Happy Spring!

The girls both finished winter sports, swimming for Kelly finished with a tournament in the Hague. Greg snapped this picture at an earlier meet, we thought it was cool to see her name on the big board.

 Katie's team finished with a tournament at their school and they got second place. Here is her team getting their medals.

The best part about both of their seasons was great coaches who made the sports fun and encouraged the girls to do their best.  This hasn't always been the case so it was great to see them really enjoying it!

Charlie still does ice hockey, we have gotten to travel to a few local rinks for his games.  There are tons of languages being spoken on the sidelines.  After his one game they let all the boys do a shootout.  I got a kick out of this father yelling for his son on the other team..no idea what language he is yelling in..

We got to go to a fun St. Patrick's Day celebration at the park by our house.  Katie is just holding my cider!

 Greg was excited to see the Gaelic football & hurling, but Charlie was more thrilled to have a friend to double ride his bike with!

On actual St. Patrick's Day we headed for some local places, but it wasn't like the US, they were pretty quiet and no one was playing music.  Not like the lines out the door in Irish pubs!  The ones we tried were right by the EU buildings, the flags are pretty cool.

Charlie had some exciting things in his class...first a recycling project where they made things and sold them to the little kids and donated the money to a charity.  He made mini banjos...here is his advertising sign.

Here he is with all of his banjos to sell..he sold all of them!

He also had a music concert and I couldn't believe all the instruments the school had for the kids to play and that the teacher was able to teach them all to play different ones, very impressive!

Here he is playing the Glockenspiel...

We also survived Kelly turning 17...Katie couldn't believe she was that old! She had a Vine party with all of her friends. (if you don't know what Vine videos are ask a teenager and be prepared for them to show you about 100 of their favorites)   Greg was appalled that the party didn't even begin until 8pm...he wanted to sleep!

Kelly is now playing boys lacrosse for the spring, she has one friend who also is brave enough.  She is enjoying it but has the bruises on her arms and legs to prove its boys lacrosse and not no contact girls lacrosse.

Our last exciting adventure was checking out the place billed as the Greatest Pub in the World...it is about thirty minutes from Brussels in a tiny little village and its only open on Sundays.  Here is a picture from the outside inside it had zillions of Belgian beers to try.

I didn't take any pictures inside, but here is an article all about the place for any of you planning Belgium visits..https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2018/02/01/best-beer-place-belgium/

That is all the news that is fit to print...stay tuned for new adventures coming soon!

Sledding in a time warp!

We have had miserable cold weather...the worst in my book because its just cold without snow.

To pass the time and not freeze we went to an old windmill museum right in a neighborhood in Brussels.  The current exhibit was all about potatoes, and since Belgians love their frites, it was very appropriate. However it was all in French without English translations..so we got bits & pieces out of the exhibits!

 Most restaurants do bring the frites in little stand up cones like these below...

 We thought this was a cool idea but aren't sure it ever worked?

On Friday right before the kids came home from school, it snowed and it started sticking...we packed up our sleds, and a bunch of Kelly's friends that came home with her on the bus and headed to the big park that has cool sledding hills.  (Katie missed the fun because she was playing basketball in Frankfurt, Germany and was away until Saturday.)

The pond was partly iced over...Charlie had to go test the ice a bit...

 The sleds we brought down to the park were ones we had brought with us from the US...what I wasn't prepared for was to be the only people there with modern sleds...people were asking us where we bought them...most people had old wooden sleds...here are some photos of what we saw...

One kid was sledding on the white plastic sheet blowing in the wind above!

This kid looks like he is right out of an old Christmas movie

Charlie getting ready to do his next run...notice the sled next to him!

The snow only lasted for a day, then it melted...glad we didn't miss it!  I guess I could start a sled import business...if only it snowed enough here...and if I could speak some French...I start French lessons tomorrow- four hours a day for the next few weeks- off to get some rest to get my brain ready!