Anyway, here’s an update on us. I hope you can find some time to update me on your life as a lot happens in a year! Take care!
Nicholas -- At 7 and a half, Nicholas is all boy! He loves to be active and often comes home filthy from playing soccer, wrestling, tag, etc. on the playground during recess. Nicholas is in the second grade with a teacher who is from Lebanon. Although she’s strict, she is quite good with the kids, and Nicholas will learn a lot from her this year. His school teaches through units of inquiry, and they are beginning a unit on Explorers which is, of course, fascinating! He is still very strong in English, French, and math, but we’ve just learned that his desire to rush through his work is affecting his learning. Should be fun to try to slow him down . . . Ha-ha!
We’ve decided to put swimming lessons on hold for now, but he’s still enjoying playing soccer this fall. I’m sure he’ll ask to play basketball in the winter and much to my dismay, he’s been asking to play baseball in the spring. Nicholas is also a big fan of the Wii, his computer, and Playstation. Cub Scouts is still on the agenda, and Nicholas is now a Wolf Scout. We had to miss the annual camp out because Nicholas was sick, but Paul did manage to set up the tent in Nick’s room and sleep in it that night with him. We’re hoping the scouts do something again in the spring. You know I love camping! ;)
Lindsey -- On one hand, it’s hard to believe Lindsey is in Kindergarten. On the other hand, she seems so much older than her age of 5 and half years. We have moved her from the Montessori school to St. John’s (where Nicholas attends), and she has made a seamless transition. Lindsey has the same teacher that Nicholas did for Kindergarten, in the same classroom, and has enjoyed school from day one. She is a great reader and is learning to write holding her pencil in the correct form. Lindsey’s French is continuing at STJ, and she is making more of an effort to speak it at home with us. Unlike her old school, Lindsey now has art, music, computers, library, and PE throughout the week.
Ballet lessons are something new this year, and Lindsey just loves it! She also prances around the house in tap shoes and enjoys dancing to pop music as well. She still loves to play with Barbies and has introduced Zoobles to her fantasy play. Lindsey started playing soccer this season and while it was rough at the beginning, she now loves it! She wears a pink soccer skirt, pink/white striped socks, and black/pink shoes, and looks adorable as she kicks the ball into the goal! :)
Both kids -- We have been reading the Harry Potter series before bedtime and have most recently completed book 4 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Lindsey tends to come in and out of the room during the chapter, but Nicholas is glued to the page! We’ve been watching the movies after we finish the books and both kids love them. Halloween costumes were bought this summer and we’ll have Harry and Hermoine represented! We still do arts and crafts and family games, but the kids really enjoy playing on the Internet on their mini-laptops or on the iPad independently. We’re still working on sibling rivalry. If any of you have great advice, I’m all ears! :)
Gretchen -- I have managed to fill my days/weeks with lots of volunteering again this year. I’m still involved with Scholastic as a way to offer books in English to the children at the school. I’m also sharing the homeroom mom responsibilities for both Nicholas and LIndsey’s classes. Every few weeks I get to see the kids in their library or art classrooms, and that’s always fun. I agreed to maintain the lost and found cabinet for the elementary school, and I have also started a gently used uniform exchange program for the school, which has been a huge success so far. The biggest commitment I just agreed to is to co-chair the Welcome Committee at school. I’ll be in charge of matching current families to new families within our buddy program. It’s a big job, but one I feel passionate about so I hope it will be rewarding!
I’m still taking French lessons and have learned a lot in the past year. I need to be more confident in my speaking ability and quicker to form sentences when communicating my ideas out loud. It’s tough to learn a foreign language!
I’m also still volunteering at the library at the Women’s Club and agreed to start organizing the schedule of volunteers. When I’m there I look at all the travel books and plan our next trips! Whenever the kids are off school, we like to travel and take advantage of our time over here.
I have made a major personal breakthrough and I now run/workout in the rain! This is huge for me as I don’t enjoy being wet if I’m not swimming. I’m not as active with exercise as I’d like to be after agreeing to all this volunteer work, so I’m hoping to work on that this year. Definitely need to learn to balance it all, and I have a funny feeling that will always be a goal of mine. :)
Paul and I recently traveled to Paris for our neighbor’s 40th birthday and our 14 year anniversary. We had an amazing weekend and loved getting away! Just last weekend, I met my friend Brooke (Kappa alum from Phoenix) in Florence, Italy while Paul stayed home with the kids. We had gorgeous weather and a great time as well!
Paul -- Work is still Paul’s main focus over here, but he has found a little time to take some golf lessons. Now that his form has improved, he needs to find the time to play and/or go to the range. Working around the clock is fairly normal for Paul so it’s a challenge for him to find “free time”. Luckily, the kids have many breaks off school, and so we take him out of the office to travel with us! Paul’s still learning Flemish, but has recently been teaching himself more French as he’s working a lot out of their Brussels location. For his birthday, I bought him a package to ride a sports car on a Formula 1 race track in Belgium, so that’s something he can look forward to as well. Paul continued his string of professional soccer matches when he took Nick to the USA v Belgium match (Belgium won, 1-0). He is trying to schedule a match to the Irish league soon, which is really just a good excuse to visit the Guinness Pub.
That’s us in a nutshell! Hopefully some of the pictures in the slideshow capture our lives here! :)
