July 4th - Keeping Four Adults Awake

We had been waiting for this day for a long time. My grandma was to arrive with my two aunts and my parents to head off our summer of visitors! Although my grandma (86 years old) got pneumonia and couldn't make the trip, my aunts and parents came to celebrate with us. K's parents would be arriving next week.

In case you haven't noticed from the blog, we (and I mean other expats as well as ourselves) don't tend to get many visitors on this side of the pond, so when we do see company arriving in the near future, we get REALLY excited. Since family was arriving on the 4th of July, I tried to talk my aunts into packing some fireworks in their luggage so we could celebrate in style, but probably because one of my uncles is a police officer, that just didn't fly. Instead, they found some table decorations, necklaces, and other toys colored red, white and blue to make our celebration complete.

My sweet friend, Amy, went all out and for some reason has more hours in her day than I do...I'm not sure if it's because she lives closer to the main road in Waterloo or what, but she came up with so many festive ideas you'd think it was her family coming from America instead of mine! She bought wonderful beef patties for hamburgers (to grill out of course) at a shop in Brussels (because trust me, American beef at the grocery store cannot be from America), found the only few American decorations in stores around here to hang and display, found corn on the cob, baked and decorated an American flag cake, put together a 4th of July trivia game complete with prizes (and good ones too!), and painted her daughter's nails with the festive colors all in a few days. I'm convinced she doesn't sleep - ever.

When my family was making the haul over here, the flights usually happen over night, so you snooze from about 6 or 7 at night until you wake up and you're in Belgium around 8 or so in the morning. You're not supposed to think about the fact that you only slept for about 4-6 hours (if you're lucky), but stay awake at all costs so you can head to bed early here and sleep all night to fight off jet lag. We had a job to do - keeping 4 adults awake until bedtime. I'd say Amy's party planning was just what they all needed to war off the nods.

Here they are arriving at the airport.

Check out those nails!

With sunglasses it can be tricky - is Nana asleep or awake?

You can see their mouths moving...they're definitely awake!

Antwerp Zoo, Belgium (July 3rd)

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the character of the Antwerp Zoo, but now that we're home and looking at pictures, I guess we didn't quite capture that in the photos. We'll just have to go again.
The Antwerp Zoo was here long before much of the city was built around it. The train station (a beautiful one I might add) is right near the entrance. We glanced inside, admiring the beauty of the architecture and were astounded when we witnessed this event out of the clear blue. Just click on the link to see what we saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

We found all the normal zoo friends here and I even spotted some animals that live at my house.

As we turned a corner, we found these penguins out in the near 70 degree weather instead of the freezing atmosphere we're used to seeing them nest at home. I wondered out loud why they were in the warmer climate and my son said, "Well, Mom, they are supposed to be out here...they're probably from Argentina." What? Where did he gain that knowledge because according to the zoo sign, he's right! Remember, he's my child that reads for about an hour each night in bed. So, I'm thinking he's read some animal books from when I used to teach second grade when in reality I find out that when you pick a team for soccer on the XBOX, (Argentina for example) you see some facts about the countries, like there are certain penguins residing in the warm climates near Argentina.

Smiles kept coming when the kids felt the nibble of fish on their fingers in this petting zoo area.

Petting the fish is allowed, just as long as you don't try the action below.

Luckily, we didn't witness any of that happening!

Unbelievable Belgian Sunset

I caught a picture of this sunset a few weeks ago from our back patio, but forgot it was on the camera. How amazing! I haven't adjusted a single thing to the colors or photo. I promise!

A Day at the Movies

J eating candy before the movie started. (above)
R trying out his 3D glasses in between 2 friends. (below)

When a movie comes out in English in the theaters, it only shows for about a week, so you can't wait around too long or you'll just plain miss out. Ice Age III came out in 3D this week at a local theater so today we joined a few other moms and kids to watch the flick. There are only a few of us left in Belgium since most families headed back to the states for the summer.

I was surprised to find that the concession stand was not outrageously priced like the US. The prices were a little high, but not nearly as steep as back home. The kids picked some candy and drinks before we headed to theater number 6.

We each were assigned a seat like on the first day of school, so there were no arguments. The movie theater chairs were extremely comfortable and each wore the assigned number on the back with a drink holder by the side. Just look at the padded armrests!

As we were all engulfed in the show, the lights came on about 3/4 of the way through and the screen stopped, displaying the words, "We'll be back after the break." There was a 10 minute intermission for the movie. How nice since we had all finished our drinks and needed to empty our bladders as well.

We enjoyed our Belgian movie experience, and the next one we're waiting for is Up. Unfortunately we'll have to wait until October to see it since we're not going back to the states this summer. Some of the movies release at the same time as the US here, but other times it's delayed. On my calendar under October will be a reminder to keep my eyes peeled for Up showing in English so I don't miss the 1 week it's out. That would be a bummer!

It is Hot Here...But I'm Not Complaining!

When we lived in Indiana and the temperature rose above 75 degrees, we were running the dual air conditioner - the one that allows you to set the downstairs at a different temperature than the upstairs - and it makes sure each and every room is cool.
So when it rose above 80 degrees here, we whipped out an air conditioner on wheels bought from another expat moving back to the states and closed our bedroom door. Here it is...the air conditioning unit Belgian style.
The hose goes out the window releasing hot air - which seems a little humorous to me. So, I'm leaving the window open only to let the hot air out, but also in again?
Yes, it looks a little trashy sending a big hose out our window, but with the trash bags still in the front of the house, we're getting used to our new reputation.
With all of that being said, it really does the job well!

Searching for Hidden Treasure Matey

So call me out of it, but I had never heard of such a thing as geocaching until eating lunch with a group of friends from the American Women's Club. Our friend Dallas offered up that her and her husband, Thomas, enjoy geocaching together. "What is geocaching?" was my question. Basically you act like pirates (not everyone really acts like them, but my son sure would) out to find hidden treasure, only when you take, you must replace. For the past 3 years my son has dressed as a pirate for Halloween, so this would be perfect for him!

McDonald's Happy Meal toys work well or even an American quarter for the replacement.

The first day of summer holiday (that's what they call it in Europe - it's not vacation, but holiday), we had Dallas choose some pretty easily hidden and easily accessible caches. There were three relatively close in proximity to each other in a nearby forest area. As she had said, "Maybe your kids will want to do more than one." Boy, is she ready for motherhood! Yes, my kids would need to do more than one so they can take turns with the finding, opening of the box, and replacing of the box. We don't want any fighting or arguing. She programmed the coordinates into her GPS and it walked us right to the place where X marks the spot.
Dallas explaining her special GPS for geocaching.

J taking her turn to find the first treasure box.

R taking his turn to open the first cache box.
Taking her turn to hide the first cache is J.

These are the surprises we ended up finding!

While eating our customary scrambled eggs and pancakes the next morning, J tells K, "Yesterday was one of the best days of my life." I thought, "Oh, really, I forget, what did we do yesterday?" He asks, "Why?" She responds, "I found 3 toys while we were geocaching."

Thanks, Dallas, for making my daughter's day!

School's Out...Finally!

Start the violin so I can say, "My poor kids"...they had to start school in mid-August (like the states) and go until the end of June (like Europe). (R's school back home was out before Memorial Day.)

Thursday was our last day. If they actually were aware of how this middle of the year move had played out, they would both be complaining, "That's not fair!" That's the blessing of them being just 7 and 5...how much longer can we continue to pull the wool over their eyes?

The last week of school consisted of field trips, Race Day, crafts and many other exciting activities. Below are a few of the pictures from the fun filled week.

R during Race Day