Monty's birthday

Before I tell some things about Monty’s birthday some statements about week 19:

1) Finds in the washer this week when taking out the laundry:
- one stick
- one rock, size of a golf ball.

2) Leland has become a true Belgian/Dutchie. He had his first bicycle stolen. A very special moment.

Anyway, about Monty's birthday He had a great day. He doesn’t remember his third birthday, but he has been looking forward to his fourth birthday since December when it was Stoney’s birthday. He was very miffed he had to wait over four months before it was finally his birthday. He has been asking on about a weekly basis since December if it was his birthday now. (And then of course he had to bare the fact that it was mommy’s and daddy’s birthday before his. But then finally, it was HIS birthday.

He had a great day. Of course Grandma and Grandpa were here and they gave his a Peter Postman (or Postman Pat in England) set that he absolutely loves! He also got a digger, and tractor a very noisy animal bingo and a game to learn facts about animals. (with among other things a question identifying which animal creates which poop. Needless to say this was a European creation) It was Stoney’s idea to give Monty a ‘big boy bike’. It is just a second hand, fixer upper, but good enough for him to learn to ride a bike. Unfortunately Monty is scared to death of getting on the thing.

Other then Grandma and Grandpa, Oma and Opa came and uncle Fredo and aunt Nicky. Luck had it that it was a bank holiday in large parts of Europe, so everyone had the day off. (Second pentacostal day - i know the giving of the gift of the Holy Ghost is important, but is it something to celebrate two days?)

Here are some pictures of his birthday



The day after his birthday we went to Brussels with Grandma and Grandpa. Stoney and Monty were very impressed with 'manneken Pies' (little peeing boy statue) Don't they look proud in the picture? Stoney wanted to go back to Brussels the next day to check what kind of outfit it was waering the next day. (the statue is dressed differently everyday).




Before we made it to Manneken Pies though, we went to the Atonium. It is this molecule type structure that was build for the 1958 world fair in Brussels. Stoney had wanted to go there for a while, but we sure picked out the wrong day to go. We stood in line for about three hours, meanwhile Stoney refused to eat lunch and had several meltdowns. As you can see on some of the pictures, they were not very happy campers.(nor was I for that matter) But eventually we made it in, and they enjoyed it. (Grandma didn't enjoy it as much though, because it turned out that halfway some of the spheres there were no more escalators and she had to take the stairs, with her sore back, not a good experience.) I know Grandma had a picture of the four of us in the top sphere, but i don't have that one yet. So here is my pictures.





PS Sorry for the small font, but for some reason there is this one section of this post that won't change into a larger font, no matter what i try, so i decided to put it all in smaller font

Bike race

Well, it is May 1st. Monty is turning four today. I will give an extended update on his birthday some other time (since it is only 9.15, his birthday has barely started).

Before i go on with the story about the bike race i would like to share a little something in the category: "One of these things is not like the other."
We were at the market last week with Bill and Carol and there some little food stands - what would be a hot dog vendor in America. And it is selling the following: (now you see which one just doesn't belong)
a) hot dogs
b) hamburgers
c) escargot (which is French for snails)
Need i say more?

About the bike race
Boy did we have the time of our life! There was a bike race right through our street. As a matter of fact, the start and finish were in our street. It was on sunday afternoon and after we got home from church (it was gorgeous weather) we just opened the windows and let the boys look at the bicyclists and follow cars pull up. We are right on the street, so we had a good view.






And then the waiting game began. The racers were going six loops of which the first one was the largest. There was about an hour after the start before the racers came by for the first time. So meanwhile, the boys decided to test the quality of the "race track". Our road is normally very busy, so we don't let them ride their bikes on there, but this they it was all blocked off, so they had a blast. For good measure they went over the finish line too.
And then finally, the bike racers came by again. 6 times.



Stoney had so much fun, he has been asking multiple times since Sunday if there is going to be another bike race in our street soon.