Last I left off, it was about to be Keira's 8th birthday. That went pretty well. She invited a few friends from school and the neighborhood, it was down the road at her riding stable. The kids groomed the horses, saddled them, and got to walk and/ or trot around the indoor ring for an hour. After that we had brownies and presents, and the kids toured around the stables, the little petting zoo area and then played tag. The next day, the Wright family came over for a little celebration, and Keira opened her presents from them. She's really in to Lego friends these days. Also notable, she got an American girl doll from Oma that is just the best thing ever!
In October, I celebrated my 31st birthday with a Halloween themed party. It was fantastic. We installed blacklights in the basement, and everyone came dressed up in costumes. Chris was the Mad Hatter, Aubrey the Red Queen, and I was the Cheshire Cat. We voted for and handed out best costumes and sexiest costume awards. My friend Peter even flew in from Virginia for the weekend just for my party!
November brought International day again at my school, 3rd grade did Afghanistan and 4th grade studied Italy. Being that I'm not a home room teacher anymore, I had less to do with the planning that before. The rooms turned out great! I got to spend more time exploring with the family, and our kids really enjoyed walking around to the different activities.
We also hosted Thanksgiving again for friends from school. This year the crowd was a bit smaller- 18 people. Everyone brought a side dish, Chris brined and cooked the turkeys, and I made stuffing. It was nice, everyone seated at a long table like I imagine the Pilgrims and Natives did so many years ago.
At the beginning of December, Chris got hired with another International school, for a start date after the new year. We also had our ISR winter party. For the second year, I sang a couple songs with our teacher-made band. I sand KT Tunstall's Big black horse and the Cherry tree, Human League's Don't you want me, and backup on the B52's Love Shack. It was great fun! After the party, a few of us headed out to Karaoke, where the DJ accused me of "disappearing" since I haven't been there since July. I sang a few more songs, and had a nice time with some cool friends.
The Christmas break brought with it Rob and Matt, visiting from SLC. They arrived in time for a lovely Dec. 23 dinner with Sindi, and experienced raclette for the first time with Emma at our house on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning, they got to partake in the hours of child-led oohs and ahhs that is opening presents. Later we skyped with my parents and brother's family, and Chris called his dad.
Two days later, our lovely friends took us along on a trip to Paris. We drove, and Matt and Rob flew. We met up at the hotel Rob booked, unloaded our things, and headed out into the city. We ate at Esmarelda, the same restaurant by Notre Dame that Chris and I took the kids 5 years ago. Unfortunately, the park behind the Cathedral was closed this time, so we couldn't make new memories there. We took photos in front of the Notre Dame, then headed off to see the Eiffel tower light up. The kids ran around the park along the Seine while we took photos of the tower all lit up. Then the kids rode the carousel a few times, we watched the tower sparkle on the hour, and enjoyed fresh crepes for dessert before heading back to the hotel.
The next day, Chris drove Matt and Rob to their airport hotel, while I took the kids for a walk up the Champs E'lysee. We detoured into the Disney store, and I let each kid pic out one item from there. As we got to the top of the road, near the Arc D'Triumph, Chris met up with us for some photos and a street show of dancers. After that, we agreed to head over to Hard Rock for Chris's shot glass collection. Since we've moved here, he's gotten Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Venice, Cologne, Munich, and Paris. The line to eat was nearly an hour, so after buying the glass, we headed a few doors down to Chipotle! We were actually quite excited to be able to eat there, tacos are one thing that Germany really doesn't do. After enjoying our lunch, we then traipsed over to the Louvre. The line was too long to go in, and we weren't sure the kids would enjoy it anymore. We took photos outside, and let B & K just run around the plaza. As it got dark, we set out to our hotel, stopping for souvenirs on the way. Brady got a multi colored pen and paper set, Keira got a bejeweled Efifel tower, Aubrey got a necklace and wallet, and I grabbed a cute apron.
We arrived at the hotel, got the kids to sleep, and woke up at 4am for our drive back to Germany.
On Dec. 31, we made sushi for dinner, bought some small fireworks, and watched a movie. We napped until 1145pm, then woke everyone up to go outside, count down and then watch all of the bottle rockets going off around the neighborhood!
Now things have calmed down, it's 2013- and one resolution I have is to try to keep this blog up to date!
