Birthday Tea Party

Birthday season has begun. As in previous years, Colin and Chloe's birthday fall during or right around the two week Spring school vacation. This can make planning their parties challenging.
Yesterday, we held Chloe's birthday at our house. Every Wednesday is a half day of school so we invited 7 of her girlfriends back for a tea party and lunch.


Lots of treats ...



...and lots of presents!

And one more big treat... guess where we are going next week??

 

SKIING!!! Yes, we are going skiing , AGAIN!

When we inquired and found out they had only one vacancy left for next week, we couldn't resist and booked it. This time Chloe will be old enough to start ski lessons. What better way to celebrate your fourth birthday than on the slopes in the French Alps!



Colin, the Toothless Wonder.

It only took a span of about a week for both for Colin's front teeth of fall out! He is certainly keeping the Tooth Fairy busy.



First tooth lost on 3.13.12



Second tooth lost 3.21.12





Last Minute Skiing in France!!

If there was an award for booking a trip last minute, there is no doubt we would win it.

The kids had their half term break and we wanted to go away but were having trouble finding a place to go that wasn't going to cost a fortune or that had availability. We searched the internet until the very last minute and I woke Craig up on Friday morning to let him know that I had found something that sounded interesting, but it would require us to leave that afternoon. After a few phone calls and some some quick packing, we picked the kids up from school at 3:30 and got on the road headed toward Ardent, France and the Portes du Soleil mountain area for a week of skiing.

The area in France we were headed was right on the border of Switzerland and just outside Geneva in the Alps. We stayed in the one road village of Ardent in a chalet that was directly across of the street from the ski lift. The chalet we stayed in was big enough for 4 families. Each family had their own rooms and bathrooms and all other common areas were shared. The company that managed the chalet and the entire ski and child care program is based in the UK and is primarily used by British families. We could not have gotten luckier with the families we shared the week with. They were good company and being around other kids that spoke English was enough to make the trip memorable for Colin and Chloe.

The chalet was run by two girls - one who was a host and the other who was a chef. They were there every morning to make breakfast. They would leave fresh bread and snacks for when we arrived home from skiing, served dinner to the kids at 5:30 and cooked a 3 course dinner every night for the adults at 7:30. We didn't have to do any dishes or prepare anything - it was great! The one night they were off, they made dinner reservations for us, provided transportation and arranged sitters for the kids.

Mornings were probably the craziest time of the day. All of the kids and parents would be dressing to head up the mountain for ski lessons. Chloe was just a bit too young for lessons, so we brought her to a full day care that was located just two chalets down the road.

The ski lessons Colin took were run through a French company, ESF. The ESF has a reputation of being an excellent and hard core school, but they are also known for being strict and not dealing very well with kids crying and such. We saw several examples of this. Lots of yelling and we even saw one instructor pick a kid up out the the snow by the hood of her jacket. Because of this, the company we used to book the vacation with sends some skiing assistants to tend to the crying children, provide hugs and encouragement when needed. Colin was having a bit of a rough time by day 2, but was able to turn it around and even get bumped up one class by the middle of the week. By Wednesday, they had him on a chair lift. Truly amazing!!

Most days, Craig and I skiied together but he is a much better skier than I am so we often split up in the afternoon. I spent most of my time working on my technique on the easier blue slopes, while Craig was a little more wild. The slopes brought us over the border between France and Switzerland several times and I ended up with tons of border crossing notification texts on my cell phone. Thursday afternoon, Craig went to ski with 2 of our chalet mates on several red slopes. I knew better than to even attempt a red slope.

After Colin's last lesson on Friday, we brought him up the mountain and skied with him down several blue slopes. He is a very controlled skier and clearly has no fear of what lies ahead of him. While we were skiing, we were shocked to see him ski just off one of the runs to go over 2 jumps.

Friday evening, the ski instructors went around to each of the chalets and presented the children with ESF ski school completion certificates and pins. I don't know if we have ever been more proud of Colin. He worked through his rough patch, gave it his all and ended up really enjoying it. 

It was much more sad to leave than I had anticipated and depending on the weather, we are already considering making another trip back before the season is over!

Hurting Ears, Bumped Heads and Strained Eyes

The Shand Family has had a lot of adventures over the past couple of weeks.

Chloe had been asking us for a while now to get her ears pierced. A pretty bold question for a three and a half year old, but that is Chloe. Craig and I discussed it and really could not come up with a good why we shouldn't let her. We decided to ask Colin for his opinion and he was very quick to veto it, stating that she needs to be older. We ended up ignoring his opinion and brought her to Claire's (yes, they have Claire's in Belgium, too) the next day. We gave her plenty of warning that it was going to hurt, but she still was determined to have it done. Once we found someone to help us, she sat in the chair calmly, let them pin her hair back and mark her ears. They said she was one of the calmest little girls they had seen. They lined up their piercing gun, both at once, and did it. She flinched hard and curled her head down into her chest, but did not scream or wail. There was a little whimpering but no crying. We do have a video of the piercing, but it makes me cringe every time I watch it.


All worn out after having her ears pierced.

The next day, Chloe was able to show off her newly pieced ears adorned with pink crystal earrings at the annual New Year Toast in Grote Markt. It is almost hard to believe that this is the third New Years Toast we have been too. As expected, there was free fries, beer, gluhwine and juice. It is really an awesome event and it was mobbed. We met up with several friends and camped out for about an hour in front of the swing ride while the kids went on over and over. We have declared that it was going to be the last go around when Colin decided to climb out of the swing the wrong way and landed face first on the cobblestone. The egg on his head grew immediately and then quickly turned black and blue and was followed by blood coming from his nose. We rushed over to the first aid tent where his head was wrapped with ice. They told us we should head over to the hospital to have it checked. Assuming we were tourists, they asked us if we were familiar with Sint Vincentius Hospital and I had to laugh since I feel like we are practically on a first name basis with the staff. It took a few hours of waiting, but Colin was cleared by the doctors and was able to go to school with a good story the next day.

The following Sunday, I headed off to London by myself for Diamond Grading Lab. I have been taking e-learning classes through GIA (Gemological Institute of America) towards certificates in diamonds and pearls. I was excited to get away by myself for a bit. Every time I have been to London, I am so shocked at how busy it is. The tube system is so efficient and is always mobbed. One night, all four corners of the Oxford Circus tube entrance was backed up with people leading all the way up the steps to street level. I still haven't figured out whether to stay to the right or left when walking down the street. Honestly, I don't know if Londoners have it figured out either.

I was pleasantly surprised to see on Facebook that one of my friends from elementary school, Matt, had also just arrived in London. We have not seen each other in about 10 years, so we met up for dinner one night. The day I left, Craig was able to manage 2 birthday parties at the same time, then vomiting and soiled underwear in the evening. Unfortunately, the week went down hill from there with all three of them getting sick.

The Diamond Grading course was an intensive 5 full day lab. It is normally taught over 7 weeks for full time students We were warned on the first day that we would feel eye strain and by the third day, I was definitely feeling it. By day 4, I had to walk way from my microscope a few times during the day and by the fifth day, I felt like my eyes were bleeding. The strain I was feeling must not have affected my judgment too much because I scored a 95% on the 2 stone challenge.

I arrived home late Friday night and had a few days to rest up before I packed back up and head of to London again for a Pearl Grading Lab. I felt like I had a very Dutch moment when I loaded my suitcase onto my bike and rode myself to the Antwerp train station. The train station has a large area underground just for bikes. There must easily be a few thousand there. The stairway leading down has grooves along the sides of the steps just large enough to fit your bike tire so you are easily able to walk it down and back up. I arrived back in London on Wednesday in The Pearl Grading Lab was only one day and the day flew by fast. Although I enjoyed having a bit of alone time, it much nicer to be back home.



New Years Toast in Grote Markt



Christmas Holiday Part 3

Colin and his new skates

We arrived back home from London around dinner time and immediately went out to find something to eat. It was clear that Christmas had officially begun here because most businesses were closed and the street were just about desilate. We ended up around the cathedral eating pizza and coming back home to check Norad to see where Santa was. I also checked my email to find that Santa had sent a video message for each of the kids. Colin was relieved to find out that he was officially on the good list but Chloe was a bit stunned to hear that she had been a little bad. He told her that she still had time to turn it around before Christmas. She spend the rest of the night very quiet and crawled into bed without a hassle. I know it is a little mean, but it had to be done.

We woke up around 7 the next morning to find that Santa came and did leave presents for both kids.

In the afternoon, we had our friends Hugh, Tracie, Tracie's mom and kids over for dinner.

Sundae Making and Christmas Cookies

Craig won tickets at work for a local amusement park, so we went to check it out a few days after Christmas. The name of the park is Plopsaland, yes, Plopsaland. Plop is a TV character here who is like a gnome. It turned out that they were giving away Campbell Soup hats with admission. We needed them because it was cold and windy!!

We love Plopsaland!

Most of the Antwerp Christmas Market is now closed with the exception of the ferris wheel and skating rink. I brought the kids skating this week. Colin is a pro and skates with the big kids around the main skating area. It was Chloe's first time and she wore the double blade skates. I expected her to be a lot worse than she was.



Woah!



Double Woah!

Christmas Holiday Part 2

Last Wednesday was the last day of school before the Christmas holiday and we went to see Chloe's Christmas show. She sang and did all of the moves, but did not like the audience looking at her so she faced the back of the stage the entire time.

We had a nice view of Chloe's hair for the entire show.

We left right after for London. Like before, we took the ferry and then made the 2 hour drive into town. Our timing wasn't great and we reached London during rush hour. To say driving through London at rush hour while on the opposite side of the road was stressful, doesn't quite capture it. We were very relieved to reach the hotel. We had heard about a Winter Wonderland in Hype Park and walked over the next morning. We got to see Santa, went on a few rides and played a game.



Colin the confident one and Chloe who knows she has been a little bad.

After a stroll around Harrod's, we took a taxi down to the Southbank to see a German style Christmas Market. English taxi's are 'brilliant'. It is so nice to be able to roll the stroller right on without having to fold it up. We walked over to Leicester Square, Covent Square and then made a stop in M&M World where we let the kids make their own mix of M&M's. 



Our 2 bags of M&M's valued at about $15!!

Over in Piccadilly we brought the kids to the Rainforest Cafe. Needless to say, they loved it and it made paying a small fortune for an OK meal worth it.

A friend recommended that we walk up Regent and Oxford Streets to see the lights. People don't decorate with lights like we are used to so it was nice to see the buildings and streets a glow. While the walk was nice, we didn't expect the enormous crowds of people doing their last minute shopping.

We had a long day of walking and were pretty tired and went back to the hotel. I had brought Chloe's skeleton pajamas that glowed in the dark. When we turned the lights out, she gave us a performance of 'Dem bones, dem bones, dem dancing bones' on her bed. I wish I had video because it was so funny.

The next day, we brought the kids to a stage performance of The Snowman. It is a story of a boy who builds a snowman and that night dreams that he comes alive. It was the first time they have ever been to the Theater and they were mesmerized. After the show, we did a little more wandering before that bad weather moved in and we head back to the hotel. We were lucky that the hotel had a pool and the kids were eager to swim every night.

On Christmas Eve, we pack up the car and start our trip back to Belgium. We get really excited about going to foodstores in other countries, especially the UK. Food in Belgium is very expensive and the selection is not great. We packed the car with Cheerios, tonic and things like popcorn and some curry supplies and got back on the ferry so we could be home in time for Santa to come!

Christmas Holiday Part 1

Our holiday season kicked off with the arrival of Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten in Antwerp. As usual, it was a big deal to see his boat come up the river and see Sinterklaas and his entourage parade into town. Colin went dressed as Sint and Chloe as Piet. There were easily a few thousand people who came to see him and we were packed in tight to try and get a glimpse. The TV footage that played the following few days proved to be the best view. The kids also got a visit from Sint at school and Chloe found it funny that one of the Zwarte Piets told her she was a little bit bad. She would think that was funny. As expected, we woke up on December 6th to find that they left the kids sweets and toys in their shoes. Colin is already asking if Sinterklaas will be visiting us when we are back in America. If you want a good laugh, listen to this You Tube recording of 6-8 Black Men by David Sedaris describing Sinterklaas.

The opening ceremony for the Antwerp Christmas Market is the Light Parade that starts down by our house and ends up that the market. It is another one of those odd Antwerp events that I would describe as a indie, performance type event that seems to be normal around here. My favorite was the light princess that guilded down the street by way of bicycle, of course!

It is nice to be here during Christmas and to be able to see the markets. Being around wooden shacks covered in lights somehow makes it ok to hang out in the freezing cold. The market gets very crowded and many people end up hovering around the drinks stalls or the fire pits that are set up. It is almost hard to believe that they are not selling beer at the stalls here in Belgium rather, it is typical for the stalls to sell gluhwine, amaretto and of course, jenever.

This year, there is an enormous ferris wheel set up and I brought Colin on. I could not believe that he was not scared, even when we stopped at the top for a few minutes while they were letting people on and off.

Colin has also been playing basketball twice a week. He enjoys playing and has a friend in his class. He is not the best player, but he doesn't seem to get discouraged. He had his first game early in December and recieved a medal for his achievements.

Colin and his giant uniform.