Back to the RW

I bet once a week people have asked us how our transition back in to life in the US has been. Are we settling in? Are we getting back into our lifestyle here? Has it been easy or hard? I probably wouldn’t say getting back in to life at home was a breeze but it has gone pretty smoothly. We were carful to not over commit to anything too fast. We didn’t jump right back in to music, sports or clubs for the kids. We just coasted, sort of. And its a good thing, because aside from work, which has been quite consuming of our bandwidth, camping and reconnecting with our friends has been occupied most of our time and been so rewarding.

First things first. Patrick had so much momentum with his German that we wanted prioritize getting him back into formal language teaching. Of course in a small town like ours, German isn’t top on the list of foreign languages in the public school curriculum. But lucky for him, there is quite a German language community here. Through some FLC back channels, we managed to get Patrick a tutor that works with him once a week. He is really loving learning all of the grammar behind all of the things he learned on the fly in Austria.

We celebrated a few of the kids friends in their theatre production of “The Secret Garden”. They did a great job and it’s been fun just spending some good time together.

Kaitlyn and Declan starred in the Secret Garden

Declan and Dashel came for a game of Lord of the Rings Risk

I love this girl. We celebrated her birthday on a whirlwind of a weekend of dance recitals and theatre performances.

Patrick performed in his school talent show on the cello, accompanying himself on some beats that he “laid out” in Garage band then promptly left this cello in the hall only to have it accidentally damaged beyond repair. We are currently looking for a replacement for a size larger. Such a sad day for both of us. He no longer has a cello to play and I have to pay for a replacement! Not gonna lie. I totally cried that day.

Patrick playing in his talent show.

youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNm-QREEgGU

The sound is not great in this clip but I think you can get the idea.

Aside from getting to spend some time with our friends, the boys have started back with their monthly cooking with dad. Aeneas made a very delicious beef burgundy reminiscing our time in Paris. A couple of weeks ago, he cooked both breakfast and dinner all on his own. Just as you might think, I am pretty happy to have them back in the kitchen!