November

I'm not sure what happened with this month.  Really, it was a kind of blah month.  The weather got really cold again and we mostly kept indoors.  There were a couple of notable things that happened, so I thought I'd write a quick blog to sum up the month.  

The biggest thing that happened this month was that Noah started "school." 

 

 Anyone that has talked to us know that this has been a bit of a sore spot for us.  In Denmark, they have a law that if you move here from another country and you don't speak Danish, your kids have to attend a "Kindergarten" for 30 hours a week, starting when they turn 3.  If you fail to follow the law, you can be fined.  Lexi was 4 almost 5 when we moved here, and for some silly glitch in the law, she also had to attend a kindergarten, but for only 15 hours a week.  To explain, Kindergarten here is not like it is in the US.  Kindergarten here is Day Care.  People usually put their kids in Day Care by 6 months old.  It is extremely rare to come across anyone that stays home with their kids and doesn't put them in Kindergarten.  The Kindergarten's are licensed through the government and have to follow a bunch of rules and regulations and so, as far as Day Care goes, they are very good.  They do a lot of activities with the kids, including field trips and a lot of outdoor time.  We didn't feel bad putting Lexi into it, because she had been attending Preschool before we moved here and we felt it would be good for her to attend.  Even had we been given a choice.  But, we dreaded Noah's 3rd birthday and were pretty uncertain what would happen.  

So, once Noah turned 3, Lexi's teacher mentioned to me that he would need to start Kindergarten, but she was super helpful about it and suggested that she try to see if she could get Noah admitted into the same group as Lexi. Normally they only take 4 & 5 years old, so Noah was a definite exception.  After a few weeks she told us that it had been approved and we were ecstatic.  I really like Lexi's teacher and was happy I would only have to send him for 15 hours a week instead of 30.  We are kind of bending the rules a bit, but really, Noah will Never attend real school here, so I think that this is sufficient for his needs.  Talking with the teacher, we decided to hold of a little until the new school year had gotten going a little and finally, decided in November that it was time for him to start.  I was very reluctant to send my baby to "school" 2 years before I would have if we hadn't moved here.  So, I was glad that the teacher was fine with him just coming 2 or 3 times a week.  And so far, it seems to be working well.  Noah loves going and I like having a little time to go grocery shopping and clean without the kids.  Here are a couple of pictures of his first day.  He loves the balls and heads straight there almost every time he goes.

Weather here in Denmark is much different than what we were use to.  We had such a cold, wet summer, if felt like Spring had just kind of merged in to Fall.  By the time September and October rolled around, it felt like the weather had finally caught up to the season.  Then November hit with it's cold winter temperatures and out came the heavy coats and flyvedragt's.  Flyvedragt's translate directly to Flight Suit and I guess they kind of resemble that.  ALL of the kids in Denmark from the ages 6 and under wear these, sometimes the entire year long.  They have ones for cold days and really cold days and wet days and kind of warm days.  We were lucky when we moved here that a woman in our ward gave us 3 for our kids.  They fit Lexi and Noah perfectly, even if Noah's clown suit isn't exactly something I would have purchased. 

 

On one of the cold days this month, Chad took the kids out to visit some local parks and to do a little rolling down a hill.  They were warm and happy.

 

 

The other thing that happened this month was our first Thanksgiving away from home.  Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Denmark, so no time off from school or work for anyone.  We decided to hold our own Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, the Jensen's, on Saturday. Of course I didn't take any pictures of all of us or our dinner, but it was a really excellent day. We cooked a turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, broccoli and pies.  It was a stretch for all of us, making everything homemade from scratch.  I'd never done my own stuffing or cranberry sauce, but everything seemed to turn out well.  It was a fun day with good friends.

Only pictures I took were a couple of all the kids sitting on the couch, making faces.  Olivia is our friend's little girl and all our kids just adore here.

So, that's really about all that happened in November.  Too bad I didn't write about things as they happened. Something I need to work on!