The Rest of Our Adventures with our First Visitors

So, I didn't mention that we had planned to see Paris on our very first day in France and then go to the Normandy sights on our second day. We ended up skipping out on any sight seeing the first day because the car ride was getting to be too much for little Alex (we had 6 hours of driving that day!) In hindsight, it wasn't even a good idea to try to squeeze anything in that day. What were we thinking!!?? We rented a house about an hour outside of Paris and we just went straight, grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed! So we opted out of going to Normandy and went to Paris the next day instead. The house we stayed in was interesting. Looked way nicer in the pictures. It was still nice just not totally what I expected. And the owner only spoke French so communication was rough!! They lived on site too.
Here are a few pics at the house:

standing by the door to our portion of the house

 

Entry to the house, gardens and horse stables

Steaming truck load of fresh manure outside the gate

 

Petting and feeding the horses

and the only picture I got of the inside....it was nice that there was a toy box there!

 

{Ghent, Belgium}

I don't know what it is but I love Belgium! Not a lot of sights to see but just quaint villages and streets. Derek had a conference in Ghent 4 years ago. I tagged along and ventured the city alone for 3 days. I really came to love Ghent! We had also planned to go to Brugge, another fabulous city in Belgium, but we decided not to rush things. We were still exhausted from Paris!

 

Best part of the day...lunch....Belgian Waffles, French Fries and Hot Chocolate!!!

 

Street with Hanging Shoes

 

Gravensteen Castle

 

{York, UK}

This day ended up going all wrong in so many ways. Derek and I had yet to go here but we've heard great things about it. It is a 3 hour drive to York, we just got done doing SO much driving...not a good decision to do this today. It also ended up being our only day without rain and we spent the majority of the time in the car. Knowing that Natalie & Alex wanted to see a castle I looked into one......obviously not good enough because it was North of the city center of York and the castle itself ended up being closed. We paid to walk the grounds. The grounds were amazing though! By the time we were done exploring them it was dark and we didn't get to see any of the city!

 

Castle Howard

 

 

 

After a long walk through the woods we found a playground

 

{Stonehenge & London}

We started out with Stonehenge which is, you guessed it, a 3 hour drive.

 

There was a guy doing headstands so Blake had to try it too. I really should get him doing this at every site we go to. He's always doing it anyway.

 

By the time we got to London it was dark. It was cool to see it at night although I'm sure Natalie and Alex would have rather seen it during the day.

 

Tower Bridge

 

Late Night Race

 

{Cambridge, UK}

The girls had to go back to school. Derek had to go back to work. Natalie, Alex, Blake and I went to the college town of Cambridge. Sorry no pics! I had yet to make my way to Cambridge. It's an easy hour drive. It is now my new favorite city that is close to us! Lots of shopping, beautiful scenery, great restaurants! We met up with an old friend of Natalie's who happens to live in the area.

 

{Castle Rising}

Natalie & Alex's last day here......I had to take them to a castle. Another one I hadn't been to but the only one that is close to us. It wasn't as grand as some of the others we've been to but it was still quite impressive. We ended their stay at our favorite restaurant.

 

Despite everything, we had so much fun...such an adventure! We LOVED having Natalie & Alex hang out with us and hope they will come back.....and Andy should come too! We look forward to more visitors. And now that we know not to squeeze so much in it shouldn't be as exhausting! ;)

Our First Visitors!!!

We were so anxious and excited to get our first visitors! We really didn't expect anyone to come out this quickly but were pleasantly surprised when Derek's sister, Natalie, contacted us about coming out for a visit. She also brought along our niece Alexandrea (Alex) whom we had yet to meet! We had so much fun! I feel bad though because we didn't know how much sightseeing to squeeze into their trip. We overthought things way too much. We kept thinking they were spending all this money to fly out here we need to do as much as possible. Well, we planned way too much and spent a majority of the time in the car just travelling to the sights. Unfortunately, we don't really live by anything cool so everything is a good 2-3 hour drive one way to get there and this time of year it's pitch black by 4pm! Like I said, we did have a great time though and so happy they could come out for a visit!!! Oh, and it was perfect timing for visitors as the girls had a 5 1/2 day weekend!! Now enough blabbing and on to the pictures.

We did give them one day to adjust to the time change. Which isn't nearly enough time. You really need at least 3 days. With the limited time, we figured they could sleep in the car to our destinations. I don't know that that really every happened though. First stop was to Paris for Natalie's birthday!

We started the day at the Arc de Triomphe.

 

We found something pretty cool engraved on the walls

 

A Closer look

 

We then walked along the Avenue des Champs Elysees and stopped in the Disney Store

 

Came across some pretty parks

 

 

Took some time for the kids to play

 

More sights as we were walking to our next destination

 

Somewhere along here Allie got her first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. She did NOT believe it was the Eiffel Tower....at all. Derek bought her a keychain and she started comparing it to the real thing. The biggest issue was that when Derek and I went to Paris four years ago we brought back a souvenir of the Eiffel Tower that glowed (which is what it does at night). I will admit it's not nearly as beautiful during daylight hours.

 

After we all had a good laugh at Allie's antics we realized we were finally at our next destination, The Louvre.

 

Avery went into Model Mode....

Time to let the kids play again. Blake was excited to get out of the stroller.

Next, we made our way over to Notre Dame Cathedral. Derek, Natalie and kids are the little specs of people right in front of the cathedral....behind the masses of umbrellas

 

 

Then we found Love Lock Bridge

throwing our key into the river below

 

Next, we finally made the LONG trek to the Eiffel Tower

 

Getting closer, Avery had to act like Allie. :)

We made it!!! Allie's dream to see the Eiffel Tower in person came true!

 

We were all completely exhausted by this point...this guy had it easy in the stroller

 

We wanted something nice for Natalie's birthday dinner. We went down to check out dinner cruises. 60 euro per adult & 30 euro per kid we just couldn't afford. After lots more walking we decided we would just eat wherever. We found 2 nice restaurants, randomly picked one, went in and had a wonderful dinner. Mind you, the most expensive dinner we have ever had, but wonderful! We all were able to get recharged and made the walk back to the car. It felt like we had walked a marathon.....we had to calculate how much we actually walked and it ended up being just under 8 miles....it really did feel like a lot more than that!!!

Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower at Night

she was  much happier once the Eiffel Tower lit up. We didn't stay around long enough to see it twinkling though which really is the best part.

Us 4 years ago......and this year

 

This was just the first day of our adventures.........first day means the most pictures taken. :) I didn't take nearly as much the rest of the trip but since there are so many on this post and I have stuff to do today.....I'll leave it with just a Paris post for now.

From the Mouths of Babes

This morning I was telling the girls about the tornados in the Midwest. I asked Allie if she remembered playing soccer at Mintonye and Southwestern this past Spring. She couldn't remember it so I reminded her of her team, the Tia Tornados. Then she remembered. I showed her a picture of the school that someone had posted on Facebook. She gasped and said, "that happened because of the Tia Tornados!" So glad no one was hurt and that school wasn't in session!

Thursday afternoon I was waiting at the  bus stop for the girls. The bus came and everyone was getting off except for them. They finally did slowly come stumbling off. I could tell they had both been asleep. They have an hour bus ride and I tell them it's the perfect time for naps......especially now that it's pretty much dark when they get off. Anyway, I asked them if they had been sleeping and Allie just smiled and shook her head yes. She said, "Avery fell asleep right away. I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open because I didn't want to miss our stop but my they were just getting too heavy and I couldn't keep them open anymore."

Neither of the girls ever really want to talk about their day at school. Avery was in a good mood after her nap though. She told me that she, "fell off the swing thing (I later found out it was the teeter totter) at school. But, I didn't cry, Mom, and I didn't go to the nurses office!" We've had too many talks about going to the nurses office for silly things! She then changed her story some and told me that, "Nathan catched me." "Nathan is my boyfriend. So is Jake. Me: You have 2 boyfriends? She shakes her head like it's no big deal. "No, I mean I have 3 boyfriends. Dylan is my boyfriend too. Don't tell Dad though."

Thankful Jar

We were very excited to get out the Thankful Jar this year!!! It is such a great feeling to see the kids get excited to do something for someone else or just to talk about what they are thankful for. We've fallen a little behind in grabbing something out of the Thankful Jar due to visitors in town but this just means no arguing over who's turn it is to pull out a paper because all 3 kids will get to!

Character Book Parade

The day before Halloween the girls had a Character Book Parade at school. They were supposed to pick out a favorite book, and dress up as a favorite character if they wanted, hold the book, and walk in the school parade. We got lots of reminders about this event and every reminder stressed the idea that the students did not have to dress up. I took it as they preferred them not to so there wouldn't be too many distractions. We didn't have time to prepare for this much because it was 2 days after getting back from Portugal. Allie really loves all books so I just had her choose one of her Junie B. Jones books b/c she could still kind of dress like her but it wouldn't be overly distracting or a lot of work to put together. Avery's class made something in school to wear so I didn't have to worry about her. When I got to the parade almost every kid was decked out! Although most were just wearing their Halloween costumes.

Happy Belated Halloween

For Halloween this year, we just went to our church's Trunk or Treat. Halloween is just starting to catch on over here so we weren't sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised! The games they had set up inside for the kids to play were very creative and the kids had so much fun! Everyone had their trunks decorated so awesome! It was a great night.

 

Here is a peek at some of the candy the kids received. It was all pretty much this different type of candy. Some of it is really good.......some of it not so much.

 

Feltwell Fuzzy Award and Parent/Teacher Conferences

I am way behind on blogging. I jumped the gun a little on our Portugal post because I couldn't stop looking at the pictures....I wanted to be back in the warm sun! About a week before we left for Portugal I got a call from the school Principal. I figured I was getting reprimanded for not calling in to say Avery was going to be late (we were at the doctor's office that morning and I had no signal to call and we were running way later than I thought we would). I was completely wrong. He was calling to tell me how proud he was of Allison and that she had received a Feltwell Fuzzy award for outstanding achievement in academics and citizenship!!! We are so incredibly proud of Allie! I was actually on the way to the school when he called. When we got there all of the students that had received a Feltwell Fuzzy that day were getting their picture taken. So then they had Allie get in a picture with all of us and it was posted in the Hedgehog Highlights this month!

Last week we had Parent Teacher Conferences. We learned more about the Feltwell Fuzzy Award during the conference with Allie's teacher. She said that the teachers can choose any number of students whenever they want for an award. This was the earliest in the school year that she has ever given out the award (and Allie was the first in her class to get one!) She said last year she didn't even give one out until the last quarter! So I think she means business when she's giving out these awards! :) As far as everything else goes with Allie, she is doing great in everything! She is getting all A's. Her lowest scores were in math which I am very aware that she doesn't like math......and I don't blame her. She has exceeded expectations in reading which was one of the reasons behind getting the fuzzy award. Allie just blows through her chapter books. She is constantly reading and is pretty much already at a 3rd grade level. She's a champ!

Avery has shown SO much improvement since being in Kindergarten. I was hesitant to send her but, once again, Derek has proven that he is ALWAYS right. ;) With that said, she is still way behind. I know that doesn't make any sense. Before conferences they had someone come in to quiz the kids to see where they stand. Avery didn't know this person that was quizzing her. She basically failed the quiz......big time. I know that a huge part of it was that she was afraid to talk to this stranger that was quizzing her and her teacher feels the same way. I really think she has anxiety issues. For example, they said she could only count to 16. Just yesterday she counted to 39 with no help......and then on to 100 with very little help. I will admit she is behind in a lot things but we just need to remember that she is the youngest in her class. No matter what we are extremely proud of the improvements she's shown. We are so lucky that her teacher absolutely adores her. Not only has she told us this but it is very apparent too. We know she will give Avery the attention she needs and just help her along in the right direction. She has suggested Avery attend some meetings with the counselor. They are called Friend Meetings where there will be a couple other kids in the meeting. She thinks it would be good for Avery to get to know and be comfortable with another adult and it also gives her a chance to meet different students too. Her teacher has also suggested maybe putting Avery is some sort of a class for help academically. She's not totally convinced Avery needs it though. She thinks it's more a matter of her opening up and being more comfortable.

That's about it for conferences. Again, so proud of my girls!