Going Gluten Free

So Elphie has made the decision to go Gluten (and dye) free with her boys and eat healthier and more natural all around. Since I signed Batman up for swim lessons down at the base Elphie is at, we stayed with her for the better part of two weeks, and were eating cleaner by proxy. She has seen immediate and amazing results in her kids from changing their diet, and with Superman's issues (Emotional Developmental Delay, fine motor skill challenges and developmental delays in social areas) I figured that this may be a way to help him deal with things better; having a healthier and cleaner system. I haven't seen drastic results due to the diet changes (though the one-on-one time I got with him last week while Batman stayed with Elphie and I had Superman at home for a few days really seemed to help him), but I'm definitely not writing it off.

I do, however, think I may have a wheat allergy or sensitivity. Going from Gluten free to eating like "normal" at home, back and forth, has really been taking a significant (and painful!) toll on my digestive system. It wouldn't really be surprising, as I do have plenty of other seasonal allergies and reactions to various plant life and their pollens. In researching Gluten free cooking & eating, I've come to find that those with these kinds of allergies are most commonly those with hay-fever and reacting to pollens of plants. So I am now trying to go Gluten free in our home as well. It's not exactly easy. Especially when I have two little boys that don't like change and love their bread and pasta!

I have, however, found a great site for Gluten free recipes! When Elphaba was first going Gluten free, she mentioned that the Gluten free bread from the store was gross and that her kids wouldn't eat it unless it was toasted. I put my Internet searching skills to work and found this great blog. We used her sandwich bread recipe, and it was amazing! It was the first time I ever baked with yeast (which I was greatly intimidated by, because I had heard over and over that baking bread with yeast is less like baking and more like cooking...which I kind of fail at...), so I was quite proud of how well it came out. :) And has continued to do so!

A loaf of the Gluten free sandwich bread, halfway done baking

Other than that, we've been staying very busy! Batman has passed his first level of swim lessons with flying colors, and we signed him up today for the next level, which starts next week. Superman did not get swim lessons at the same time because there was a clause in the consent form about assuring the child would not be a hindrance to any of the other kids at any time. With his developmental delays, that's not an area I can promise will go according to the will of the adults involved. However, there is the possibility I may be able to get him into a swim class with kids his age with the teacher that the other boys had this past time, and she was fantastic with whenever there were any problems with wandering attention or tempers flaring. After this set of lessons, though, we'll be done with them for the summer. We'll have just a few weeks to get the boys' school supplies together, plan and have Batman's birthday party, fit in a Barefoot Path adventure, aiming for a picnic lunch at a castle, and hitting up another Medieval Festival at another castle...all before the end of next month! I am grateful that we've been able to keep the boys busy. I can't believe that they've only been out for less than a month, and am even in more disbelief that they'll be starting 1st & 2nd grade in about 6 weeks!

Summer time!

Wow! I have been incredibly busy! Ever since the field trip I chaperoned for Batman's class to the Butterfly Gardens in Luxembourg, I have been hopping!

On Memorial Day, we had the Songes up and had a cookout and I got to spend time with Kristin, hanging out in my craft room and dyeing yarn, along with just playing with yarn in general. :)

The following Monday, I got to join a bunch of the other Kindergarten parents and help with cutting out cardboard wings for the "Fly Away" ceremony we had for Batman's Kindergarten class. (The school doesn't do an actual Kindergarten graduation.) It was nice to chat with them and talk about travel and my love of Paris with them. :)

That Wednesday I went in and helped out Batman's teacher with the kids decorating their wings for said ceremony. They were so creative and fun!
That Friday was Field Day for the boys. Batman had a blast and participated in all the events with extra enthusiasm. Superman, however, was a different story. He was in a rotten mood and only would play in about half the events.

Superman bouncing on a ball

Batman under the parachute!

The Monday after that, I was supposed to be chaperoning Superman's class's nature walk, but due to rain, it was postponed a day.

He did well overall...especially considering how long the walk was! (He should not have worn a long-sleeved shirt! LOL) That afternoon, I took cupcakes in to Batman's class, since he has a summer birthday. That Wednesday was Batman's "Fly Away" from Kindergarten, and it was awesome to get to see all the kids and their parents getting together to celebrate all the kids had accomplished. I also had Batman give his teacher and teacher's aide their gifts, which I handmade for them.

The next day was the boys' last day of school. Between Wednesday and Thursday, Superman was able to give the gifts I hand knit for his teacher, in class aide, the counselor that has been working with him, and the Occupational Therapist he was seeing on a weekly basis.

That Saturday, Elphie came up with her boys and they stayed overnight. The following Tuesday, the boys and I came down to her house so that we could sign Batman and her two sons up for swim lessons! The boys and I ended up staying through Sunday and I had a few girls nights with Elphie and Kristin. :)

We went home for a couple days, but then came back down on Tuesday, as that was when the swim lessons began. And that brings us to today! Swim lessons got cancelled tonight due to lightening, but it should be back to swimming as normal tomorrow. :)

Butterfly Gardens

I know it has been quite a while since I last posted. Things have been quite busy around here as of late (which is for another blog post)!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being a chaperone for C's class on the field trip 3 of the Kindergarten classes took together to the Butterfly Garden. It was so much fun!!! We piled the kids onto 2 buses and drove over to Luxembourg! They had been studying butterflies and insects in school, and this was a great way for them to finish that section.

A kernel representing a butterfly egg

A piece of uncooked spiral pasta representing the caterpillar

A piece of uncooked shell pasta representing the cocoon/chrysalis

A piece of uncooked bowtie pasta representing the butterfly

It was about a 45-60 minute drive, and we were asked often "Are we still in Germany?!" (I guess that's marginally better than "Are we there yet?" LOL) I got to be in charge of the orange group (which included C) and was shown by these really cool foam butterfly name tags that his teacher made.

When we got there, we got the speech about not touching the butterflies' wings (which anyone that has studied butterflies in school knows about the oils on our hands damaging the wings and causing them to break and render the insect unable to fly, thereby killing it). There was also a lot of moisture on the ground that they were trying to drink, so we had to be extra careful to watch where we were stepping so as not to crush any underfoot. (And when you're talking about a large group of 5-6 year olds, that's no easy feat!) But C's class, at least, did very well in following both instructions. (There were kids from one of the other classes that I repeatedly was reprimanding for trying to touch the butterflies. I don't know WHERE the adult was...)

C & his classmates huddled around a butterfly on the ground

The butterfly on the ground

The room was pretty warm and (to me) extremely humid (70%, I think it was?), but it was a lot of fun to be in there (in spite of feeling like I was slowly melting!). The butterflies fly free in the building, and they landed on quite a few people. C's teacher had at least 4 different ones land on her, and one even tried to get nectar out of her leg! LOL

1 of the 4 butterflies to land on C's teacher

A butterfly that landed on a classmate's head

A butterfly that landed on a classmate's arm

C's teacher pointing out a bird to C & his classmates

Case of chrysalises & newly hatched butterflies

Fish pond!

Turtles in the pond

A chameleon in a tank

After the kids were done looking at the butterflies, the case of chrysalises, the occasional display of other varying insects and chameleons, and the fish and turtles in the pond, we walked down along the Mosel river to get to a nearby park for the kids to play and have a picnic lunch.

C playing at the park

 

C keeping busy (& staying awake) by playing a game on my phone on the bus

By the time the trip was over and we were loaded back onto the buses and headed back to the school, the kids were soooo wiped out! At least half of the class fell asleep on the bus ride. As for me, I managed to stay awake (and knit) the ride back, but after I got home and had dinner, I laid down to take a little cat nap...and ended up sleeping through the whole night! LOL

I definitely want to go back and take the boys to the Butterfly Garden (and get to peruse the gift shop this time around!)...

Après Montmartre

Before we left the Montmartre district altogether, we made one more stop: the Moulin Rogue! We didn't really have the inclination to spend the Euro to go in, and it was conveniently right next to a Metro stop, so we snapped some photos from across the street and then continued on our way.

At that point, we'd mostly exhausted our list of "must see"s (minus going into the Louvre for her, which she chose to save for when her husband takes her to Paris, and Versailles; it was too far out of the way to make it down there and back in decent time, even by way of the Metro system), so we decided we should eat dinner, go up the Eiffel Tower, and call it a night.

We ended up eating across the street from the cafe we ate at the first night, and after eating, we went back to that cafe so I could buy a bottle of wine to take home. Then we went back to my favorite Parisian landmark...

Approaching the line to go up the Tower!

We stood in line for probably about an hour...shuffling forward ever slowly...

Bust of Gustave Eiffel, beneath the Tower

Unfortunately, we found out, as we got to the checkpoint where security checks bags for weapons and such, bottles are not allowed up the Eiffel Tower. I mean, I guess it makes sense, as they don't want anyone dropping them from above, but it wasn't anything I thought about, prior to getting in line. (They really should put that out there...) Even worse than that? They have no place to check your things at. So my options were to throw the expensive bottle of wine I'd just purchased into the trash, or leave the line. Disappointed, we left the line. :(

Instead, we went across the Seine and took some tourist-y  photos of the Tower from the Palais de Chaillot. as there wasn't anything else we could think off the tops of our heads to go see and the day was quickly winding down, we started back toward the hotel. On our walk, we came across a landmark that surprised us both...

Flame of Liberty

It's an exact replica of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty in New York, and it ended up turning into an unofficial monument to Princess Diana, as this was the tunnel in which she died. I hadn't looked up that information at all, so I didn't even think to look specifically for it, but we happened across it, and I'm glad we did!

From there, we went back to our hotel and slept hard after all that walking about, and set out to return home the next morning.

Aside from my iPhone getting stolen (due to my own oblivious nature), the weekend was absolutely amazing, and I wouldn't trade that time there for the world! And I will, one day, return...in fact...

In the car, driving back to Germany, I told Misha that what I want for my 10-year wedding anniversary is to renew our vows on a boat on the Seine in Paris. I even told her that if I got that, I would consider letting The Instigator upgrade my ring (which he's been pestering for since we got married!). Naturally, she told him nearly as soon as she could, and he has evidently not only already set up a plan for saving accordingly (one year for the ring, 2 years for the trip), but also dragged me into the jewelry store to narrow down options as to how large of a stone I'll let him get me...and for anyone that knows me, knows that to accept a larger diamond in my ring is a huge deal! LOL

So, Paris, until we meet again...J'adore!

Continuing the saga...

You may remember, back before my mom came to visit, that I was once blogging about my trip to Paris...well, I figured it was high time (and then some!) that I wrapped that one up so I could move on to blog about my BFF's wedding (which was in September) and my birthday (which was in October)!

The last I left you with was Misha and myself making it to the Place de la Concorde. From there, we hopped on the Metro and zipped up to the Opera National de Paris Garnier. For those of you that may not know, this building has a specific literary (and Broadway musical) significance that drew me there: it is the setting for The Phantom of the Opera.

I was sadly disappointed, though, that it looked nothing like the opera house in the recent film adaptation (though that could have easily been due to the fact that there are far more buildings around it now than there were when the film was set). As there was an admission charge to enter the opera house, we stuck to simply taking photos of the exterior (I'll go back with The Instigator and take a gander indoors!) before hopping back on to the Metro and shooting on up to our next destination: Sacré Cœur.

On our way uphill, Misha's poor feet were hurting horribly (she hadn't really worn hiking/heavy walking appropriate shoes), so we stopped in a shoe shop we passed. Unfortunately, the prices were far too high to comfort her sore tootsies. So instead, we pressed on.

Up-close view of the facade of Basilique du Sacré Cœur

I love how white the stone is, even for how long ago the church was built! (Which is really just the properties of the travertine stone at work...so fascinating and breathtaking!)

We didn't take the time to go up into the dome (though I hear you get an amazing view of Paris from up there!), but we did go down into the crypt below, where we came across a super creepy statue that I would have believed to have been once human and turned to stone through supernatural means, leaving a soul trapped inside to leer at everyone. (It was seriously creepy!) Also in the crypt was a little chapel which houses a stone urn containing the heart of Alexandre Legentil, a Parisian layman that made a vow with Hubert Rohault de Fleury to build the basilica.

Since Sacré Cœur is at the highest point of the highest butte in Paris (Montmartre), we got an amazing view of the city. The stairs in front of the basilica are quite popular, but given all our walking up to this point and knowing we weren't done yet, we opted for the tram that runs up and down the hill and bypassed the stairs altogether! :)

View of the Eiffel Tower from near Basilique du Sacré Cœur

On our way back downhill with the Metro in our sights, we came across a small tea shop. I asked about the kind of tea I had at the cafe before, and bought some from the shop owner, but I found out after I got home, while the tea had the same name, the taste was completely different. :(


TO BE CONTINUED...AGAIN....