More signs of spring

Kate and I bought some little bird feeder balls at the store a few months ago, and the birds have been gobbling them up.  Could be because Kate went a little crazy and hung up all 10 of them on our deck.  Consequently, we have flocks of birds feeding just outside our window.

 They're awfully cute.

 

What they're leaving all over our deck?  Not so cute...  Don't worry, no photos of that.

Spring is in the air...

It's been warming up gradually over the past few weeks (up to a whopping 18 degrees C today!), and the flowers are beginning to peek out:

Crocuses in the park

I love the striped ones!

Will & Kate in London!

During the kids' half-term break, we headed to London.  Since Roger and I have both spent significant time there, we decided to make this trip ALL about the kids--which always makes traveling with small children much easier.  Yes, we have learned from our mistakes.

To prepare for our visit, we talked up London a lot, which for Kate meant all things royal:  the queen, the palaces and the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  (How convenient that there will be a real-life Prince Will & Princess Kate!  You can only imagine how that boggles the mind of a young Kate obsessed with princesses!).  We also found a darling book called Katie in London (how perfect is that?) in which a little girl named Kate takes a tour of London on one of the giant lions from Trafalgar Square.   That plus a London coloring book helped Kate feel like she knew the city already.

For Will, we took a more boy-oriented route:  gore, lots of gore.  Will's a big fan of the Horrible Histories series of books -- history with a focus on the lurid, disgusting bits -- and as you can imagine, England has enough revolting stories to fill a whole library.  Among the titles we bought: Loathsome London, Awful England, Slimy Stuarts, Smashing Saxons, Terrible Tudors, Terrifying Tudors (a family horrible enough to warrant not one, but TWO books!), Vile Victorians, Barmy Boudica, and Blackout Blitz.  Overkill?  Maybe... but Will loves it.  If you want to know any revolting tidbit about England, ask my son.  He's an expert.  Even Kate could tell you which bridge sported the most number of severed heads on spikes.  (It's London Bridge, in case you're interested.)

So, with the kids properly prepared, we had high hopes of a smooth trip.  And?  It was great!  We didn't take into consideration that it would also be school holidays in the UK, which meant London was mobbed.  But other than an hour-and-a-half wait (in the rain, I might add) for the Natural History Museum, we didn't have any problems.

On our first day, we headed over to the Tower of London:

Here are the kids at the Tower, with Tower Bridge in the background:

 Will was being too silly, so I asked him to step out:

Kate is always happy to have her picture taken.

But then we found a way to make his silliness work.  Here he is being chopped:

 Stabbed:

 And blown up:

One of the Tower's famous ravens:

Just outside the vault where the Crown Jewels are kept, we found this emblem.  Kate was delighted since The Lion and the Unicorn (fighting for the crown) is one of her favorite nursery rhymes:

 After the Tower, we headed over to the Natural History Museum.  So did the rest of London:

Did I mention, 90 minutes in line?  In the rain?

On day two, we went straight to the London Eye, which is just across the River from the Houses of Parliament.  

 It was a clear day, so we could see for miles!

At the very top!

 Kate thought it was really funny to pretend she was flying:

Yikes!  That look on her face means she knows she's terrifying her mother.

After a quick visit to the London Aquarium (where we were packed in like sardines!), we jumped aboard a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour to rest our feet and see the sights.  We got off at Regent's Park, one of my favorite places in London.

Look at all the flowers!  Spring is on its way!

Kids having a stick battle.

On our third day, we visited the British Museum, home to an incredible collection of Egyptian artifacts.  If you remember Will in the Egyptian section of the Louvre, you can imagine how excited he was to see this:

The Rosetta Stone

The boy only agrees to have his photo taken with Egyptian objects.

 I didn't photograph any of the mummies.  But there were dozens of them in various states of preservation (decay?).  We also tagged along with a tour through the Japanese section.  I'm not sure why, but the kids were utterly enthralled and listened quietly for 30 minutes.  Roger and I were tapping our feet and looking at our watches, but the kids loved it.  And only five minutes of the tour focused on samurais!  I wonder if Horrible Histories has a Japanese series?

 Since he's got  hieroglyphics down now, Will was very excited to discover the Etruscan alphabet.  Again, he made me take a picture so he could use this at home:

 Later that day we wandered through St. James Park to see Buckingham Palace.  Kate was giddy with anticipation to see where the Queen lived!

Will, not so much.

 The verdict?  Kate was not impressed: "It's so boring and gray.  Not pretty at all.  If I were queen, I'd have a rainbow-colored palace."

We wrapped up our day with a trip to Hamley's, without a doubt the most incredible toy store I've ever seen.  Seven stories of toys!  Kid heaven.  I gave each of them 20 pounds to spend, and they had a blast. Here's Kate that night, cuddled up with her choice.

One tired little girl!

Overall, it was a great trip.  Both kids loved it and said they couldn't wait to go back, which I'm happy to do since we didn't even come close to seeing it all.  London has so much to offer!  And everyone speaks English! ;) A few things that helped to make this trip go so smoothly:

• Preparing the kids with books:  Horrible Histories for Will, Katie in London and the coloring book for Kate

• Advance tickets whenever possible:  By reserving our tickets online for the Aquarium & London Eye we were able to skip the line for purchasing tickets.  We just had to collect them, then walk right into the line, which moved incredibly fast.  The whole thing, from the time we arrived to pick up tickets to the time we entered the Eye:  20 minutes!  No need to pay more for the "Fast Track," which requires that you specify what time you'll be arriving (who can plan for that with kids??)

• Arriving at attractions right at opening time:  We got to the British Museum at 9:45 a.m. (it opens at 10) and walked right in.  By the time we left, there were hordes of people.  This was our mistake at the Natural History Museum.  We showed up at 1:30 p.m., thinking we'd breeze right in.  Not a chance!

• The Original Tour Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour.  There are lots of choices for bus tours of London, but this one was fabulous.  Not only did they have a special kids' channel to listen to that described the sights in a way interesting to kids, but they also gave each child a special booklet to color and complete on the bus.  Big hit with the little ones!

• Asking for "family trails" at the big museums.  I think all of the ones we visited had special "trails" for kids.  You could choose a specific path to follow (for example, the Egyptian or Greek trail at the British Museum), and kids were given a special booklet with activities to complete as they followed the trail.  Not only does it keep the kids actively engaged, but it narrows the focus of the museum and keeps the visit to a reasonable time.  Really, I don't think we could do more than two hours in any museum, and with the family trails we could hit the highlights that most interested the kids before they wore out.  Such a great idea!

• The Children's Map of London:  This was the single-best purchase we made, I'd say.  It has a colorful map of central London with stickers kids apply after having done something interesting, i.e., learned about mummies, had a cup of tea, rode a bus, visited a palace, etc.  Each evening at dinner, we'd look at the map, talk about where we'd been and what we'd seen, and put on the appropriate stickers.  The kids loved it, and now we have a nice souvenir of our trip.

We HAVE to remember these tips for our next trip!

Tree Slaughter

On a recent jog through the forest, I spotted this sign affixed to tape blocking the path:

In case you're wondering, the top part's in German, bottom in French

 I knew it meant they were doing something to the trees and that entering the area was forbidden, but I'd never seen the word abattage before.  


So I went home to consult my best friend, Google Translate.  And you know what it told me?

abbattage = slaughter!  They were slaughtering trees in the forest!

As much as I love Google Translate, I guess it does have its weaknesses.


(In all fairness, when I entered "abbattage d'arbres," it said "tree felling."  But I like "tree slaughter" better.)


 A few days later, the path was reopened and there were indeed piles of slaughtered trees everywhere.

Victims of the massacre

I must say, Luxembourg does an outstanding job of maintaining--grooming, really--its forests*.  I always see city workers in there, trimming trees, blowing leaves, doing... well, I'm not exactly sure what.  Perhaps this nice display I passed today explains it.

Or maybe not.  Since it's in German, I can't read it.  I guess I could head over to Google Translate... but I think I'll just let it remain a mystery.

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*So much so that last year the local news reported that six trees were missing from the forest and the suspects were still at large--which begged the question, how on earth did they notice six missing trees in a forest of millions??  Only in Luxembourg...

Football (Soccer) Tournament

This weekend was Will's first soccer tournament.  He's been playing on a team since October, and to say he's not very enthusiastic about it would be an understatement.  (As it would be to say he's not very athletically gifted in this area. Is that too mean to say about my own son?  The boy is no David Beckham, that's for sure.  It's not exactly surprising, considering his parents...) But it gets him out and running around, burning off some of that insane little boy energy, and in my mind, that's a good thing.

At the tournament this weekend, his team lost all of their matches and ended up in last place.  Well, in all fairness, they tied for last place.  I don't think the boys minded too much.  They had fun hanging around and being silly--something Will does excel at--even if they lacked a common language.

He looks surprised because he didn't know I was taking his picture.  That's the only way to get a shot of him these days! 

That's Will in the front.

Awarding of medals at the end.  Everyone got a medal! 

Will hiding behind his friend after he realized I was taking his picture.

The artwork Kate did on my iPhone during the FOUR hour-long tournament!

I'm of the opinion that kids need to stick with an activity long enough to ensure that they truly hate it -- several months at least -- and then they're free to quit and try something else. So, Will's counting down the months till June when I told him he could stop playing.  But -- shhh, don't tell anyone -- I think he might be having just a little bit of fun.  Not that he would admit it.  It helps that his best friend (who speaks English) is on his team, which has made it much more fun for Will.  It'll be interesting to see if he decides to continue when the time comes!

Kate

Guess who bought herself a new Disney Princess lipstick from a vending machine?

She put it on herself.  Can you tell?

The scary thing?  That's what she looked like AFTER I wiped it off.  I think she may have to go to school tomorrow like that.

It reminded me a little bit of this photo from the very first time I let her do art unattended.   Big mistake!

Note the blue tongue.  She didn't miss a spot. 

At least the blue stuff washed off!  Who would make little girl lipstick in such a bright color -- and one that doesn't wipe off easily!

One Year in Luxembourg

So this is it:  our one-year anniversary in Luxembourg.  One year ago today we -- and our enormous pile of luggage


-- arrived after a harrowing trip...

...halfway around the world.

I can't believe it's been a year!

Some highlights from our first year in Luxembourg.

January:
 We spent lots of time exploring the forest behind our house.

The kids were delighted by the first snowfall:

Their first snowman!

February brought many trips to Ikea and much furniture assembly!

Ack!  The cardboard!

But we also made time to explore our new home:

Luxembourg Centre Ville

March:

Our first trip to Paris!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

April:

A visit from Grandpa and Aunt Minnie

Trier, Germany

Jennifer annoyed her Facebook friends by endlessly gushing about the beauty of spring in Luxembourg.

 May:
A trip to Holland to see windmills and tulips.

Keukenhof Gardens

Kate appeared in a French newspaper:

And our home was invaded by bats:

Still makes me shudder even 7 months later!

 June:

We took advantage of the lovely weather and relaxed in our backyard:

 Our friends, Ted and Laura, came to visit.

Ted and Laura in front of Vianden Castle

 We celebrated Luxembourg's National Day:

July:

A trip home to see friends and family...

Will and Brendan

 August:
Gigi came to visit and we took her to Bruges, Belgium.

 September:
Our trip to Italy where we visited Rome, Pompeii and Sorrento

Will and Kate on the island of Capri

 October:
We started enjoying the fall activities Luxembourg has to offer:

Pumpkin picking in Sprinkange

Jennifer annoyed her Facebook friends by endlessly gushing about the beauty of autumn in Luxembourg.

C'mon!  Look at that.  How could I not gush!

 November:
The kids and I visited Nancy, France.

 Our family went to Tunisia for some sun and -- uh -- camel riding.

Ali Baba.

 December:
BRRR!!!

Snow, snow and more snow.

 We took also took a trip to Heidelberg where Will lost his first tooth and went ice skating for the first time.

What a year!
I can only hope the next one is as wonderfully full as the last...