Mommy and Maeve Time Again

With the boys back to school, I am readjusting to flying solo with Maeve 3 days a week. 15-month Maeve is completely different from the Maeve I was home with in early June. She's now steadily walking around, which is simply adorable, but keeps me on my toes. She is able to communicate really well now. Signs for "more," "all done," and "I want." She claps her hands when she wants me to sing to her. She loves to pick up her duplo birthday cupcake and dance while I sing happy birthday (Dutch and English) over and over again to her. Anything for that beaming smile! Girl's wardrobe was majorly hooked up with friends' hand me downs and I am having a lot of fun dressing my little girl :) At night, when she's tired, she snuggles into my chest and I just can't get enough. We start next week with her baby activities so we've had a lot of time to just hang out together in the interim. In a year's time she'll be off to ISA to become a hedgehog herself so I need to soak it all up now. The last year I had with Jude, I didn't realize how different things would be once he started school, so I will not take any of this special year for granted. 

She loves to do anything Jude is doing 

The best medicine for a rainy day

Grachtenfestival baby concert with pal Joey

Learned to love sand this summer and plays every day in her sandbox scooping and filling buckets

Loves to pick the ripe cherry tomatoes

Does not like being told she can't pick the green ones. 

Finally able to enjoy playgrounds together

My snuggler 

Jude's First Day of Pre-School

Jude's first day of pre-school at ISA was yesterday. He had been going for a week already to the day care for faculty kids ("creche"), while Pete attended meetings, so the big day didn't feel as momentous as it might have otherwise. He was still so excited for his first day in the Rabbit class and to see all of his friends. To help with the transition from nursery to pre-school, ISA keeps the entire class intact. So apart from two boys who no longer go to the school and one new girl, the class was exactly the same as last year. So only new teachers and a new classroom to get used to on the first day. Both were great and after 30 minutes, all of the parents were gone, leaving our kids to get up to their normal shenanigans. He starts with just 1/2 days for the next week so I carted Maeve home, let her sleep and then went back for pick up and lunch. Times like these I am so grateful for the easy, 5 minute commute to school!

Pre-school promises lots more gym time and adding music and art classes to their weekly schedule. We received the teacher/instructor introduction letter yesterday and after reading everyone's bios, I am impressed and feeling like Jude is in the best hands.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also congratulate this hard working teacher on his first day of school! Pete's 1st day of his 13th year teaching! How are we old enough to have done 13 years of anything?!

 

For the past week, Maeve has been toddling all over the house, I think looking for Jude and Pete, not understanding why they aren't home all the time still. We had a lot of great Maeve and mommy time in the past week (post to follow), but I know she misses her boys. Her excitement when they come home is amazing! 

"Why do they have to go?!"

Starting back at school also means getting to see all of Pete's teacher friends and our community at ISA. Jude spends a lot of time before and after school in the science department and loves all of his surrogate aunts and uncles there.

With Kim and Irene

Exploring his new classroom

It turned into a beautiful day so we enjoyed it in our garden and then with a bike ride through the polders behind our house. We did a bit of a "nature walk" though our tired kiddos mostly wanted to be carried. I forgot how gorgeous the sky is here! 

The second day today was also a success. The hardest part was convincing Maeve to leave! She's doing great with her walking and was all over the place! Here's to a great year in the Rabbit class! 

"I can stay, right mom"

Reimes, France

We spent our second day in the unofficial capitol of the Champagne region, Reimes. The city is dominated by their Notre Dam (Cathedral of Our Lady), an impressive site. There were Sunday morning services going on while we were there and the acoustics were magical. French kings were crowned in the cathedral for over 1,000 years. 

Jude got into a chasing/fighting game with some little boys. He found out he was outmatched. Maeve continued to practice her walking.

We wandered the town while Jude slept. It was more beautiful than Rick Steves had me believe. The city was destroyed in WWI and the mayor encouraged rebuilding of any sort in the 20s, not adhering to any one style. It still felt completely French to me. The food market (not open) was art deco, which we'd never seen in Europe before.

Amazing mosaics depicting making Champagne with an impressive door to match!

We had a great lunch at a cute corner bistro. I had forgotten how French restaurants don't really do high chairs so we took turns holding squirmy Maeve. She was spent, too so Pete left to walk her while I sat sipping Champagne in the sunshine.

Bistro views while enjoying truffle risotto and Champagne.

Art Deco Food Market

When the kids were up, we found a large park with a playground. It also looked like there was some performance about to happen with a crowd gathered around a large gazebo. Turns out it was just a big community picnic, but it gave Jude lots of little boys to chase around!

Ducks also love french baguettes

Pile on sleepy daddy

As we headed back through town to get to the car parked next to the Cathedral, we admired more of the sights including this beautiful Victory memorial. Sadly, the nazis took the original gold Victory angel and melted down the gold so the city created a replica. Reminders of the horrors of past wars are everywhere in Europe. I wish more Americans had this constant reminder. I was thinking of this last Monday (the first monday of the month) when the regularly scheduled noon air raid sirens went off. It is a monthly reminder to be kind, accept your neighbors and maintain peace.

I knew there must be a carousel somewhere in Reimes, it being a sizable French city and all. When we found it, Jude was so excited, he couldn't contain his joy while I tried to take his picture near this cool fountain.

Carousel smiles

A final family photo with the gorgeous Cathedral before it was time to hit the road back home to Amstelveen.

 

Just your normal road trip pic, dinner at Micky Ds. Only difference was Jude yelling from the tube play area, "I don't understand what the kids are saying!" Back in the car in their jammies, the kids fell asleep and we returned to our dust covered, construction site home by 10:30pm. A super successful spontaneous trip!

Exploring Epernay

Saturday ticked off all of our French boxes. Pete and the kids started the day right, finding a boulangerie (after some difficulty as the close one was closed for August holidays) and loading up on croissants, pain au chocolat and baguette. The weekly market was on Saturdays so we got to wander the stalls, stopping to try mirabelles (yellow fruits with a plum taste the size of grapes). 

It was almost 10am so we figured it was time for some Champagne :) I had read about a child friendly cave, Champagne Mercier, which was located at the far end of the Avenue de Champagne. So we strolled the Avenue while Maeve slept. 

Not wanting to wake her, Pete let me go on the tour solo with Jude. There were only 5 other people on our tour so I didn't worry that Jude would be a big disturbance and he wasn't at all. We sat through the intro video where we learned that their Champagne was debuted at the 1889 Worlds Fair in Paris. The same World Fair for which the Eiffel tower was constructed! To make a splash at the fair, the vineyard created a barrel (seen below) which held 200,000 bottles of Champagne! It took 24 cattle and 18 horses to pull it from Epernay to Paris. At the fair, patrons were invited on a hot air balloon ride where they got to sip their Champagne in style. I really have no desire to travel back in time, given all of the advances that have been made (especially for women), but I would love to have been present at that World Fair!

This tour was deemed child friendly because the visit of the Champagne caves was all on an electric train. And to get to the depths of the cave, you descended in an elevator with a glass wall, which showed displays on your way down. It was very cool to see Peking Way- the stretch of cave that went on and on with no end in sight. The workers there used to joke that the tunnel lead all the way to China. All of this amazing Champagne from all of the vineyards stored under the Avenue de Champagne! Really cool! The train moved so slowly though and the whole thing was a bit too long so we both got bored.

With my cave explorer 

Frescos inside the cave. 

Once above ground, I finally got my first glass of bubbly, which Jude documented brilliantly. Then we met Pete and Maeve outside by the vineyard. 

We made one more stop for sampling at the Champagne de Castellane. Some tasty Rose bubbly there!

While we waited for the noon opening of the delicious Brasserie below (amazing how much you can accomplish before noon with kids!), we checked out the town cathedral and let the kids run loose a bit. 

The kids promptly passed out so we transferred them to the car and enjoyed a drive along the scenic Champagne route. The clouds had given way to rain so it was a good day for a drive. I love seeing the countryside, especially one which is covered in vines as far as the eye can see!

The kids woke up just as we crossed this charming bridge over the Marne river. On the other side as a river front playground

On the way back to town, we saw this chateaux on the hill and tried to drive to it, but think it was behind closed gates. 

After we got home, we headed into town for another glass of Champagne at a tasting store. Maeve had started to run a really high fever (it only took 2 weeks back at daycare) so we ditched the idea of dinner out and picked up some ready made quiches at Carrefour instead. Before bedtime, Jude wanted to do some "work" at the desk in his room. He asked for a phone, pencil and some paper and got busy. :)