Lubeck, Germany

Last weekend, we packed up the kids and took them to Lubeck, Germany for a Christmas market. We had a great time. Lubeck is a beautiful medieval city in the northern part of the country. They have one of the best Christmas markets in Germany. We spent our time shopping for Christmas decorations, eating yummy sausages and sweet treats. Of course, when you're travelling with three kids, you can't do that much sight seeing. So we also spent much of our time going to parks and taking advantage of the amusement rides at the market.

The medieval gate at the Lubeck entrance:

Enjoying some tubby time at the hotel.

The kids do like to travel. Dylan informed us that he likes staying in hotels. Elizabeth kept saying that she missed the hotel after we had left. I wonder if they'll be bored with their life when we finally move back to the states...

Karate

We've signed Dylan up for a Karate class. He goes every Saturday. It's in Danish, although the instructor will speak English if need be. She tells us that she needs to use less and less English with him as time goes by. He has also learned how to count in Japanese.

Busy little night owl

It takes Elizabeth a very long time to settle down at night. We usually put her to bed around 8:00. However she does not fall asleep until at least 8:30. On this particular night, she found my makeup bag in the bathroom, took it back to her bedroom and went to town trying on makeup. This is how we found her. We also found a large glass of water balancing on a book that was laying on her bed. I can't believe it didn't tip over. She's such a flopper. Eric and I are not sure how she sleeps in her bed at all. It's filled with books, her lunch bag (seen to the right in the picture), her back pack and the toy of the day. She's too funny!

Halloween

I haven't had a chance to update the blog much lately. It's difficult to get much done when you go to bed at 8:30. We've spent the last few weeks fighting colds, which is compounded by the fact that Tricia is teething and not sleeping much at night these days. Poor thing is getting quite a few teeth in all at once. Needless to say, I've been tired a lot lately.

We were able to celebrate Halloween here in Denmark. The international school sponsored a trick-or-treating night. I was even on the planning commity. We picked a neighborhood that had a lot of expats on it. Then we went door to door and asked people to volunteer to hand out candy to the little ones. We supplied the candy and the balloons and even carved pumpkins for the front door steps. It was a huge success. We sold over 200 tickets. Can you imagine 200+ kids crowded onto one street for trick-or-treating? It was a mob scene. We had a great time nonetheless.

I hosted a pre-trick-or-treating dinner at my house. I invited a few families from Dylan's class over. Here's a picture of the bunch. Dylan is in a great class. All of the kids get along really well, and so do the parents!

You'll notice that Dylan is not in the picture. He was inside with me arguing about the fact that he did not want to go as a knight, as we had planned. At the last minute he changed his mind and wanted to go as a pirate. Things were so busy that night that I never got a chance to get a good picture of Dylan in his costume. We'll have to make up for that next year.

After dinner, we headed out for some trick-or-treating fun. We had a great time. 15 houses, volunteered to hand out candy. Eric informed me that he used to do 200 houses back in his prime. But 15 houses was just enough for my young trio.

My little lady bug:

My little princess:

Carving Pumpkins

In preparation for Halloween, we decided to carve some pumpkins the other day. The kids were pretty creative this year.

Dylan started out wanting a cyclopes pumpkin, but then changed his mind after I cut out the eye. His pumpkin looks a little deranged. He said he thinks it looks scary, a look he was going for.

Elizabeth is wearing new princess costume and shoes:

It was Dylan's idea to take a family picture. We gave it a "shot".

It almost worked. Unfortunately, the girls were really tired and not in the mood for pictures anymore.

Legoland

We took the kids to Legoland over the weekend. It's a Danish amusement park with a lego theme. We stayed one night in a pirate room at the Legoland hotel. Fun! We had a blast. The park is on the small side and perfect for young kids. We ate junk food, went on a few rides and saw lots of interesting lego sculptures. We had a blast.

Eaten by a shark...

Here's Dylan with Tom and Jerry. He's getting to be such a smartie pants. He knows that there are people under those costumes. After he posed with them he turned to me and said, "Wouldn't it be a nice surprise if that were grandma and grandpa under those costumes". So sweet. How long will it be before he realizes there's no Santa?? Elizabeth is not so knowledgeable yet. She wouldn't pose with them. She was too scared.

Here's a picture of the kids taken from our pirate room

Dylan's self portrait

The teachers had the kids paint a self portrait in school the other day. Dylan painted this all by himself:

I think it kind of resembles him. Don't you??

Some cute pics of Tricia

I was testing out our new camera the other day. Tricia was my subject. I was able to snap some really cute pictures of her playing under the desk.

Sunglasses

I tried to get some pics of the girls with their sun glasses on. Tricia wasn't in the mood to cooperate. I snapped some cute pictures nonetheless.

I finally just gave up at trying to get a picture of both girls wearing the glasses

Not sharing

Elizabeth does not like to share her toys with her sister. She puts her toys on the couch so that Patricia can't reach them. She'll be in trouble once Tricia can get up there.

Tricia doesn't know any better yet. She's still just happy as a clam.

Getting Ready for Halloween

Eric was in the US last week and brought back some Halloween costumes and treats. He also brought back a new digital camera. We're officially back in the picture taking business.

Spider man

Spider woman

Enjoying some lolly pops

Smelling Ice cream

I think I've mentioned that the ice cream here is really yummy. I'm not sure what the Danes do to make it taste so good but we sure do enjoy it. I took the kids out for some ice cream today after dinner. I got Dylan and Elizabeth strawberry ice cream and a cookies and cream concoction for myself. When I asked Dylan if I could try a scoop of his ice cream, he told me no but I could smell it if I'd like! So there you go. My son was only generous enough to give me a smell. He was not about to give up an once of this little treat. Luckily Elizabeth didn't finish her bowl so I was able to try a scoop (or two or three) of hers.

On another ice cream note, when I was on my way to the international school the other day I passed by a stand that sells soft ice cream. There were a bunch of kids standing outside of it eating ice cream cones. One kid had the biggest ice cream cone I have ever seen. He must have had at least 3 cups of ice cream oozing over his waffle cone. He looked like he was loving every minute of it.

Catching up

It's been a long time since I've entered a blog entry. Life has been quite busy with three little ones. Between taking care of the kids, cooking and cleaning, my days go by so quickly. Additionally, the girls and I find ourselves busy doing things through the international school while Dylan is in school during the day. We do plenty of play dates and shopping sprees and just plain hanging out. I love getting this quality time in with the girls. Elizabeth is so easy going and independent. She's turning into a little lady right before my eyes.

She loves playing with her purses and reading books. In fact, she carries a rather large pile of books around the house with her during the day. I swear, the books weigh as much as she does. Patricia is really doing a lot lately as well. She says mama and dada. She is a very fast crawler and just today started kneeling on her own. I think that she'll probably start the cruising thing very soon. I can already see that she wants to do the same things that the other two do. She doesn't really let me feed her right now. She grabs the spoon out of my hand when I try to feed her. If I give her her own spoon, she just drops the one she has, grabs the spoon from my hand and shoves it in her own mouth. Little miss independence.

Denmark is treating us well so far. The weather hasn't been that bad. Dylan has a 1 week break next month. We are mulling around the idea of taking the kids to either Legoland or to an indoor water amusement park in the southern part of the country. Both options sound so fun that we're having a difficult time deciding.

Unfortunately our camera has died once again. I don't have any pics to post. Eric's in the states right now. Hopefully he'll be able to get a camera that's a bit more reliable.

It's late and time to go. Hopefully I'll have more time to update this site in the weeks to come.

Dylan turns 4

It's hard to believe that my sweet little boy was born 4 short years ago. Time has really flown. We've had so many changes in the last four years. When Dylan was born we were living in our condo in South Boston. When he was 8 months old we sold the condo and made the big move out to the burbs. We were/are so proud to own that house. We were lucky enough to land a nice house on a quiet street in a great neighborhood. We thought that we'd spend at least 20 years in that house. Then, just over a year later, we moved to Amsterdam and now we're in Copenhagen. Thinking about this amount of transition makes my head spin. I'm sure it does a number on the kids as well.

Of course I'm probably being a bit overly dramatic since the kids are doing great and we had a wonderful time celebrating Dylan's birthday the other day. We started out by celebrating at school first. I made some cookies and we brought them into school so that Dylan could share a birthday treat with his classmates.

It was very sweet. They all sang happy birthday to him. Then everyone drew a picture and the teacher posted them all into Dylan's birthday book.

Later that day, we shared a special birthday dinner of fish sticks, roasted potatoes and salad (all requested by Dylan). Afterwards we enjoyed some delicious birthday cake.

Of course, Dylan was very excited to receive presents. The girls got him a new football. Eric and I bought him a remote control car, a new transformer and some clothes for school. He was very excited about the car. Although it is already broken. It lasted 24 hours. I guess we should have headed the warning on the box and waited until he turned 5 to give it to him. Lesson learned!!

I'm so excited to watch my little guy grow up. He is a bright, energetic, caring little boy who loves to catch frogs and play with Legos. He is maturing in ways that amaze me each day. I'm proud to have him as my son!

Silly Elizabeth

Elizabeth loves to walk around with a bucket on her head. The other day I came into the kitchen to find her rummaging through the refrigerator with a bucket on her head and wearing sun glasses. She cracks me up.

Jolly jumper

Here's some pics of my little Patricia enjoying some jumping time in her jolly jumper.

Look at those fat roles!! Love those legs. She's such a happy, sweet, good baby. We're so lucky!

First day of school

Yesterday was Dylan's first day of preschool at the international school. He did really well. He just walked into class and started playing. He was nervous about going so I was really happy that he liked it so much. His teacher's name is Mrs. Anderson. She's very friendly and sweet. She told me that Dylan even comforted some of the kids who were upset to be left by their moms. My brave little guy...

Here's a picture of us parking the car and walking to the school

He went right to the sand box, and so did Elizabeth.

The kids are all required to take their shoes off before they come into the classroom. The teachers want to give the class a homey feel. Today, as I was getting Dylan settled, I noticed that Elizabeth also took off her shoes and left them in Dylan's locker. When I looked in the classroom she was there playing along with the other kids. So funny. Seems like she's anxious to start preschool herself.

Bathrobe

I was heading out for an early morning run the other day when I saw a woman walking down my street in just a bathrobe. Odd, I thought. As I got closer to the beach I saw quite a few other people walking around in their bathrobe, on the street in broad daylight. Then it hit me, they were all going for an early morning dip in the ocean. I'm also told that they like to take their dip in the most natural state, hence the bathrobes. Some do wear swim suites. In fact, Eric and I have seen quite a few people disrobing and changing into their suites right on the beach. You'd never see that in America. Funny how these Europeans don't mind being naked in public.

Beautiful Denmark

When I was in high school I became good friends with a few foreign exchange students from Scandinavia. One was from Finland and two were from Sweden. In fact, I went to my senior prom with one of the Swedish students, Andreas. They all went home that summer after we graduated. Andreas used to send us wonderful letters detailing his daily life in Sweden. It sounded so fun! It was full of days spent sailing and enjoying the wonderful open air of his hometown. My girlfriend and I were insanely jealous of his life. If I had known just how beautiful this area really was, I'm sure that my jealousy would have completely consumed me.

Denmark is composed of a mainland and larger islands, and many smaller islands. Copenhagen rests on one of the larger islands further to the east, facing Sweden. So we are living on an island. Our house is about a 10 minute walk to the beach. We can see Sweden across the bay. I wave to my Scandinavian friends whenever I go out and about. The views are spectacular. I never would have guessed that this county was so beautiful. So far, the people here have been very friendly and welcoming.

Here are some pictures of the outside of our house:

We LOVE our house. It's really nice to have space and a yard again. I didn't realize how crowded we were in our Dutch house until we came here. We try to make it outside on most days. Although it has rained just about every day since we arrived. In fact it hasn't stopped raining all day today. I bit of a bummer.

There is a stone wall off to the left in the back yard. Dylan quickly figured out that frogs live in these stones. He loves to go outside to hunt for them. Poor frogs will never be the same again. Eric and I joke that they have Dylan's picture posted in the rocks, warning the others to beware of the little boy with fast hands.

I have become a farmer here in Denmark. There is a garden area off the the right of the back yard. Last week I planted basil, thyme, chives, lettuce, 2 kinds of beans and asparagus. It's a little late in the season so we'll see what comes up. I've never planted anything before. It was kind of fun. Dylan even helped me.

On a final note, Denmark is a country that is known for its pastries and ice cream. Both are SO delicious. It's good that I'll be riding my bike a lot here. I think I'll need to here. We've made it a Sunday morning ritual to have pastries for breakfast. Yummy!!

The move

Yesterday was moving day. The movers arrived at 8:00 AM. The final walk through was scheduled with our landlord later on that day at 7:00 PM. That gave us 11 hours to get things packed up, moved out and the house cleaned. Would we make it in time??

It was a bit hectic, but went really well considering all we had to do. When the movers arrived, Eric and I set the kids in front of the electronic babysitter so that we could get some of our own tasks done. We immediately started cleaning. We all went into hyper drive. By 3:00 pm the house was empty and the only task left was to mop the floors. Sounds easy, right? While I was mopping the floor at around 4:00, it started to rain outside. It was the hardest rain I have ever seen. It was reported that it rained 50 cl in about 15 minutes. I didn't think much of it since we've been seeing a lot of rain these days. At 4:30 I was dumping the last bucket of water outside when I heard a strange dripping noise coming from INSIDE the house. I came into the house to find my kitchen sink spilling over with water that had come up through the drain. It was spilling over onto the floor, creating a river in my kitchen. I started to freak out. I went and got Eric at the neighbors house. We quickly started scooping up the water with a bucket and throwing it outside. We tried a plunger, but that didn't work. We couldn't get in touch with our landlord since his number got packed with the movers. We finally were able to reach him through our real estate agent. He informed us that this has happened before and that we shouldn't worry about it!! Thank goodness our stuff wasn't in the kitchen. A lot of it would have gotten ruined.

We were able to get the mess cleaned up in time for the walk through. It was a nerve racking way to end our stay.

We ended the evening having pizza with our neighbors before heading out to the hotel. It was a long day. I was exhausted. We managed to get everyone in bed by 9:30, including myself.

We are now in Copenhagen. We go out to the new house tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see it. I'll write more when I can, although I'm not sure when we'll have internet access.

Spring fair at the international school

We had a fun day at the international school last week. They had a spring fair event to raise money for charity. Families were asked to donate items that could be resold at the fair. We donated a bunch of books and baby clothes. We also bought a bunch of books and toys for the kids. We set out thinking that we weren't going to spend much money. When stuff costs 1 euro, how much can you spend, right? Well we just kept loading up our bag and before we knew it, we had spent 20 euros. When it just costs 1 euro, you don't even think about whether or not you really need it you just get it. The kids have enjoyed the books and games that we bought, so it was all worth it.

Once we were done shopping, we went to the cafeteria where a few nationalities set up food stands, show casing the food from their country.

We filled up on falafel wraps and cup cakes then headed out to the play ground to burn off some calories.

We had a really fun day. I'm going to miss Amsterdam's international school. We've made lots of good friends there. It's been a great experience for us all. Dylan has flourished in the 9 months that he's spent at the school. He's learned how to count to 20 and knows most of his shapes. He's also become quite good at entertaining us with the songs that he has learned from Judy, his music teacher. We are looking forward to the international school in Copenhagen next year.

4 months

Tricia also had a doctors appointment last week. She had her 4 month check up. She's also doing very well. She weighs 7.5 kilos and is 63 cm long. (16.5 pounds and 29 inches) She's got the cutest, chunkiest legs I've ever seen. She's really just adorable. She's 5 months next week. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. She's sleeping through the night now and roles over like a champ. Her favorite activity is watching her brother, Dylan. He loves entertaining her and making her laugh. She laughs pretty easily at his antics.