Baby, You’re A Firework!

Our 4th of July was a little bit more low key than I would’ve liked, thanks to some salmonella poisoning that took Shawn down for no less than a week.  He and I spent all day Thursday at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, but that’s another story for another day.

I decided that I would still take the kids to the 4th of July party hosted by the American Women’s Club of Luxembourg, and when I told Hannah that we were going, she told me she didn’t want to go.

”Why? We had fun last year and it’s America’s birthday.  We should celebrate!”

She narrowed her eyes, “Because I’m British.”

Ok. 
Right. 
Clearly all of my efforts at teaching my kids about heritage, American traditions and instilling a sense of patriotism have been very effective.

Oh, well.
Happy Birthday anyways, America!

Happy Birthday, America

We woke up a few minutes early this morning to take some pictures before Hannah went to school.
(I’ve mentioned before that the school calendar here is different than in the US and we’re not done for two more weeks.)

Finn was more interested in the cars driving by and Hannah was excited to get going so she could tell her teacher that today is America’s birthday.

 

Earlier this week, I filled up my car with gas, or petrol, as it’s called here and I went inside to pay.  I said hello to the cashier and told her I’d also like to purchase a car wash (in French.)
She immediately switched to English so I asked her how she knew that was my native language.
She laughed and told me that I speak French with a strong English accent.
I asked her if she could tell the difference from an American accent from, say, a British or Australian.
What she said next made me giggle.
”I can’t place English accents, but I can usually pick out the Americans because they’re just…so…cool.”

She’s right.
Americans are cool.
And so is America.
Happy Birthday.

Scenes From Our Weekend

I hope you had a fantastic 4th of July.
We sure did.  In fact, we kept right on celebrating the whole weekend through.
Friday night we went to a barbeque at the US Marine House here in Luxembourg.  The American Women’s Club (of which I am a member) hosted a party in honor of America’s birthday.
We ate REAL American food and Hannah played with the other kids.  I didn’t take one picture at the event, sadly.  Mostly because I was busy with ALL THE AMERICAN FOOD.  But since we were wearing sort of coordinating outfits and I’ve wanted a photo on our front porch for ages, we took one before we left.

On Saturday we had a little party/barbeque at our house with some of our friends and their kids.  I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I really try to do is make a big deal about holidays and traditions that we miss because we live abroad.  The 4th of July and Thanksgiving obviously aren’t celebrated here and these holidays are special to me and I don’t ever want my kids to not fully appreciate or understand them simply because of where we live.  So we invited some friends, threw some steaks and chicken on the grill and laughed that Shawn, Hannah, Finley and I were the only Americans at our 4th of July party. 

I mean, just because they’re British doesn’t mean they can’t celebrate the 4th of July with us.
Even if it was July 6th.

On Sunday, the weather was spectacular so we got into our swimming costumes and headed to one of the local outdoor pools.

We brought our own lifeguard with us.

Even though he went to sleep on the job.

As we parked the car, Shawn had a moment of slight panic as he often does before we go to a pool that we’ve not yet been.  It stems from his (totally legitimate) fear of THE SPEEDO.  Many (or most?) public pools in Europe don’t allow board style shorts for men.  At the entrance there are signs showing the type of swimming costumes that are acceptable, mainly THE SPEEDO and its cousin, the spandex biking short.  Fortunately when we walked in we saw a few men wearing his style of swim trunks and we knew we were in business.

During the winter term this year, Hannah’s class took swimming lessons during the school day.  Also, at the end of my pregnancy and the first few weeks after Finley’s birth, Shawn and Hannah spent a lot of time at the indoor pools.  If there’s nothing else to do in Luxembourg, there are plenty of pools, and most of them are really lovely.  Anyway, I hadn’t realized how much her swimming has improved in the last few months until I saw her in the pool yesterday.  She’s quite capable in the water.

 

I had to do massive amounts of cropping of my pictures, and I can’t even bring myself to post most of them because SPEEDO.  They just kept creeping into the background of my pictures. 

We met up with some friends who couldn’t make it to the party Saturday and the girls swam, splashed and ate a ton of watermelon.  This is one of Hannah’s best friends in Luxembourg.  Shawn and I have become good friends with her parents as well.

 

We made it home around dinner time, took showers and I think Hannah was asleep before I even turned her light out. 

We’re down to the last nine days of school before the summer break and Shawn and I spent some time last night planning our vacation.  We’ve got some reservations made and are finishing up the details. 

We’re about to give the Griswalds a run for their money.

Fourth of July

From our All American Girl and our US Citizen Born Abroad…

Happy Birthday, America!

This morning we celebrated ‘Merica by dressing in our stars and stripes.
Since schools here in Luxembourg are on a different schedule than in the US, summer break doesn’t begin for two more weeks.
So Hannah wore her American flag shirt to school today.
She goes to the British school.  LOL at the irony.
When we arrived, she asked me how old ‘Merica is.  Embarrassingly, I had to get my phone out to do the calculation.
(She’s 237 years old, if you wanted to know.)

Then she told her teacher, “Today is America’s birthday, and tomorrow is America’s barbeque.”
She’s kind of right because tomorrow we’ll go to a party hosted by the American Women’s Club of Luxembourg at The US Marine House.

As for Finn, well, it’s his first 4th of July and just this week he appropriately received his real US Passport and Certificate of Birth Abroad.  He’s official.
We’re pretty excited about it.

I think he is, too.