Roald Dahl Day!

In Charlie's 3rd grade class they celebrated Roald Dahl's wonderful books like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Mathilda, etc.  I learned about the cookbook below of his Revolting Recipes that was published by his wife.  

Charlie and I had a great time trying some of the recipes so he could bring them in.

 From The Twits

Our failed attempt at Candy Apples...I guess a candy thermometer is essential!  My friend said it is way too humid in Brussels for making candy!  I guess that is why they make beer instead!

Candy Coated Pencils for Sucking in Class-kids LOVED these! & Everlasting Gobstoppers

Mr. Twit's beard- super gross!

Spitsizzlers from The Giraffe The Pele & Me

Lickable Wallpaper from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

We were busy in the kitchen for hours after school, when Greg came home I got a good laugh out of him when I said, "Charlie's teacher is going to say that its time Mrs. Hughes got a full time job again!"

It's fun to have the time to do these things with my 3rd grader....I know soon enough he will be filling out college applications!

Mom's Terrible Ideas...

May has been a fun month so far, many Belgian holidays and we have found some moment that we weren't on the sports fields so we could check out a few fun places.

First we rolled out of bed early on a Saturday to go to the "I Love Science" Festival that was held at the Expo Center right by the Atomium.  (The secret to living in Belgium is to get up early and get wherever you are going and you will have the place to yourself. We parked right next to the Atomium because we were so early-no tourists yet!)

We walked past the old Palace de Exhibition which was built for the 1930's Worlds Fair..gorgeous statues on the top and all around the building.

Katie loved this building project, all run by the architecture students at the University.

This guy used his Kitchen Aid to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen.  It was super fun to watch and the girls loved the ice cream.

Charlie tried Hover Shoes...like a hover board but split...they were all impressed he could do them after a quick intro.

Greg tries skateboard Virtual Reality.

We were glad he didn't decide to dress like this guy to play the game!

Another outing was to the Blue Forest..land of the Smurfs...the guy who created the Smurfs was from this town...Seeing the blue flowers blooming under the giant trees helps you understand the idea behind the Smurfs...a little bit...

 The blue flowers only bloom for a few weeks, once the tree canopy above gets its leaves then the blue flowers no longer get the sunlight.  This year we saw them on the very tail end of the bloom.

 Louna and I found this guy on our walk in the forest right by the kids school.

 Every year the EU has an Open Day where they let everyone come see all of their buildings and learn about the European Union. Which is something I don't feel like I know that much about, even living here!  Greg and the girls had sports but I made Charlie come along with me and he cried and complained the entire time.  All about Mom's dumb ideas and why he can't stay home on a Saturday.

But we got to see this guy-Captain Europe!  Can you believe they ripped off Captain America??

 We also got to go inside the very cool building which is the home to the Council of the EU.  It is also called the Egg.  Outside is a glass walled building that holds this thing that really looks like an egg.

 Before we went in the egg part, they had a fair with tables for all of the countries in the EU.  They had a mini passport where you could get stamps for visiting the booths and learn more about the countries and institutions.  There was even an online quiz which I failed it miserably, it was full of hard questions all about the EU and its leaders, etc.  There was a section for feedback and I typed, "Quiz was very hard for dumb Americans like me!"

Charlie got tons of free stuff and most importantly after getting enough stamps he got a special prize.  The prize what what he begged for the entire time we were in Italy- A SELFIE STICK! He doesn't even own a phone so we don't understand why he needed a selfie stick...but now he is the proud owner of one!

He quickly hooked up my phone and took this shot of us..

Outside the buildings they had a cool Bread Fair that had breads from all the countries in the EU.  Charlie got a Hungarian Chimney cake that we all learned to love in Budapest.  I got to try some tree cake that I had seen at a bazaar here. They also had the cooker for it...check this out!  Once it is done it stands up like a Christmas tree-I was glad to try it.

Hopefully Charlie now knows that all of Mom's ideas aren't terrible and occasionally there may be the object of your desire waiting at the end of one!

Neptune Balls & a stop for kids who grew up driving by the Leaning Tower of Pizza

We stayed two nights at an adorable AirBnB called the Beach House, it was all decorated in a beach theme and a block from beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean.  The train stop was called Cecina and our actual beach town was Marina de Cecina.  They were getting ready for what must be a busy summer, but it was still sleepy while we were there. 

From the train station, I liked the font!

After big busy cities and treasures of the art world, it was really wonderful to just enjoy a beautiful beach and not worry about crowds and admission times!  We made the most of our day, skipping rocks,

Climbing cool towers..I'm sure this is all over the girls Instagram accounts! They probably aren't doing what Charlie did on it!

Building amazing rafts of driftwood & seaweed!  It really floated and it took hours to build!

Our beach also had a pine forest on the other side that went for miles, you could rent bikes and ride through it, we opted for the family bike.   Most of the time Charlie ran behind us like a dog we needed to exercise!

We debated stopping to let him jump back in!

As a seashell collector, I can't say the beach was that exciting, only sea glass, but there were these brown balls everywhere.  I picked up a few and googled what they were-Neptune Balls.  When I first said the name Greg almost spit out his drink, I might have called them Neptune's Balls!

Holding a Neptune Ball, the girls are enjoying fruit smoothies at a nice outdoor tiki bar.

Neptune balls are really all over the beaches here, and a company figured out a way to do something with them..Cool use for Neptune Balls

We found a beautiful beach bar to watch the sunset, the kids were out on a little jetty with the sun behind them, it was kind of heaven to sit and watch them...even if they were fighting we couldn't hear them!

The girls came over and Greg got a nice picture of us... little brother refused to come off the beach!

One of my favorite discoveries in the past few years is this lovely drink they have in most places in Belgium & all over in Italy...an Aperol Spritz..here is my sign!

We all went down to the beach one last time before we had to leave in the morning, it was just so nice to be by the water!  We were sad to leave, but the leaning tower was waiting.

After a quick train ride up the coast we arrived in Pisa and walked from the train station to the tower, winding through the town.  We crossed the river and I liked these lions on the bridge.

Getting close...

Found it!

Charlie does his part!

We can all send our regards to the Leaning Tower of Pizza on Route 1 when we are back in Massachusetts from its buddy in Italy!

Greg decides to help too!

Pisa was a beautiful city, we enjoyed our walk back and had a nice lunch by the university too. Here was an ornate building on the way.

Our next stop was the train station back to the airport in Milan...a great trip and our kids figured out that backpacks & train travel through Europe is a pretty amazing way to go!

Vatican City & St. Peter's-Katie almost doesn't make it!

Our final morning in Rome we woke up early to be the first people into the Pantheon, which was right around the corner from where we stayed.  Usually it had a long line which we were able to avoid!

Here is the famous dome and the hole in the roof, there was water on the floor from the rain in the night!

Tomb of Queen Margherita whom the pizza that my kids adore is named after!

This is the tomb of Victor Emmanuel II the story, the guy to right is an  Honor Guard to the Royal Tombs of the Pantheon, when you read the New York Times article it makes me think we were lucky to find a guard there!

Honor Guard to the Tombs of the Pantheon-New York Times  The guard had a podium in front of him where you could sign your name to show support for the former royal families of Italy.

Kelly by the column out front, look at the size of it!

A hotel right across from it, look at the beautiful dome replica on the front entrance!

We checked out and headed for the Vatican but had to go by bus to drop off our bags until later in the day.  Katie had not been complaining that her tummy didn't feel right, and so a bus ride on a crowded bus proved to be too much.  We got off a stop early and she fainted, luckily Greg caught her!  She was right outside of a shop and the kind shopkeeper ran and got her some packets of sugar to eat.  He also offered for her to come lay in his fancy shop but we were afraid she might get sick in there so we stayed on a bench.   After a bit she was ready to move and we got heading to the Vatican where we had a timed entrance ticket for all of us waiting.

Luckily once we got in we found a courtyard with benches where Katie could rest while the rest of us fought our way through the tour groups to explore the massive museum.

 I can't do all of the priceless artifacts justice, so I won't even try, I hardly took any pictures I was so busy trying to see it all!  When you go through museums with Charlie its kind of like walking with a ticking time bomb in your pocket..you know its going to go at some point so you have to hurry and hope you make it to the end before it goes off!

We detoured to see the mummies...then got yelled at by the guards for not following the floor plan!

 We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel, we weren't sure Charlie could do it! Katie figured out how to catch up to us and we were all able to stand and admire it together.

It was fun to hear about where Michelangelo put himself in the drawing of judgement day. 

These gorgeous wardrobes lined the hallways for quite awhile, they all had different paintings on the fronts. I have no idea what was stored in them or how old they were but I liked looking at them. 

Lion the witch & the wardrobe?

They had a whole soccer display of all the Pope's jerseys-very cool!

They also had his space suit!

This is how you head toward the museum exit..

Greg took this from the top!

 We walked around the block and then entered St. Peter's Square and the church.  It was really neat to see a place that you have seen on tv so many times before!

Great to see the real Pieta after seeing some other ones at previous stops!

They are standing in front of the holy door that only is opened every 25 years!  It was last opened in 2000.

On one side is the tomb of Pope John Paul II. I was touched to see how many people were praying there.

You could go up to the Swiss Guards and ask for a ticket for the Pope's Wednesday Mass, we were leaving that night but it would have been neat to see.  Charlie would't pose for a picture with the guards for me-the stinker!

Katie has almost survived the longest & worst day to be sick!

Walking back outside the walls we looked into an open window and could see the Swiss guard uniforms all lined up.

This was one of the driving gates into Vatican City.

Katie has finally made it and we are on the train towards a beach town called Cecina.  No sights to see other than the beach!

The kids LOVED the train travel, nothing to do but listen to music, watch some shows and see the beautiful countryside and snack.  Greg is delighted not to be driving and I am happy that there is no backseat for fighting!