Easter 2013

Both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are bank holidays in France, so all 4 of us have been home for 4 days. Last week Beckett had a fever for 4 days and Ava started to get it on Sunday. So, this was the perfect weekend to stay home and relax.

On Easter, we had brunch with a bunch of friends. I pity anyone in their apartment building when we all get together, because these kids are loud! But, for the most part, they all get along and all we hear is happy yelling. 

In the afternoon, we went to another friends farm in one of the villages for an Easter egg hunt. The kids had so much fun!

Beckett and Inez scootering in the courtyard. 

Easter baskets are very difficult to find here, so our kids use shopping bags!

It looks like he is taking from Inez's bag, but he was actually giving her one. 

Round 2 - making sure they didn't forget any.

Love these two!!

Today, Ava had a fever for most of the day. After dinner (and another dose of ibuprofen), she was feeling a bit better. She has been really wanting to learn to ride a two-wheeler, so she begged Ken to take her out. Her incentive is that as soon as she can ride the two-wheeler, she can ride her bike to school. She can actually list off the kids in her class that can ride a two-wheeler, so in 4 year old French school, it is a big deal. After about 5 minutes, she figured it out. I am also very happy as now I only have to haul 1 kid in the bike trailer instead of 2! 

Best Surprise Ever!

I had absolutely no clue! The plan was for Laurie and Joel to come to France together next year sometime, so I was completely shocked when Laurie and Hattie walked into our dining room a couple of weeks ago. I still cannot believe that they pulled this off and I didn't have any idea.

The first time meeting Hattie. 

Love her so much!!

Beckett also loved her! 

 He kept asking to hold her on his lap.

Ava loved having a "sister" for the week.

While Laurie and Hattie were recovering from jet lag, we hung out at home, went for walks and let the kids play together. 

Laurie and I didn't plan this, but we both bought our girls clothes in the same print. Ava was so excited the Hattie matched her.

Pretty typical scene for the week: Hattie carefully positioned in the corner of the couch, Beckett sneaking in extra ipad time and Ava setting up a tea party.

My little cuddler.

I love those blue eyes and bald head!

On Friday, Ken sent Laurie and I to Paris for the day without kids! Paris, with your best friend and no kids - honestly, what could be better? Ken worked from home that day and took care of all 3 kids - got our kids off to school, hung out with Hattie during the day and managed the crazy pick-up from school/dinner time/bed time routine. So thankful for a great hubby!

Laurie and I tour cities like we shop. No time for messing around - have a game plan, get to the destination, take the picture and move on. It was a great day, but we were completely exhausted!

My first Starbucks since this summer.

Fancy lunch in the Orsay.

Laurie's first French crepe - so good!

Last stop was the Louvre. So tired!

Hattie and Uncle Ken bonding over college basketball.

What a great week! I still can't believe that no one spilled the secret! I had so much fun showing Laurie how we do life here and having her actually see the things that I talk about. I loved being able to finally meet Hattie. I was back in France when she was born in September. I received many pictures and videos of her, but it still isn't the same. At night, we hung out, drank wine, watched Friends - all of our favorite things! I loved it all! Maybe Joel can be convinced to send you both again next year???

We have visitors!

A couple of weeks ago, we had our first visitors! Ava was so excited, we had a countdown going for weeks! We had so much fun hanging out and showing them a little of our life here. 

The start of our trip down the wine road in Eguisheim.

A cute little winery in Riquewihr. 

Gabe and Liz. 

We had so much fun spending a couple of days with them while they were in Europe on their honeymoon!

Cheers!!

Les Gets, France

I was a bit apprehensive to plan a ski vacation. I am not athletic. The only sport I do is running since it is just putting one foot in front of the other. When I was in middle school, my Dad thought that he should teach me to ski. I think I only lasted a couple of hours and we both gave up after I ran into a fence. I never went skiing again.

Last summer we decided to plan a ski trip with two other families. Not many people get the opportunity to ski in the Alps, so I knew that I had to at least try. I had a bit of a rough start, but greatly improved by the end of the week. The first day, the Moms went out together. Meghan and Colby were very patient with me! I quickly caught on with skiing, however my first couple of attempts at the rope tow were embarrassing. My first time, I may have stopped the rope tow for over 5 minutes as I went flying through the gate and a snowmobile was sent up to restart it. The second time, I panicked and aborted early and then got stuck with no place to go. I stayed far away from rope tows after that day!

The view from our house.

Moms afternoon out!

 Playing with their favorite person, Casey! Ava is the one wearing her helmet and goggles to play. She was so excited, she didn't want to take them off.

Waiting for the bus on the first day of ski school. The girls did 6 days of ski school, 2 hours a day. We had some tears when they left us, but they were all smiles by the end of their class every day. We were amazed and what they could do at the end of the week. 

Our little ski girl. She already asked to ski again next winter.

The weather was clear and sunny for the first four days. The views were amazing!

Let's do this!

Twinners!

The girls enjoying some Peppa Pig. 

Beautiful

Waiting for their teachers at ski school.

Love that toothless smile!

Love her.

Eating a snack and watching the people get on the chair lift. Little did they know (and their parents) that they would go on the chairlift that day! We were quite confused when they told us they went up the mountain on the silver thing. 

So excited!

And the excitement disappears. Daddy was trying to engage in a "go team" cheer to help but it didn't work.

Carrying their skis to the gondola. They said that this was the hardest part of their class because their skis were so heavy.

Morning cuddle time with the ipad.

The French know how to do dessert!

The best part of the week was the last day. When Ava got up the last morning, she had gotten sick during the night and was not feeling well at all. I asked her if she wanted to go to ski school on her last day and skipping was not going to be an option for her. She is one tough girl! All of us parents decided to pick up the big girls and tried to ski with them. We had been spying on their class all week and were pretty amazed at what they had learned. We took the ski lift up with Ava and followed her lead all the way down the mountain. She made it all of the way with no falling. She is already talking about wanting to do ski school next year again. After we got home, she was so exhausted that she didn't eat or move the rest of the evening.

Spying on Ava's class from the chairlift towards the end of the week. I felt bad for her because I didn't even want to ski when the weather was like that.

A year in...

Wow, a whole year! I finished reading the book "The Happiness Project" this weekend and at the end of the book, there was a quote "The days are long, but the years are short". Some days have seemed forever long here. The language barrier, Ken not getting home from work until after 7 every night, transitioning Ava into school, learning to cook, navigating doctor appointments, riding my bike everywhere in the rain, snow or shine. Looking back, I don't know how we survived those first couple of months of trying to figure everything out, living out of suitcases and in a hotel (with a mouse!). I am pretty confident that my love of French wine started pretty early on!

Things have gotten easier, although some days still feel very long. The language is still a problem. Ava has the best pronunciation and corrects Ken and I all of the time. I transitioned from working part-time to being a stay at home Mom. Any of you that do it or have done it knows that it is a blessing to be able to stay home with your kids, but sometimes you just need to get away! This year, Ava is in school 4 full days (2 days she goes 8:30-4:30 and 2 days she goes 8:30-5:30). She went from not wanting to go to school last year to loving school this year. Beckett now goes to the creche (which is just like daycare) 2 days a week so that I can have my French lessons and have a little time to myself. He loves his teachers and goes running in when I drop him off. Ken still works late almost every night, but we have gotten used to that too. I plan on doing the whole dinner/bath/bedtime routine by myself and if he makes it home earlier, it is a bonus. We have figured out a schedule so that I do not need to do the grocery shopping on my bike anymore, which has made things way easier for me!

There have been many great things that have happened this past year. With Ava being in school, I have been able to connect and become friends with lots of other Moms. I don't know what we would have done without them. We all have kids the same ages and all are away from our families, so we pretty much get together all of the time. The vacations we have taken have been amazing. Strasbourg is in such a great location that we have been able to drive to all of our vacations and have been able to see so many things. I love road trips in Europe! We drove an hour to the Vosges Mountains today to go sledding and it was absolutely beautiful. I told Ken on the way home that I love being able to live here.

On the way home today from the Vosges Mountains.

The most difficult thing, of course, is being away from our friends and family back home. It is hard when we miss big things. We have missed holidays. I have missed a couple of special babies being born and will miss another one next month (or sooner if he decides to come early!). This is when I feel the most sad and homesick. But, I know that this is only a temporary situation and after a couple more years, we will be back in Grand Rapids feeling like our years in France seemed so short.