Ava did great and I didn't cry!

Today was Ava's first day of school! When I woke her up this morning, she started jumping on the bed because she was so excited. Unfortunately, it was our bed which meant that we had another unsuccessful attempt at sleeping through the night. Right at 1 am both kids were wide awake. Maybe night #3 will be better...

Since Ken isn't working yet, he was able to take Ava to school with me and meet her teachers. Thankfully, she had met Ella who is in her class already so she was very excited to see her. In August, Ken had come to France for work and had met Keith Swayman who also works for Steelcase and had just relocated to Strasbourg. His wife Meghan, 3 year old daughter Ella, and 6 month old son Ryan would be moving in August. They have been a huge resource for us! They came home to Michigan for Thanksgiving and came over for dinner, so the girls were able to meet. This has been great for Ava because she has been talking about "her new friend Ella" and was very excited to see her at school this morning.

So excited for her first day!



I never thought her first day of school would be in France!

Ava did great at her first day and is very excited to go back on Monday. We ended up seeing people at school that we had met during our house hunting visit, so it took the pressure off and was a distraction so I didn't get so emotional. I think that school will be great for her, but I still don't know what I am going to do with her gone from me so much!

While Ava was at school, we stopped at the local grocery store "Simply". We were able to buy a few basic things like paper towel and cleaning wipes. I figured we couldn't go wrong with those. It will be more of a challenge when I have to actually do real grocery shopping and plan meals. We were then able to go to our new house where I was able to start cleaning. Sometime between us seeing the place in November and now, the apartment got filthy. I will post some pictures of the new place once it is cleaned up and we have some furniture in there.

Ken did pick up our car today. We ended up with a VW Passat Wagon which is very similiar to our car at home. The good news is that it is an automatic and has a navigation system. The bad news is that Kens driving isn't any better in France, but I figure I can't make too much fun of his driving because I haven't tried it yet. Thankfully, I wasn't in the car when he made his first trip, I just heard about it. I am trying to wait until it is an absolute necessity before I attempt driving!

The kids are now asleep (hopefully for the night) and Ken is snoring while we watch "The Voice in Germany". They actually sing most of their songs in English, but the commentary is in German.

This weekend we are hoping to do some walking around Strasbourg with the kids. Ken promised Ava that we could go into the Cathedral. We are also hoping to get to IKEA to buy some armoires and light fixtures for our new place - we don't have a single closet and have only a couple of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling! We also need a washer and dryer - the dirty clothes pile keeps growing. We'll see how this goes. I have never bought appliances in America and I am sure it is much more difficult in France! I am preparing myself for a disaster.