Our Last Day in Belgium

For our last day in Belgium, we gave ourselves the grand tour we usually give visitors.

We met some friends first for lunch in the Sablon area, and then let the girls enjoy an ice cream treat.

The Sablon from the side.

Statue of Liberty in the Belgian flag colors

Posing in front of the Palace of Justice, in the far back

There was a wedding happening at this church...

The Palace

This is where we watched the coronation....

Playground stop in Parc Royale.

Pantomime stop in Parc Royale - we thought it was going to be a puppet show, but it turned out to be a one woman show, which was really entertaining.

Posing

The Cathedral

Galleries St. Hubert

Dinner at La Rose Blanche.  We ate at this restaurant 12 years ago on a visit to Brussels.

Trying for a nice Grand Place shot...

The one and ONLY shot with Mannekin Pis.  The peeing boy statue Brussels is ridiculously famous for.

What a great way to spend our last day in Brussels!

Drums

Grace had a "guest" Drum teacher for a week at school, and the parents were invited to their last performance.

It was fun to watch!

Brussels Flower Carpet 2014

Every other year, there is a giant carpet created on the Grand Place in downtown Brussels from begonias.  It is a sight worth seeing!  2 years ago, we had been in England during the great "rescue the Sister with the broken elbow" escapade.  We came back to Brussels on the very last day of the flower carpet, and temperatures reaching almost 100F.  It was not very pretty.

This year, it was very cool, grey and overcast.  Actually, probably not a bad forecast for keeping the flowers looking their best.  Just not an overly great forecast for mid-August.

Isn't that beautiful?  I'm glad we got to see it this year, since there is a good chance we won't be here in 2 more years!

Grace's Last Day of School

Grace finished up Pre-K this year at the International School of Brussels.

 Grace and Ms. Megan.

Ms. Megan was an intern this year.  She moved back to Texas over the summer, and will be a Kindergarten teacher in Frisco.

Grace and Ms. Michele

Ms. Michele was new to ISB this year, but has been teaching at International Schools for a long time.  Ms. Michele is very enthusiastic about outside learning, so the class spent every Wednesday, rain or shine, out in the forest.  I was usually doing laundry every Wednesday night as a result.

Grace loved her class and her teachers, and is well prepared for Kindergarten!

Audrey's Last Day of School

Today was Audrey's last day at La Coline aux Coralines.  This was a french preschool she attended two mornings a week for the last 6 months.  The beginning was rough.  She didn't want me to leave, and most mornings, I didn't.  But after awhile she warmed up, and enjoyed going.  It was conducted completely in French.  The teachers spoke some English and tried to speak to me in English to let me know how Audrey was doing. But for the most part, all French.  And it appeared that Audrey understood.  Although, at this age there is a lot of 'herd mentality', i.e. follow the group in whatever they were doing.  Audrey doesn't speak any French, however, but maybe she'll have a foundation for when she does start learning.

 With Valerie

 With Lieve

 With Lieve and Valerie

With Laurents

Christmas Morning - Bikes

 The big gift from Santa this year was bikes for both girls!

I have some video, but having problems uploading it, so you'll have to check back later to see our first ride later that morning!

Sinterklaas/Saint Nicolas arrives in Brussels

I promise, I'll get back to my posts on Italy soon!!  But wanted to share our videos from our Wednesday afternoon adventure down to the canal in Brussels to see Sinterklaas/ Saint Nicolas arrive with his helpers, Black Pete.  Yes.  They are in black face.  And they arrived after a long voyage from Spain with oranges to give out.

I think the Black Pete's scared Audrey, so that's why I get bowled over at the end of that last video! Can you blame her?  :)

The Flower Carpet

On our way back home from England, we made a detour down into the Grand Place to see the Flower Carpet.  We had heard about the flower carpet even before we moved to Brussels, and knew that it was something we definitely did not want to miss.  It only comes every other year, so we wanted to make sure we saw it this year......  but then the elbow incident happened.....  We had planned to go on the first day since it was a public holiday in Belgium.  But since we were already in England, we planned to go by on our way home.

And unfortunately.....when we did see it....... it was quite a mess.  This is the first time the Flower Carpet exhibit has ever been 5 days long.  And it was also the hottest days in Brussels.

For more information on the Flower Carpet, you can read up here:  Flower Carpet Website

To see how it looked the first day, you can go over to my friend Maureen's blog and see:  Henson's Trip to the Flower Carpet

If we're still here in 2014, I will be there on the first day!!

Back in the Blogospere .... AGAIN!

17 days ago I broke my elbow, and I'm finally feeling up to blogging again...

I broke my elbow falling down the stairs holding Audrey.  So not to fall on her, I kept her upright, and landed on my other side.  A direct hit to the inside ball of my right elbow.  We had workmen in the house replacing our boiler.  They had thrown a bunch of scraps out front, and some guy was at the front door gesturing like he wanted to take the metal.  Our boiler is on the 4th floor, so I had run all the way up there to grab one of the guys, and was running all the way back down.  I slipped on the second or third step from the bottom right outside our kitchen, and landed on the ceramic tile.

At first I thought I had just hit my funny bone.  But the pain was insane.  It hurt to move at all, even if I thought I was keeping my arm still.  And it just continued to intensify.  Matt rushed home from work, and we had our friend Maureen come over to stay with the girls, so we could go to the hospital.  I would by lying if I didn't say I had several minor freak outs on the way to the hospital.  I was almost certain I was going to need surgery, they were going to have to put me under and I didn't even say good bye to the girls.  Poor Matt having to listen to me and drive.....

We had never been to the hospital in Brussels before, but had heard some positive stories of experiences others have had.  Matt dropped me off at the emergency room, and went to park the car.  I walked in and found my way to the check in.  Once Matt got there, we were immediately taken back to be examined.  Two different people looked me over - I don't know if they were doctors or nurses, but I have to guess doctors, as you don't see very many nurses here.  I was having a hard time with the pain and describing where it was exactly.  They took me to have xrays, and twisted me every which way and took at least 5 different pictures.  We waited about 5 minutes, and they had the results and whisked me to the casting room.  Casting was uncomfortable, to say the least.  At one point, I told someone in the room that the pain was worse then child birth.  When they were done, I argued with them about the state of my cast.  It was only plaster on the bottom, and just gauze on top.  I was like...'uh, where's the rest?'  I thought we were having language issues.  But eventually another doctor confirmed that it was right.  I wasn't convinced.

So we were sent home, with the weakest pain pill prescription EVER.  Ibuprofen 400!  WHAT?  I at least got 800 when I had the girls!!  Anyway.....  Katie and India hightailed it over from London the next day.  We were not sure how the pain was going to be, so they hung out with us for the weekend, and then we loaded up 3 small children and a weeks worth of 'stuff' into a Prius and made the drive to London on Sunday.  It was really an easy drive, all things considered, and really cool to take the car train across the Chunnel.

What a blessing to have Katie so close.  She was a life saver!  For all of us.  Matt is so busy with work right now, and the last thing he needed was to play nurse maid.  We had planned on being in London towards the end of the week anyway because he had meetings, so it worked out well.  We were all able to travel back to Brussels the following Sunday on the Eurostar.

So now to continue catching up....

Up next, our visit to Quincy.

Then we'll do Florida, London/Windsor, and the Brussels 2012 Flower Carpet.  All before the first day of school on Wednesday!!!  Lots of catching up to do!!  Thank God I can use my right hand/arm again.  Mostly.  The cast came off last Monday, and every day it gets a little bit better.  I go back in a week for another examination of how I'm healing.  Turns out the cast was only needed to control the pain and really not to aide in healing.  Only time can heal. 

Spring!

Spring has sprung.  Although it was quite a bit chillier today then it has been.  After naps, we decided to go down to the Cinquantenaire monument.

There are some nice parks surrounding the arch and museums.  And we thought there might be some flowers so I could start practicing pictures for our big trip next weekend!

So challenging to get these girls to look at the camera, but at least they are looking in the right direction.  This picture was taken on Auto, because I just could not get it the settings right!  Frustrating.  I need to practice big time before next weekend!!

During our stroll we stumbled upon Rapunzel's tower.  No plaque, so we really don't know what it was....but since Rapunzel is big time in our house these days, that's what we're going with.

Grace was so excited....see her running towards it?

Disappointed the door was locked.  She really wanted to see if Rapunzel was home.

Afterwards we went to dinner at a Brasserie.  In typical French Belgian style, the high chairs are cute.  But not safe.  And NOT Audrey friendly.  Thankfully Daddy had his belt on!!

But it still didn't keep her from dancing in her seat!