Belgian Bodmers: October 2004

Happy Halloween!!

We had a ball celebrating Halloween already. On Friday we hosted a party for the kids after school until trick or treating started. We had about 21 kids here from ages 18 months up to age 10. Luckily the weather was beautiful and we spent the majority of the time in the back yard. The one picture from the party below is of a game in which the kids try to eat an apple off of a string without using their hands. It is way too hard to get your teeth into an apple this way so we used croissants. It was really funny to watch. The skeleton next to Drew is Theo who is the brother of the other skeleton, Harriet. I neglected to prepare Alyssa and Megan for the scary parts of Halloween and even though Harriet is their best friend here they were scared to death when they saw her and her brother. They knew it was her but took a good hour or so to get over their fright. Some older boys in scary masks also brought Megan to tears. On our bathroom mirror I had some fake webs and a plastic spider and you should have heard the girls. Alyssa, "Megan look there's a spider in the bathroom!" Megan, "I'm going to tell mommy!" I took them back over and explained it was fake but they still won't touch it. Drew was great trying to get his sisters not to be afraid. Even with all the scariness they managed to have fun running around with the other kids.

With all that is going on with the Red Sox Drew decided to be a Red Sox baseball player. His other options based on what's available here were spiderman (we had five at the party), a pumpkin, or Dracular. We spent quite a few hours working on a home made costume but getting in and out of the car would have been a nightmare. Megan and Alyssa were a zebra and an elephant respectively for a third year in a row. I think they didn't wear their hoods of the customs because number one it was really warm but secondly they're too small!

Trick or treating wasn't as bad as I thought considering we had to get three kids in and out of the car maybe 8 times (there were a few houses within walking distance of each other). They were very cooperative at least. Drew went in Theo's car and Harriet came with us. The three girls used the car ride between houses as an opportunity to eat the candy they just received. Because there were only 13 houses total each house we went to had at least 5 other families trick or treating there too so the kids had a great time playing with their friends and all the parents chatted. It was very different than Chilton St but for the kids it was still a great Halloween.

Pumpkin carving - note Alyssa's reaction to the inside of a pumpkin. (If you click on the picture it will open bigger.)

Drew, Happy and Rick

Alyssa, Drew and Megan with Sunshine, Happy and Pumpkin

Drew, Theo and Madeline "bobbing for apples" at our Halloween party before trick or treating. It is actually chocolate croissants on the strings.

Drew, Alyssa and Megan crammed into our Renault for trick or treating.

Harriet and Megan trick or treating.

Micheala, Zoe and Drew trick or treating. Zoe's Dad is from Vermont and her mom is from Paris. She speaks both French and English fluently. Amazing!

Stage Fright

Yesterday Alyssa and Megan were in their very first performance. The 3 to 5 year old kids at the girls' school put on a performance of the little mermaid (Yes it was in Dutch). In the days leading up to the big show I asked their teacher how the girls were doing getting ready for the performance and everytime she shrugged and said something to the effect of we'll see. The girls gave us no more indication of how it was going. Initially when questioned they looked at me like, what show. Later we were told "It's a secret!" by Alyssa. I had no idea how to prepare them. I didn't even know if they had a clue what was going on! (Remember their school is in Dutch.) The day of the dress rehearsal for the show their teacher indicated she didn't think the girls would even get on stage. I was doubtful they would even get into their costumes. (They were to dress as Nemo) The morning of the show the girls were their obstinate, contrary selves. My heart went out to the teachers having to deal with these two "hard nuts to crack" as well as 16 other 3 year olds all in various stages of their threeness. A half hour after drop off I peeked in the window. Remarkably Alyssa was in costume and Megan was well on her way! Wow! I nervously waited for the show to begin. All I was hoping for was for them to get on stage and not burst into tears. Well they did it! They got on stage with the rest of their class, in costume, and stood there scared to death. They nervously peered at the audience as I carefully hid. At the end of the song they held hands in the circle with the other kids and walked across the stage down the steps and out the back door. Great JOB!! Whew!

Stadhuis - Antwerp: This is the city hall building in the main market square in the city center.

Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedral in Antwerp. This is a beautiful gothic cathedral that you can see from all over the city center towering over the buildings.

Halloween?

Only over just the past couple of years has Belgium been integrating the American holiday of Halloween into their own customs. I have learned from friends here that just 4 years ago you would not have seen any mention of Halloween anywhere. Now you can find quite a few Halloween decorations and costumes in stores and windows. It is definitely not nearly as extensive as in the States. We have seen signs for parties at various bars and clubs but we have heard nothing about Belgian children trick or treating. Luckily the PTO at Drew's school sets something up for the school kids. It is a bit different. We have to register our kids and pay money per child to participate. We then will receive a map to find the houses that give out treats (supplied by the PTO hence the registration money). The houses aren't always close to each other so you must drive your child around. It just occurred to me that I will have to buckle and unbuckle three children some unknown number of times on this night... I wished I had thought of this before I registered... I might have to rethink costume choices too! Oh man! Trick or treating is this Friday too!

Tiny Ballerinas - Harriet in blue, Alyssa in purple, Megan in pink

Amsterdam

A beautiful fall day was the backdrop to our exploration of Amsterdam on Sunday. For those of you that know Amsterdam don't worry we kept clear of the red light district. Rick and I remember walking through by ourselves, almost ten years ago, cringing at pictures of every body part imaginable pierced - among other things. I get enough inappropriate questions asked of me in public bathrooms by my three little ones without adding to their imaginations. Also I'm not sure we would be able to come up with a suitable answer to "why is that girl sitting in the window in her underwear talking to that man?" Although certainly entertaining, the red light district and coffe shops are not the only things to see in Amsterdam. We meandered through the narrow streets across bridges over picturesque canals. The kids loved watching the boats. For dinner we had one of the specialities of Holland, pancakes. Not your average breakfast pancake though, mine had sunflower seeds, mushrooms, cheese and onions cooked in the batter and a salad on top. Rick had a ham and cheese pancake. I can picture some of you going "eeewww" but honestly it was delicious.

Just another canal in Amsterdam

Snack time! - Drew, Alyssa, Lyn, and Megan in Amsterdam. Check out the girls new stroller to the right. It has made sightseeing so much more enjoyable.

City street - Amsterdam

Bike parking lot outside of the train station in Amsterdam. The kids were amazed at all of the bikes. We were amazed we didn't see more foot traffic coming from and going into this area. Can you imagine what rush hour must be like trying to get your bike out of this mess?!

Amsterdam

Alyssa biking - We went on a great bike ride on Sat. It is a bikers dream here, very flat with well marked bike trails everywhere. We explored the canals and saw a barge going through a lock. Then we explored the countryside and saw horses and chickens. As you can see Alyssa really enjoyed the scenery.

Odds and ends

On Sat we had a colleague of Rick's and his family over for lunch. The family is here from the states for two months. Knowing as you do my issue with the supermarket here, during the week before I'm sweating a bit over what to serve. At least it is an american family so they won't be expecting a european lunch which is basically dinner, but still, I'd like to make a nice impression. So I spend a couple of days (literally) in the supermarket and decide just on a simple cold cut platter. Of course this isn't all that simple because there all these crazy kinds of cold cuts and I didn't want to serve them horse loaf or something by mistake (I'm not kidding they eat horse meat) and then to figure out how much to buy in grams as opposed to pounds (not that big of a deal). So latter in the week I mention to Rick to ask the guy if his kids have any special food requests/issues whatever. So Rick comes back the next day and tells me the family doesn't eat meat. "What?!" "They don't eat meat." "You're kidding me, right?" "No." Heavy sigh, back to the damn supermarket.

On Monday I went with some friends to the Asian markets in Antwerp. We were given a tour by a local who frequents the area. It was really fun. The funny part was on the way back we couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket for the tram. We get on the tram and the driver was not selling them. (On the way there we bought the ticket from the driver.) Not knowing what to do really and having to race back to pick up our kids we just sat down. About half way home the tram police get on and ask to see everyone's tickets. What else could we do, we acted dumb, handed our ticket from the trip into town and kept our fingers crossed. We must have looked pathetic enough because he looked at the tickets and just handed them back to us. Phew! So now I know where to get all these fresh ingredients for some great asian dishes and how to get there even if I haven't figured out the getting home part yet but the bad thing is I don't really have any recipes. If anyone has any they would be willing to share please email me.

Ghent, Belgium

Sorry for the delay in the text for the pictures below. Watching the Red Sox in the play-offs were priority over the blog. Rick watches live through the internet. He is a pretty resourceful guy. I had no idea you could do such things!
Anyway back to Ghent...
We took a trip out to Ghent on Sunday. A great city to visit! After our obligatory waffle stop (real Belgian waffles are awesome!) we headed straight for the boat ride. The kids loved it although the ducks seemed to be a bigger hit than the great scenery along the canal. After the boat ride we casually walked to the cathedral, checking out the streets, sounds and sights, while answering a multitude of questions...What is making all that noise? Where are the church bells? Why do they ring so much?. We didn't have enough time to check out everything, mainly the ominous looking castle in the heart of the city that we all wanted to visit, so we definitely plan to return.