The Past Few Weeks

There are so many things I have wanted to blog about as we are about to wrap up our stay in Belgium, but we have been quite busy with different things so I thought I would tell you about a few of them.

You may remember this picture ---->

Colin's big birthday present was a trip back to the US for a long weekend. Craig was asked by Michael to be his sponsor for Communion and we decided to book an extra ticket to surprise Colin and the family.

Craig and Michael

Cousins!!!

One Saturday afternoon, we were invited to a Baptism for our friend's son. The Baptism was held in Carolus Barromeus Church which was designed by Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens was a long time resident of Antwerp. His house is now a museum and a large statue of him stands in the middle of Groenplaats. It was special and beautiful, to say the least. Colin was very interested on what was going on and once invited by the priest, was eager to make his way right up to the front to watch.



One of the side rooms of Carolus Barromeus Church



A couple of weeks ago at school, Chloe's topic was learning all about Mom while also learning about the French artist Niki de Sainte Phalle. The week wrapped up with a small Mother's Day show and painting with mommy. It was nice to be invited into Chloe's classroom and see their normal activities. It was around this time that Chloe realized that she wanted to be an artist when she grows up and she told me that I should start looking for an artist costume for her to wear when she is bigger.



Our future Rubens

Later that evening we had parent / teacher conferences at the school. I have known for quite awhile that Chloe has a close group of friends that she hangs out with. I refer to them as The Gang: Edie, Jan Leon, Brenna and new member Luke. There is also another boy, Jawad, who really wants to be a member of the gang, but seems only allowed to join in occasionally. Her teacher told me that the table they all sit at was named The Power Table by Jan Leon. Pretty dominating for a group of 4 year olds!! Ironically, all of the members of The Power Table, with the exception of Luke, will be moving to America over the summer. I hope they are able to train Luke well enough before the end of the school year to kept the Power Table going next year in Kindergarten 2. Maybe Jawad will have a good shot at obtaining a permanent spot at The Power Table next year.

The following week, Chloe's Teacher, Miss Sarah, got married. She was married in one of the local town halls and was nice enough to invite all of her students and their families. It was our first Belgian wedding and it did not disappoint. The Borgerhout Town Hall was absolutely beautiful. Nicer than most of the churches I have been in in NJ. The ceremony was performed in their wedding hall and the students all had special seats behind Sarah and Pieter. The ceremony itself was relaxed and very casual. Chloe had been talking about Sarah's wedding for a while and was so excited to see her in her dress. She looked absolutely beautiful and it was so adorable to see all of the kids run up to her as she approached the Town Hall for the ceremony.


Edie and Chloe out from of the Town Hall



The Ceremony





More to come...

Colin turns Seven

Colin turned 7 this week and with a bang!



Hello. I am 7! (he wanted to wear the tie)



We had 21 of his friends at Antwerp Bowling for an afternoon of bowling and play in their indoor playground. When I planned this, I really wasn't sure how long the kids would be interested in bowling, so I only booked the lanes for an hour. I expected only some of the kids to bowl for a while and then wander off into the indoor play area. I was completely wrong. EVERY kid bowled (except Chloe) for just about the entire time we had the lanes. It was a bit chaotic at times (think, fitting 21 kids in bowling shoes with European sizes), but thankfully many of the parents stayed and lended a hand. It was fun and there were definitely a few star bowlers in the group.

On Monday, to celebrate his birthday, be brought a batch of cupcakes to school and later that afternoon, a batch of cupcakes to basketball. Luckily, I am armed with several boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix because the cakes and cupcakes that we are used to are not a normal thing around here. I did not bring any tubs of frosting over with me, so I have to make several batches by hand. Frosting is one of those items that I would have never thought of making from scratch. That is just one example of some of the regular conveniences that I have become so accustomed to that I needed to figure out since living here.[Insert stupid American joke here].

In my opinion, one of the best things about bithday parties at this age, is the hand drawn and written birthday cards. Just about all of this kids write out a birthday message or at least sign there names. Some were even nice enough to drawn Colin pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Lillianne's card was written backwards.

So cute. From Edie.

The Front, in the bowling theme.

The Back, not sure if that is Colin or Dracula. From Veer.

A nice dinosaur from Sofie.

Rockin' out. From Martta.

My favorite. Lauren claims that Colin is the coolest kid in the class from America. I am not sure if that is really saying a lot since there are only 3 kids from America in the class and Lauren is one of them.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Te Huur

That is right! Our apartment is te huur or to rent. Our movers are booked and we are coming home! You can offically count on the Shand Family permanently moving back to America by the beginning of July.

Easter

Even though we had only arrived home from skiing a few hours before bed time the night before Easter, it was plenty of time for Chloe to be so bad that the Easter Bunny cut back on her treats the next day. He left notes for the kids saying only Colin had eggs to find. Almost as expected, this did not phase her much. We didn't have any plans for Easter, so we wandered around the city for a while.

Chloe being her normal bad self.

One thing Chloe does not mess around with is her art work and writing. There are 20 kids in Chloe's class and as her teacher rotates the children to work on their art, Chloe is the only one who will sit and work on her project the entire time. She goes through phases of things she likes to draw - eyebrows, teeth, etc. She is great with scissors and she is currently obsessed with writing her name. Once shown, is is very good at almost remembering how to write other peoples names as well.

Eyebrows and teeth.

Note for the EB with Chloe's letter writing practice

We were so proud when Chloe won the Easter Egg drawing competition for her class.



The winning drawing for KG1!



Skiing, again and Chloe turns 4!

Last week, we went back to France for another week of skiing. Although we were not the only people to come back within one season, I am pretty sure we were the only Americans to make their second trip within a six week window.


We made the trip down over two days. In the middle of France we came upon a maroon Buick labeled County Sherrif with lights and sirens. It also had a Missouri license plate in the back window and 911 and Dare stickers on the back fenders. Hysterical! I would love to meet the person who had that shipped over here.

We stayed in a different chalet this time with 2 British families. As before, we were really lucky with the people we shared the chalet with. They were good company and the kids were all happy together. We also shared our time with the host and chef of the chalet. We had a lot of funny conversations about weights and measures and were comparing our new friendship to the "special"  relationship to that of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. By the end of the trip, Colin's British accent was in full force and even Chloe was slipping a few British accents in as well.

Chloe just fit that age requirement to start ski lessons through the French ski school. Her class started in "the garden" which is just off from being level. She learned to put her put her skis on and also managed to hold onto the rope lift. By the middle of the week, the French instructor wanted to kick her out of the class, telling us she was too small. As before, the company we booked the vacation through has a staff member to help with their guests taking lessons. They told us that Chloe was making progress and should stay. Chloe's helper, Matt, had her riding the button lift up a small green slope the next day. We were told on Friday that she actually got on a chair lift! She still has a long way to go, but she likes being on skis and asked to go skiing one more time on the day we were packing up to go.

Colin getting off the lift and the strangers responsible for his safety.

Colin continued in the program that he had started 6 weeks ago. Even though he started with the next level, Flocon, he was bumped up to the 1 star group by the second day. At this level, the start using poles and gradually stop snowplowing and start practicing parallel turns. For Colin's ski lessons, the group meets at the ski school to put on their ski bibs that typically states their level. From there, the group heads off to a chair lift. Only one ski student is allowed to ride on the lift at a time and the all meet at the top of the lift. It seems very unnatural as a parent to send your small child off to ride a chair lift with several adults who often make conversation with them. But as one of those adults, you are very protective of those kids, making sure they aren't in danger of falling off. I am also always talking to them, asking them what class they are in and how long they have been skiing. We would often ski by Colin's class, as they were skiing on the same blue slopes that we were.

On Thursday, we celebrated Chloe's 4th birthday with the entire group in the chalet. Our chef, Rhys, made a chocolate cake and the other kids surprised her with presents! I think it was one birthday we will never forget.

Friday night, the kids were presented with their ski school pins acknowledging their accomplishments. Although we were happy with what Chloe had achieved, We were so proud of Colin. He class was not easy and he worked really hard.

It was another awesome ski vacation. If we had found out about this company when we got here, I sure it would have been at least a yearly trip. We definitely are planning on doing more skiing when we are back in the US.

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