Spending the afternoon with Elder Christensen and Elder Velazquez at the park.
Running with Megan in the early mornings.
Taking the kids swimming and going down the neon-lighted water slides over and over again.
Going to dinner with Darrell and Lori white at Bosso in the Grund.
Driving to Strasbourg to meet with Annie.
Going to dinner at Pizzeria Bacchus and a movie with Lilly and the Andrews.
Parks, parks, and more parks.
Guillaume Duffort passing away.
Subbing in nursery at Church.
Making cookies every day for a week straight.
Ben saying: Does Pitch Perfect have a sound track? If so, we need to buy it.
Spending the morning at the park by the Whites' house.
Riding the bus downtown to get dinner and gelato. We opted to take our kebabs to the outdoor seating of the restaurant next door to avoid second-hand smoke. As a result, an employee came out of Bananas and then engaged in the following conversation (in French) with Ben:
Bananas: this is not normal
Ben: what's not normal?
Bananas: this is.
Ben: Unless you have something to ask me, I'm going to keep eating dinner.
Bananas girl walks back inside Bananas. I start packing up our food. A second Bananas girl approaches.
Bananas 2: This is not normal. This is the seating for people at Bananas.
Ben: We have young children and the seating outside Snack Ankara has smoke.
Bananas 2: This is not normal.
Bananas 2 girl goes back inside and I start encouraging our children to get down from the table and move on. Man comes out of Bananas.
Bananas man: This is not normal. Please leave.
Ben: Thank you. Thank you for saying what you actually want me to to do.
I love the inability of French people to say anything directly. And I love Ben's stubbornness. It's always an adventure with Ben.
After shoving the kebabs in our mouths, we promptly bought kokos gelato cones and then it promptly dumped rain on us. We ran for a covered pavilion in the City Centre and tried to wait out the rain. It didn't stop raining so we ran back to Hamilius and caught a bus back home.
We went to the Airplane Park several times and with the Mullins.
We went to the Jardin de Circulation several times.
We rode the number 18 bus to Kocklescheuer and spent the afternoon walking in the woods, looking at farm animals, playing on the playground and rolling down the grass hill with Lilly.
Picnics at the park.
Otto's enthusiasm for soccer and yelling goal! whenever he makes a pretend goal.
Watching lady bugs.
Texting Raphael's Mom in terrible French and being reassured by Ben that both our French is terrible and I shouldn't feel embarrassed (her native language is Portuguese).
Going to the tunnel park, eating Kinder eggs and Face-timing with grandma and grandpa.
Running with Lilly.
Playing Chutes and Ladders with Otto.
Reading to Ingrid.
Going to Switzerland for the weekend.
Meeting Hosanna at the Farm Park.
Hanging out at the pouse (play ground in Luxembourgish) after school.
Otto mastering how to slide down a pole at the playground.
Celebrating Lilly's one month in Luxembourg with a delicious cake from Au Pain de Mary and Rosport Pom's.
Going to a new park in Strassen with the Mullins and the Packers.
Cleaning up dead animals at the Andrews (from their cats) while they were out of town and Ben being seriously impressed (by the cats' killing ability).
Otto really mastering and loving to ride his bicycle.
I noticed one morning on the way to school that Otto had affixed the Velcro on his shoes criss-cross instead of the standard strait across. We then had the following conversation:
T: Oooooooh Otto I LOVE what you've done with your shoes!
O: (super embarrassed with head down and big smile). Alexandre does it this way.
T: Well I love it.
Snuggling with Aksel.
Raclette with the Packers.
Ingrid and Aksel playing with a bucket of water on the back porch for hours.
Family bike ride and walk.
Going to get my hair cut at a salon and asking in broken French and some English if they wax eyebrows. Two men conferred amongst themselves and then agreed. The next thing I know, they've asked me to sit down and lean back and then they butchered me with tweezers. I cried it was so painful. And then I laughed out loud. No one could have prepared me for cultural and strange experiences like this.
Becky Packer taking our family pictures in the Grund.
Otto really loving to cut and chop things and being my special helper in the kitchen.
Playing memory as a family.
Sabina and the missionaries coming over for dessert and FHE.
Friday afternoons at the bakery.
Ingrid rolling down the attic stairs.
Otto punching me when I didn't bring his bike to school pick-up.
Going to Lori's with Otto to keep an eye on the movers during her appointment at the Embassy. We played Chutes and Ladders for nearly an hour. Then we went on a date to McDonalds and H&M and "rode" the escalators and the revolving doors multiple times
Ben getting adjusted by Scott Oliver.
Taking banana bars over to Anandi's and chatting.
Singing Aksel to sleep in my arms.
A visiting teaching brunch at Megan's.
Ingrid refusing to sit or eat in the highchair and wanting to sit at the table with the boys.
Buying a little pool at Colruyt and blowing it up one hot afternoon. We spent hours in the backyard playing, sliding down the Braun's slide into the pool, racing the length of the yard, jumping in and out of the pool, eating grapes and having a really good time pouring water out of watering cans.
Matilda and Kyla begging to tend the kids.
Dinner with Scott and Tracey at the Taj Mahal.
Riding a bus downtown to play at the Pirateship park and get gelato.
Going to IKEA for ziplock bags.
Luxembourgish Mother's Day.
Ben sealing the toilets so that the smell of death would stop.
The kids constantly climbing all over Lilly.
Ben going to a movie with Nate and Matt.
Dinner group at New Confucius.
Ingrid teething.
