Life in Brunssum

Well...again, a lot has happened over the past few months.  We moved into our house on August 1st, and we really love it.  The main floor is spacious and wide, something that is not common here.  The kids have settled into their rooms nicely, and we had fun decorating them.  We bought Julia and Lexie beautiful closets from IKEA.  School started around the end of August, and we are very lucky to have amazing teachers for all three kids.  The girls have American ladies for teachers, while Aiden has a Canadian man.  There are kids in their classes from all over: Czech, England, Norway, Denmark, etc.  They take German everyday, and Julia was doing so well in the beginner's class they start everyone in that they bumped her up two levels to the advanced class :)  She may not have had German that one year we were in Kansas, but she sure remembered what she learned in Grafenwoehr! We are so proud of her! She seems to be fitting in well, lots of friends, and is getting good grades.  She is learning to play the clarinet and in January will join the Elementary School Band. She also just finished her fifth year of cheerleading.
Aiden's learning to read, and we're very proud of how well he's doing.  Academically, he's a little below grade level.  He's really started progressing quickly this school year, because he finally just got really motivated to learn! That makes a huge difference.  He's especially into math, and he shocks us sometimes with what he can figure out on his own.  He's finishing his first soccer season this week, which he enjoyed immensely.  We were a little surprised at how much he enjoyed it!  He says he wants to play again! :)
Lexie is having a blast in Kindergarten.  She had a rough start.  She cried everyday the first week, which surprised me.  I didn't think she'd do that.  But then she got it together and now you couldn't keep her home if you tried :)  It was a big adjustment for her.  She went from being at home to being gone from 8:30 to 4pm everyday.  The school day runs from 9:00-3:30pm.  Since they ride the bus, they usually get home a few minutes before 4pm.  Lexie is also really enjoying German class...Aiden too, but the girls seem more interested at this point.  She and Aiden are both very good at repeating things back to us that they've learned in school.  I love to hear Aiden tell me about how they worked with an electricity kit that day or what solids are and then start naming off math facts that he's memorized.  Lexie can tell you what types of workers used to wear wooden shoes in the Netherlands (farmers) and name several farm animals in German.  Such cool things they're picking up.  All three of them count and sing German songs.
We've done quite a bit of traveling since we've been here.  We've been up to Amsterdam, as well as Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft, and Scheveningen.  The Netherlands is a beautiful country.  Over Fall Break we went to London for a few days, which was very cool.  It was the first time for all of us.  Pictures of all of these are on my facebook page, but maybe I'll post some favorites here too.  It's exciting to think how much we've seen and that we've only been here for four months!  I really can't wait to explore as much of Europe as possible over the next 3 years.