He's Baaaaack!

We're back to goodnight kisses, and little noses pressed to the window, waving goodbye each morning.  Daddy's home!

Belated Birthdays

Over the past couple months, we celebrated two birthdays in our house.  

First was Dandelion #4:

Daddy woke up in the middle of the night to join us for birthday breakfast.

For dinner she chose, of course, her most favorite place on the planet: IKEA!

 Trailing a month behind his sister, Dandelion #2 had a birthday:

Again, Daddy joined us via the iPad for pancake breakfast before church.

 Dandelion #2 has a good buddy who also had a birthday, and he was moving away, so the boys had a birthday bowling party together to celebrate.

We'd intended to feed the kids nachos, but the bowling alley was out of nachos.  THIS was all they had: Belgian bowling food: cheese cubes with pearl onions, tiny pickles and a dash of celery salt.  Yum?

Sweet, funny friends!

We SO miss our friends!  They're from England, but they've moved to the states, and we hope that they stay there for a long time so we can see them again!

Astronomical Awesomeness

Today's a pretty spectacular day on our side of the world: Solar Eclipse + Supermoon + Spring Equinox.  Who says there's not a creator orchestrating such awesome phenomenas?!  

Most of the time, the clouds were too thick to see it at all, but this photo was right around the peak.  Our latitude is such that we didn't get a total eclipse here, hence the tiny crescent of sunshine.  

Disneyland and Paris, France

For winter break, and to do something special with my mom, we trekked down to Disneyland and Paris for a couple days.  We stayed in a condo right outside Disneyland, did Disney one day, then took the train into Paris the next.  I think even if we aren't doing Disney, I'd go back to this resort and train into the city again.  It worked out really well.  The condo was lovely, had a playground right out the back door, and we were able to cook meals there.

Euro Disney is indeed like stepping back in time.  The park is smaller than the ones in the states, but it's still nice and we enjoyed ourselves.

Paris was a whirlwind.  We'll have to repeat it, but with modifications.  I'd been advised by a dozen or more people to do the hop-on-hop-off tour bus, but it ended up being very expensive and not a good fit for our family.  We'd have been better to buy the Paris day pass at the train station and we could have used the metro and buses to go wherever we wanted.  The Eiffel Tower was the highlight of the day, and it was a clear sunny day, so we were really able to enjoy the views.  

Our "funny" of the trip was dinner in Paris.  We needed to drive back to Belgium that night, so we picked up dinner to-go, took the train back out of the city and found a table in the RER station where the car was parked, then sat down to eat before heading home.  Dandelion #3 took a bite or two of her hot dog and told my mom she couldn't eat it because it was too hot.  My mom's response was that it was definitely not hot any more, as we'd picked it up in Paris an hour earlier.  She took a couple more bites but couldn't continue.  Then my mom tried some...it was hot!  Not hot temperature wise, but hot because under the melted cheese, there was horseradish!  Not a little, but a LOT!  Being the amazing Grandma she is, my mom actually ate a good bit of it.  I popped off to buy ham and cheese sandwiches for the dandelions, though!  

So...if you ever order a hot dog in Paris, BEWARE!!!

Eating crepes for dinner!  

The playground behind our condo.

Pipe cleaner creations...I'm telling you, pipe cleaners are hands down the BEST travel toy.  My kids will spend hours in the car, hotel, or wherever, creating crazy things.  You can string cereal to munch on, string beads or pasta for fun, or just make stuff.  I should put this on pinterest.  A box of cheerios and a bag pipe cleaners is all you need for a fun road trip!

Sleeping Beauty's castle...in the fog. 

Dandelion# 4 was really peeved that she couldn't drive the car. 

Everyone's FAVE ride: Big Thunder Mountain.  I will say, Euro Disney did this ride best!  It's longer, faster, and way more fun than at either of the parks in the states.

Arc de Triomphe

I'm so glad I wasn't driving in Paris!  There are whole sections of the city where if you have an accident, the insurance companies just cover their own driver and vehicle because you'd never be able to sort out who was in the wrong.

Notre Dame

The views from the Eiffel Tower.

Grandma Time

The blog has been horribly quiet, I know.  My computer died, I lost everything, and it was back in for repairs for the 3rd time in a matter of months.  Not only that, but juggling life without Daddy around doesn't leave much extra time for blogging.

A quick catch up of the past month and a half:

GRANDMA!  My mother is truly a super-hero.  She came over to visit, at the coldest, dreariest time of the year, was a delightful extra set of hands in the house and single-handedly, hand-stiched all of my curtain hems.  22 panels!  (since we're on a hand theme) She's hands down, the best mom ever!

The weather was such that we did not want to be out and about, too much.  We did do the necessary Brussels things, though: Chocolate and Waffles.

We also managed a fun trip to France, but I'll leave that for another post.  We miss you, Grandma!