Sabina Turns 2!

Little baby Sabina turned 2 on Monday! Dan had to be out of town on her actual birthday, so we began the festivities on Saturday night. Sabina requested pizza for dinner, so we went to at a little Italian restaurant down the street. I asked in French if they could put a candle (une bougie) in her dessert, and they just stared at me quizzically. After I said "pour son anniversaire" and demonstrated blowing actions, they said "ah...une bougie!". Apparently, it is pronounced "boo-jee" not "boo-gey". Yup, I was asking them to put boogers in her cake. Nice.

Sabina sporting her crazy smile at celebration #1

For Sabina's birthday breakfast, I made one of her favorites: egg and rice. But she hardly touched it. Then I gave her another of her favorites: a snack bar. But she didn't touch that either. After we dropped Jackson and Sophia at school, I took her to Cora's Hypermarche (not a market or a supermarket, but a hypermarket...it's kind of like a Target) to buy groceries for her birthday dinner (she requested rice with beef and "broky"), birthday cake, and some birthday toys. And right in the middle of the produce section, she vomited. Poor baby! What a way to start off her birthday :( Thankfully, she seemed recovered enough after a 3 hour nap to enjoy present-opening.

Celebration #2...my birthday booty

We saved the cake for tonight.

Celebration #3 with tarte aux fraises

Oh how time flies.

First Week of School...Check!

Well nothing forces you to adjust like going back to school. Jackson and Sophia started at International School of Luxembourg (ISL) on Wednesday. And I'm happy to report, they had a great week!

We received class lists last week. It wouldn't have been as exciting as if we were back at Villa save for all the interesting names.

Jackson's closest friend so far is a boy from Iceland whose family moved here 9 years ago for a 2-year stint. And Sophia's is an American who moved to Lux 3 years ago after living in Kenya for 3 years. 

All in all, a great start to the school year. It probably didn't hurt that ISL celebrated its first day back with 600 cupcakes. I think they're going to like it here.

Road Trip!

One of the things I think we're going to love about living in Lux is the ability to jump in the car, drive in any direction, and end up in a new country within a matter of minutes. That's what we did this past Saturday.

Thanks to a recommendation from the Su family, we drove to Bouillon in Southern Belgium to visit Chateau Fort, a medieval castle. We climbed I don't know how many stairs to take in the spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and the Semois river from the top of the castle. Then we headed way down to visit the armories, dungeons, and torture chambers (Jackson's favorite part, of course).

Outside the torture chamber

Sittin' in a turret

Heading to the dungeon

We were ravenous after hours of exploring and climbing (I was also sore for a couple of days...pathetic) so had a giant lunch in town of moules, entrecote avec champignons a la creme (so yum though Dan was not happy with me), omelette, and (at Sabina's request) chicken nuggets and fries, followed by a little shopping and paddleboating on the Semois.

We accidentally took the scenic route to Brussels (2-1/2 hours instead of 1-1/2...oops) so saw some of the Belgian countryside (cows galore) en route. In Brussels, we stayed near Grand Place which is the city's central square. What was orginally an open air market is now a beautiful square bordered by elegant, stately buildings including Town Hall, an impressive gothic structure from the 1400s and the equally impressive Maison du Roi, which houses the Museum of Brussels.

Tourists at Grand Place

We had a delicious dinner at La Roue D'Or, an old Brussels cafe serving French/Belgian food - more moules et frites, more entrecote, escargots, and stoemp (sausage with mashed potatoes and carrots; satisfied Sabina's request for hot dogs). Jackson ordered some amazing meatball concoction served in a beer gravy; we declared him the ordering "winner" of the night. 

Then we goofed off for a while.

Outside the Royal Theatre

Walking/skipping back to our hotel

Please won't you open, candy shop?

Candy shop also sold this in case you're in need of one

On Sophia's agenda before leaving Sunday...eat waffles! We are pretty sure we ended up at a tourist trap (Maison Dandoy) for this meal. But it was still tasty.

gaufres aux fruits

And we couldn't leave Brussels without visiting Manneken Pis

(or the Pee Dude as Sophia calls him).

Manneken Pis

Enjoy!