Papa and Mimi's visit.

Ashley's parents arrived to Luxembourg on Friday, the last day of school.  That was a great gift to our kids.  They were counting down the days and on Friday even hours before Papa and Mimi will get here.

Regretfully, they came during another cold weather spill, so that will explain the sweaters and jackets in the July pictures.

We made a trip to the Chocolate House, our Luxembourg favorite ; )

Despite the weather we still had some outings.  I guess after 10 months we are very used to carrying umbrellas everywhere.  Here we are enjoying ice cream in the ice cream shop in Trier, Germany.

While we were in Trier, I just had to take more pics of that cool town and its' cathedral.

Some days we just enjoyed the our neighborhood.

... or the crafts / legos that grandparents brought ;))))

At the end of the week, we decided to take a trip to Vianden, let Ashley's parents see the castle while we went to a walk in the Indian forest.

View from the trail...

Last day of grandparents' visit we were blessed with the sun.  We went to the Pirate Ship Park to enjoy a picnic lunch.

End of School celebrations!

School is OUT! I am very grateful that Carolyn loves school because she has been going to school for 11 months this year.  Here is Luxembourg kids start school mid September and go through mid July.

On Monday Ian had his party.  We are very impressed with his school, teachers, and the curriculum.  Here are some pics from the graduation party.

Ian graduating...

Carolyn did not have a graduation party.  The first and second grade classes in her school organized a fund raiser.  Part of funds will be going to the childrens' charity and another part will be going toward students' excursions next year.

Carolyn's class made fruit salad for the fundraiser.  So while she was working, Ian and I ate.



Another thing I wanted to mention is that Carolyn's and Ian's teachers gave each parent a CD/memory stick with the pictures of the kids, class parties and trips for the whole year.   That is a great practice for the US teachers to borrow ;))



Our new baby!

I strongly feel that this new member of our family deserves a separate post.  We picked her up yesterday, after we left Maastricht.  Actually, she was the main reason for that trip ;)))

Ashley and I watched her grow up since birth.  Our kids did not know anything until we pull up to the house to pick her up.  Ian just woke up from his nap. So here is the picture of kids as we told them why we were there.

Carolyn - total disbelief :)) Ian - am I still asleep?!?!

But we all soon bonded with Nochka.





Maastricht, Netherlands

 With just one week of school left Carolyn is home today with the Hand-Foot-Mouth virus that she caught from Ian. So far her mouth sores are not near as bad as Ian's.

On a good note, we had a very good weekend.  We have made a trip to Maastricht.  And no we did not buy shoes.  We were told that it is a city where many people go to buy shoes but we were not sure if we were to believe it.  And yes, there is a TON of shoe stores.  It seemed that every store was full of people buying shoes and everyone carries bags from shoe stores. No, we did not buy any shoes :(

Before Maastricht we stopped in a small town, Valkenburg.  It is such a cute place.  We loved walking down the streets.  Each house was decorated with flowers, everyone seems very relaxed. 

Of course, our kids are not too much into relaxing, so we took them to the Toboggan, bobsled ride without snow.  We took a chairlift to get to the Wilhelmina Tower that sits on the picturesque hill and offers all riders panoramic view of the town.

Afterwards, we did some exploring in Maastricht.  We took a glimpse at Church of our Lady, which is the oldest church in Maastricht.  The church is going through restoration and we were not allowed to take pictures inside but outside view was very castle like.

POOL Time!!!

We have found a FREE pool.  It is  about 5 min ride on the bus.  And it is small, but it is so cool to find free stuff in this expensive country.  It was only about 80 degrees outside, but we still had fun.

9 months!!!!!

It is big for me.  Two blogs in one day!!! I know I just posted a blog about the National Day, but today is the big anniversary.  We have been in Luxembourg for 9 months to the day.  There has been many experiences both great and great, because no matter how uneasy the times might get we learn and move on. 

Kids are on the countdown, just 8 more days of school.  I am not really sure about Ian's countdown.  He has been home sick with me, Hand-Foot- and Mouth virus has been hard on him.  With even pain meds not helping I think I never felt so helpless.  The virus just needs to work itself out. 

So, as Ian watches TV, I am working on the teachers' gifts.  The  teacher-parent-child dynamics are very different here, but I have decided to show our appreciation the Texan way.  The teachers helped SO MUCH both Carolyn and Ian to get through their first school year in Luxembourg. Once the gifts are done I will take a pic to share.  I have to admit that I am very grateful that I have a chance to do some crafting.  

National Day in Luxembourg

Luxembourg celebrates National Day on June 23. This is also considered to be the official Grand Duke's birthday, however there is not one Grand Duke that was born on that day.  The 23rd commemorates the birthday day of Grand Duchess Charlotte (probably the most loved ruler).

This year the National  Day fell on Saturday, however many festivities started on Friday.  Luxembourg national day attracts many visitors to the capitol, so it got a little crowded as people were enjoying the music, sausages, beer and waffles.  And of course, you could buy the patriotic T-Shirt.

We never saw this many people in the downtown square.

We enjoyed some music while kids had ice-cream.

The highlight on the pre-National Day is the candlelight parade and fireworks.  Fireworks did not start until 11:45pm, so needless to say Ian was out.  Carolyn did stay up to watch the fireworks while we sat on the lawn.  My camera cannot do the justice to the awesome colors, but here are some pics to prove we were there ;))

The next day we were back to take a glimpse at the military parade.

Throughout last weekend, I kept calling this day an Independence Day.  Many people and business decorate their yards / windows / patios just like we do in the US.

  I am going to miss the festivities of our hood and camaraderie of our dear friends.