Carnival Winter Break

My kids are back to school today after spending a week at home during this Carnival Winter break.  The weather was excellent.  We had a lot of sun this week.  Many of you know that the lack of sun has been detrimental for us (well, maybe just me).  We did some crafts, danced, rode bikes, played in the park.

Nostalgic Motorcycle

A couple of weeks ago I passed a police station that was on my way to a local pub where I was meeting some friends before dinner.  At the police station was a small gathering of locals that were dressed up in US WWII gear.  Complete with a Willy's Jeep, a Harley Davidson and an old deuce and a half.  I only snap a shot of the HD since I was running late.  I am not sure if the adults playing dress up were Police or not, but they were proud of their stuff.

Carnaval - Diekirch (aka Cavalcade)

We ventured up north again today.  Only the second time ewe have been to the northern sections of Luxembourg.  We went to one of the four largest communities in Luxembourg - Diekirch.  The town is known for being the location of one of the nation's most celebrated breweries, the General Paton National Museum, and the largest of Luxembourg's Carnval celebrations (Cavalcade).  The celebration is one massive parade.  Luckily this year the weather cooperated mostly.  We did have just a small burst of snow, but it only lasted a few moments. The parade is a real mix, everything from costumes like Halloween to more traditional Mardi Gras style masked partiers.  Below are some of the better pictures from the day.

And the Grand Finale....The john.

Cold Temperatures

So it has been a bit cold for a few weeks.  Here is recent picture I took in Germany and some in our neighborhood.  Ice skating anyone?



Trampolini - Merzig Germany

So we went to Merzig Germany to trampolini and the Merzig Brauhaus.  The someone really thought that place out.  They put a brew restaurant right next door to the kids fun zone (trampolini) so that the parents can regain their sanity (or alternate who watches the kids) at the end of the day.

The brew I had was a dunkel.  It was pretty tasty.  The kids really loved the indoor playground.  Just to be clear the place was a restaurant that makes beer on the side.  Probably a bit like the Bass Pro restaurant in Grapevine.

http://www.saarfuerst.de/

Carolyn's Birthday Party

Our little girl turned 8 on Sunday.  We had a surprise birthday party for her on Saturday.  I have send the invited to her friends the week before.  Everyone kept the secret very well, however Carolyn was "fishing" for the information the whole time.  I was afraid she is not going to be surprised.  One of the games that we played with Carolyn's friends was the "pin the tail on the donkey".  They loved the game. It was nice that despite the major language differences all girls had fun.

January Recap

The month of January was rather uneventful.  We did visit a couple of interesting places though.  First one was Bastone, Belgium.   There is a WW II memorial, a museum, and many other points of interest related to the the events of the WW II. The museum was not very big, however it was full of the interesting information.  Ashley and I would have spend another couple of hours reading and looking at the pictures.

At the end of the month we went to the Kids Music Expo, here is Luxembourg.   It was not very big exposition, but we surely had a lot of fun.

This next instrument was really interesting.  Kid were to draw on the strip of paper and then feed that strip pf paper though the machine.  As the strip was going through the sounds were made.  Each kid was a composer!

February 1st.

This is first day of February and third day of real winter weather here in Lux.  We are going to have temps in low 20s(F) and by Sunday night they are promising ZERO DEGREES (still F)!!!!!  Kids love the crunching of ice under the snow.  We will see how long that will last.  Today it was really pretty weather despite the temperatures, the sun was out making houses and trees around look a little nicer.

Still no microwave... Just saying.