza found them, put them on by herself, and insisted on wearing them everywhere for a couple of weeks. Bennett wore them to school one day and she was really upset about it!
I had the kids stop on the walk home from the bus stop to take a picture with the sunlight hitting the fall leaves in the valley, but you can’t really see the fall leaves. At least the kids look cute.
Eliza deciding to be upside down on the walk home from the bus stop (notice the shoes in these two pictures).
Ryan helping make muffins. I had to let go of my desire for control and any semblance of cleanliness, but he loved doing it.
An October morning at the Villa Vauban museum with friends. Eliza and Ingrid lasted about 45 minutes (when I say lasted, I mean that Eliza’s level of noise and rambunctiousness wasn’t too distracting to the other museum visitors) before we decided to head out. The museum is on beautiful grounds, and while the art wasn’t well-known (at least, not enough that I had heard of the authors), there were some beautiful pieces.
Sunday evening picnic dinner and walk around Lake Echternach with the Mullins. We drove up there to see the fall leaves in their prime, and they were beautiful. Unfortunately, it was the first day of daylight savings and it got dark way too early. We wished we had more time!
A Saturday day trip to Dinant, Belgium (separate post to come).
Ward Trunk-or-Treat. This was the extent of our Halloween celebrations, which was ok with me. I decided to make costumes for all the kids because all the stores had was witches, skeletons, and gory costumes. I was actually surprised they had as much Halloween stuff as they did, considering that it’s not really a holiday that’s celebrated here. I later regretted the decision to make them all as I was sewing and Nate was painting all afternoon just before the trunk or treat. We ate potluck soups and bread, the kids explored the adjacent park and made a couple rounds through the trunks to fill their baskets.
Little Red Riding Hood, the Lego, and the Shark
Sunday evening sugar cookie-decorating while the adults talked (and tried to contain the mess).
Fall Break. The boys had a week off of school in November and we lucked out with decent weather, so we spent every single afternoon at a park with friends until it got dark. In the mornings, the kids enjoyed just being at home and playing (in the times I wasn’t forcing them to run errands with me). Monday: Airplane park, Tuesday: Castle park, Wednesday: Farm park, Thursday: Pirate Ship park, and Friday: the park at Otto and Aksel’s school.
On Thursday morning, Tasha dropped her kids off at our house for a few hours and went and completed an impressive amount of Christmas shopping. On Friday, I left the kids at Tasha’s and attempted to do some Christmas shopping. I wasn’t nearly as productive as she was – all I bought was a pair of shoes for myself. It was great to wander the stores by myself, and especially to go to the toy store and get some ideas without little people begging to buy things. When I got back, Eliza was napping and Bennett, Otto, and Ryan were outside playing soccer and a random game with sticks. They stayed out and played for a long time, making me wish we had a yard for the kids to go out and play in. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon and when the girls woke up, walked to the bakery for some cookies and then to Otto and Aksel’s school playground.
Ryan waking up one night after falling out of bed. I helped him back in, then went to check on him a few minutes later because he was crying and out of bed again. I asked him if he was hurt, and when he said no I asked what was wrong and he said “I just don’t have that much legos”. I had to try really hard not to laugh.
Parent-Teacher conference with Ryan’s teacher – the mid-year “bilan”, which literally means balance sheet. It was great to hear that Ryan is always happy and smiling in class, participates, and plays well with the other kids. He has 3 really good friends: one from Russia, one from Kosovo, and one from Sweden. None of them speak English, so they speak Luxembourgish to each other as they are playing. It makes me so happy and relieved to hear that he is happy at school and making friends.
Nate’s trip to Seattle for work. I wasn’t excited to have him gone for a week, but did send him with an extra suitcase and a long list of food items and Christmas gifts to bring back. While he was gone, we fit in two more park days making the most of the mild fall weather – one more trip to Parc Merl and the bike park. The day he flew in, we met with the Oates at the Farm Park for a while to get some of the kids’ energy out and pass the time while our husbands were gone.
