Colin turns Seven

Colin turned 7 this week and with a bang!



Hello. I am 7! (he wanted to wear the tie)



We had 21 of his friends at Antwerp Bowling for an afternoon of bowling and play in their indoor playground. When I planned this, I really wasn't sure how long the kids would be interested in bowling, so I only booked the lanes for an hour. I expected only some of the kids to bowl for a while and then wander off into the indoor play area. I was completely wrong. EVERY kid bowled (except Chloe) for just about the entire time we had the lanes. It was a bit chaotic at times (think, fitting 21 kids in bowling shoes with European sizes), but thankfully many of the parents stayed and lended a hand. It was fun and there were definitely a few star bowlers in the group.

On Monday, to celebrate his birthday, be brought a batch of cupcakes to school and later that afternoon, a batch of cupcakes to basketball. Luckily, I am armed with several boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix because the cakes and cupcakes that we are used to are not a normal thing around here. I did not bring any tubs of frosting over with me, so I have to make several batches by hand. Frosting is one of those items that I would have never thought of making from scratch. That is just one example of some of the regular conveniences that I have become so accustomed to that I needed to figure out since living here.[Insert stupid American joke here].

In my opinion, one of the best things about bithday parties at this age, is the hand drawn and written birthday cards. Just about all of this kids write out a birthday message or at least sign there names. Some were even nice enough to drawn Colin pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Lillianne's card was written backwards.

So cute. From Edie.

The Front, in the bowling theme.

The Back, not sure if that is Colin or Dracula. From Veer.

A nice dinosaur from Sofie.

Rockin' out. From Martta.

My favorite. Lauren claims that Colin is the coolest kid in the class from America. I am not sure if that is really saying a lot since there are only 3 kids from America in the class and Lauren is one of them.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Te Huur

That is right! Our apartment is te huur or to rent. Our movers are booked and we are coming home! You can offically count on the Shand Family permanently moving back to America by the beginning of July.

Easter

Even though we had only arrived home from skiing a few hours before bed time the night before Easter, it was plenty of time for Chloe to be so bad that the Easter Bunny cut back on her treats the next day. He left notes for the kids saying only Colin had eggs to find. Almost as expected, this did not phase her much. We didn't have any plans for Easter, so we wandered around the city for a while.

Chloe being her normal bad self.

One thing Chloe does not mess around with is her art work and writing. There are 20 kids in Chloe's class and as her teacher rotates the children to work on their art, Chloe is the only one who will sit and work on her project the entire time. She goes through phases of things she likes to draw - eyebrows, teeth, etc. She is great with scissors and she is currently obsessed with writing her name. Once shown, is is very good at almost remembering how to write other peoples names as well.

Eyebrows and teeth.

Note for the EB with Chloe's letter writing practice

We were so proud when Chloe won the Easter Egg drawing competition for her class.



The winning drawing for KG1!



Skiing, again and Chloe turns 4!

Last week, we went back to France for another week of skiing. Although we were not the only people to come back within one season, I am pretty sure we were the only Americans to make their second trip within a six week window.


We made the trip down over two days. In the middle of France we came upon a maroon Buick labeled County Sherrif with lights and sirens. It also had a Missouri license plate in the back window and 911 and Dare stickers on the back fenders. Hysterical! I would love to meet the person who had that shipped over here.

We stayed in a different chalet this time with 2 British families. As before, we were really lucky with the people we shared the chalet with. They were good company and the kids were all happy together. We also shared our time with the host and chef of the chalet. We had a lot of funny conversations about weights and measures and were comparing our new friendship to the "special"  relationship to that of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. By the end of the trip, Colin's British accent was in full force and even Chloe was slipping a few British accents in as well.

Chloe just fit that age requirement to start ski lessons through the French ski school. Her class started in "the garden" which is just off from being level. She learned to put her put her skis on and also managed to hold onto the rope lift. By the middle of the week, the French instructor wanted to kick her out of the class, telling us she was too small. As before, the company we booked the vacation through has a staff member to help with their guests taking lessons. They told us that Chloe was making progress and should stay. Chloe's helper, Matt, had her riding the button lift up a small green slope the next day. We were told on Friday that she actually got on a chair lift! She still has a long way to go, but she likes being on skis and asked to go skiing one more time on the day we were packing up to go.

Colin getting off the lift and the strangers responsible for his safety.

Colin continued in the program that he had started 6 weeks ago. Even though he started with the next level, Flocon, he was bumped up to the 1 star group by the second day. At this level, the start using poles and gradually stop snowplowing and start practicing parallel turns. For Colin's ski lessons, the group meets at the ski school to put on their ski bibs that typically states their level. From there, the group heads off to a chair lift. Only one ski student is allowed to ride on the lift at a time and the all meet at the top of the lift. It seems very unnatural as a parent to send your small child off to ride a chair lift with several adults who often make conversation with them. But as one of those adults, you are very protective of those kids, making sure they aren't in danger of falling off. I am also always talking to them, asking them what class they are in and how long they have been skiing. We would often ski by Colin's class, as they were skiing on the same blue slopes that we were.

On Thursday, we celebrated Chloe's 4th birthday with the entire group in the chalet. Our chef, Rhys, made a chocolate cake and the other kids surprised her with presents! I think it was one birthday we will never forget.

Friday night, the kids were presented with their ski school pins acknowledging their accomplishments. Although we were happy with what Chloe had achieved, We were so proud of Colin. He class was not easy and he worked really hard.

It was another awesome ski vacation. If we had found out about this company when we got here, I sure it would have been at least a yearly trip. We definitely are planning on doing more skiing when we are back in the US.