Coming Home!

The weather here has been amazing and we tried to make the most of it. We have been to the park just about everyday. Wednesday we celebrated Lillianne's birthday (in the park) and on Saturday, we celebrated Olive's birthday (in the park). Yesterday was the Antwerp Parent and Child annual easter egg hunt (in the park).

We will be home tomorrow until the 23rd.

Chocolate in the nose

Party Time!

Since Colin and Chloe have many similiar friends, we decided to throw a joint party for their birthday. We held the party at Het Circus, an indoor playground just about 10 minutes outside of Antwerp. It was one of the only places that we could find that could accommodate all 28 kids, plus parents. Saturday ended up being a gorgeous day, about 75 degrees. In typical Belgian form, there was no air conditioning. It was hot for the adults and most of the kids were dripping with sweat. I think our party alone went through close to 100 drinks. Our fun celebration continued back at home where we had some people over for a BBQ and to hang out on the terrace. It was a fun day with TONS of presents. As it turns out, Craig received the best present from our friends Rene and Sylvie. In the unsuspecting Groovy Girls bag were 6 of probably the most difficult beer to get in the world, Westvleteren #12.

Two Years

It is almost hard to believe that it was two years ago, on April 2nd, that we left the US for what we thought was 6 months. We never thought that our stay would have lasted this long and certainly never thought that we would have made such good friends as we have.
We will be spending April 2nd celebrating the kids birthdays with all of their friends at an indoor playground, Het Circus. At this point, it looks like there will be 30 kids!

Crocus Vakantie in Oostenrijk

This post is way overdue. I was sick for a whole week, Craig has been traveling and we are getting ready for the big birthday bash (more on that later). Over the holiday, we stayed in Austria at a 'Kinder Hotel' or a hotel that caters to families with children. It was at the base of the Wildkogel mountain range. It was the perfect place for us to stay, but as my friend Tracie said, it is a germ factory and unfortunately, we brought some home with us.
We made the trip to Austria over 2 days, staying in Karlsruhe on Friday night. It is a huge travel week for Europe, and the traffic was pretty bad. The hotel was great and was all inclusive. It is so nice to know where you are going to eat every meal and not to have to try find a place that is kid friendly. Within the hotel, there is a Kids Club - or day care, that is open open all day. During the day and early evening you could drop the kids off where there would be activities for them.

Sunday, we rented skis and spent some time on the hotel bunny hill sledding and skiing. Chloe wasn't into the snow that much, but Colin was flying down the hill on his sled that was shaped like a race car. He was going so fast that I was glad once we rented helmets for him to wear.

We had heard about a 14km toboggan run (apparently the longest in the world) and were anxious to try it out. We left the kids at the Kids Club at the hotel and brought a lift pass to take up the mountain. The starting point was at 6578 feet, way above the tree line. We were riding on what we thought were old fashioned toboggans. That style tobbagan is very popular here and they go fast!!! I think that it took us about an hour and a half to get down. That also included a Cava stop at about the midway point. It was so much fun that we planned on doing it again at the end of the week.
The next day, we were feeling brave enough to head back up the mountain with our skis. Craig, Hugh and I first took a beginners run while Tracie waited at the cafe with her tobaggan. I realized after that run, that I am not even a beginner. I need a toddler run. Craig and Hugh continued on up the mountain while Tracie and I went down the toboggan run - Tracie on her toboggan and me on skis. We were all pretty tired after that.

We took it easy the next couple of days, taking advantage of the hotel pool and spa area.

Colin has really become a good swimmer. It was the first time he was in a pool not during a swim lesson and he had a lot of fun swimming and playing.
Later in the week, I found a real bunny hill so Hugh, Tracie and I went to check it out. I was joking that the only people skiing there were the people from Jersey, some 80 year olds and the 6 year olds having ski lessons. And the 6 year olds weren't beginnners. At one point I saw them practing skiing over a bump to catch some air.
We spent some time seeing the surrounding area and Craig brought Colin to an animal reserve in the mountains. Colin also took ski lessons everyday at the hotel. We were so proud of him.
We had lots of fun on our vacation!!

Crocus Holiday

Today, they celebrated carnaval in school. Colin has wanted to be Spiderman for carnaval since Halloween and Chloe was dead set on being a fairy. I have the cutest flamenco dress for her and I tried my hardest to get her to dress up as Carmen Miranda. She kept telling me that she did not want to wear the fruit hat.

The kids will be off of school next week for the "Crocus Holiday", so we will be heading to Austria to a ski resort. Friends of ours, also from NJ, will be going with their 2 children. Look for a long post in 2 in about a week!

Back to School

Last week, I started my Dutch lessons. I was a little nervous about going back to school since I have not been in class in 16 years!! They are held 3 days a week, from 9 until 12:30 and there are probably about 20 people in my class. I think I am the only person in the class who only speaks one language, so I am glad that I am at least familiar with some vocabulary going in. The entire class is taught in Dutch since not everyone speaks English. The entire class is conversational, so the teacher will ask an individual a question and we are supposed to answer. She also makes us ask questions to the other students. Today I had to tell the class I was married, that I had 2 children and their ages. It seems easy when I think about it in my head, but getting the words out of my mouth is very hard.
There are people from all over and I am the only American. One of the hardest parts of the class has been trying to pronounce the other students names! I have been sitting next to a young girl from Romania who is very friendly. She speaks decent English and today she asked me if I was living the "American Dream". I laughed but I quickly realized that she was serious and she was confused when I told her that I thought Belgium was just as nice, or nicer, than the US (or America as they say here). I think she thinks that everyone has lots of money and is living large. I hope she is not disappointed if she ever makes it there!
My class goes until the end of April and I will be able to continue with the Dutch if I want to. There are 12 classes that are offered through the city.

Who's the winner?

This is an example of a typical conversation between Colin and Chloe. I am guessing that they have had this same conversation about 20 times.

Colin - "I'm the winner."
Chloe - "I'm the winter."
Colin - "I'm the winner."
Chloe - "No you're not the winter, I'm the winter."
Colin - "I'm the winner."
Chloe - "No! I'm the winter!! You're the summer!!"
Colin - You're the summer!! I'm the winner!!"

And on and on...