Random August Pictures

 He's going to be so embarrassed someday....

 Sunglasses apparently keep the water out of your eyes when snorkeling in the sink.

 Not really sure what it is either.

 Ice Cream!!!

 Posing in front of the Opera House.

 Hanging out with the Copenhagen Street performers.

 Found about 50 of these pictures on the card.  I guess the kids were having fun with the camera.

Noah riding his new bike!!!  Such a great acquisition.  I now don't have to pull him in the trailer.  He rides that bike over a mile every day to and from school. 

Aldershvile Palace

On a nice Saturday afternoon, we headed to Lyngby to buy Noah a new bike. As we looked at the gps, it said that there was a Slot (castle/palace) nearby, so we decided to check it out.  We were so excited when we came upon the romantic ruins of an old palace that had burned down 100 years ago. 

Aldershvile Castle Palace was really a small manor home, set on some impressive grounds.  It was built in 1782.  In 1909, it burnt down and was not rebuilt.  I couldn't really find much information on it, but I did come across an old picture before it burnt down.

 Kind of fun to see what it use to look like. 
Anyway, it was such a fun place to visit.  We got to run around inside the ruins and we took a ton of pictures.  We decided that we would have to go back there to take family pictures for the year.  It was just so picturesque.  It opened up onto some beautiful grounds that led right to a large lake in Lyngby.  I love places like this.  It wasn't exactly a bit tourist attraction, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.  And it was just so beautiful. 

Photobomb!

A New School Year

After a short summer of only 6 weeks, all 3 kids are back in school.  Myra is in 2nd Class, Lexi is in 0 Class and Noah is still at the "Learn Danish Preschool."  School is quite different here.  First of all, they start a year later than in the states.  So, this is like Lexi's "Kindergarten" year.  She was so excited to start.  She was really ready last year, so it's been very exciting for her to start.  Both girls go to Herstedvester Skole.  It's kind of difficult to explain how the school works, I don't know that I really understand it all.  But, they are in a building called Lærkelen.  This building houses one class each of 0 to 3rd class.  It's a large school, so their are other classes with kids these ages.  But, once they start school here, they stay with the same class all through elementary school, which I think goes to 6th grade. So Myra is back with all her friends from last year.  And Lexi will stay with the same class for however long she goes to school here.  The schooling here really puts a big focus on social interaction and development and as they get older, they work more on intellectual development.  I often find myself comparing it to how the schooling was in the US.  Myra was reading in Kindergarten, but here, there are still some kids in her class that can't read and in Lexi's class, many of the kids don't even know the alphabet yet.  But, they do a lot of fun activities, field trips, arts and crafts, etc.  They have a fun playground space, with trees to climb, a little pond to catch frogs in, tree swings, bridges, fire pits, etc.  All of the things that would certainly not be allowed in the US for fear of lawsuit.  But they have so much fun here.  I am certain it will be difficult for them to go back to the rigidity of school in the US.  It's just so different.  Not that either is right or wrong, they are just different.  Noah is with his same class from last year, with a couple of new kids and some of the older kids moving on.  The kids in his class vary in age from 3 to 5.  They don't do any class work, but learn the language through play, reading and different activities.  Every week they go on a different field trip, to different places like the library, a castle, the aquarium, the beach.  It's very fun for him.  He struggles a little because he doesn't know a lot of Danish yet.  He's starting to understand more, but rarely speaks it.  I think this will be a good year for him in there though.  He'll learn a lot.
Anyway, I hope this will be a great year for all 3 of the kids.

Noah Turns 4!!!!

We celebrated Noah's 4th birthday at the end of the month.  It was a very fun day.  He had school that day and they had planned a trip to the new Aquarium, The Blue Planet, in Copenhagen.  I was excited to be able to go with him and spend the day with him.  We had a fun time at the aquarium, Noah especially enjoyed the fish that would suck up a bunch of sand and then spit it back out. 
That evening we opened presents.  Noah got a bunch of fun stuff, including roller skates from Grammy and Grandad and a new game from Grandma and Grandpa.  His sisters picked out some fun toys for him, but his favorite was his new swords and shield.  For months, he has been telling us that he wanted a sword and shield for his birthday.  Chad made the swords out of water noodles and we found this awesome painted shield when we were in Germany.  He had a Monsters Inc cake and was just such a happy little boy on his birthday! 

His sisters made him a pin the eye on Mike game. 

It is just so hard to believe that my baby is 4 years old!!!!  So hard to believe that much time has gone by since he joined our family!  I sure love this kid!

4 years old

3 years old

2 years old

1 year old

August 28th, 2009