Last days of summer...

And when i say 'the last days of summer' I mean not just the end of the boys' summer holidays. I literally mean the end of summer. Just to give you a little illustration of the messed up weather here: heat wave in July, cold spell in August and then a few warmer days... Do the math: heat, cold, warming up again... What does nature make of that? Indeed: Spring. And yes, our daffodils have sprouted again! (I don't have a picture, but i promise it is true)

There is just something not right about sitting in your living room in August and thinking: "I am so cold, I wonder if i should turn the heat on?"

For the last full week of vacation the boys went on holiday for a week with my parents. Stoney went pony riding - twice. Once in halfway decent weather, once in the pouring rain. But he loved it anyway.




Here is a funny picture: some of you may know that Monty always had a fascination with ears. Now that he is six, he usually only plays with his own ears when he is tired or sometimes his mommy's. But evidence speaks: he is clearly playing with Stoney's ear here. I would too if i were him, after all Stoney is using his lap as a pillow ;-)


Some random pictures

Arenberg Castle

Jeopardy: Air travel history for $100: "This was the location of the first manned balloon lift-off" "What is Arenberg Castle in Leuven, Belgium."

Depending on the historical source you go by, the first manned balloon trip lifted off near Paris, or sometimes sources will say Brussels. Both wrong, it was actually in Leuven, in the year 1783.
(For those who want to know more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Arenberg). It lifted off from this very lawn.



The boys are with my parents for a week and we took the opportunity to brush up on our trivial knowledge.

The castle is not really a classical castle. The current state was never intended for defense purposes. I guess there was a different castle orginally, but this one was more of a status symbol then a place of refuge, which you can tell by the size of the windows, they would have been shattered immediatly in an attack.

Never the less, there are some slots in the wall by the front entrance which looks like they could be used for shooting arrow/guns, apparently while drinking a cup of coffee.


Like so many old buildings in the Leuven area, this castle is now part of the university and houses the engineering faculty. This is the inner court.


There is stream right in front of the building, it was probably a moat in some earlier days. The water wheels are still there, but no longer used.

Music Time

I have a sad announcement: summer has disappeared. Belgium had a heat wave in July and is having a monsoon in August. Go figure. We feel like getting a fire started and drinking hot chocolate. Ah well.

Meanwhile, the boys are still on summer vacation and are going to a day camp a lot. Stoney has started violin lessons. We have wanted to get Stoney enrolled in piano lessons or something, but it was too expensive. And besides, we don't have a piano - nor room for one.
But luckily we found a friend from church willing to teach him violin as a trade off for doing some things for her. Stoney is very excited about the violin, for the moment anyway. Although he did fall in love with Leland's old electrical guitar this summer. But we told him that he is a little small for guitar. With starting with the violin, he can start to learn to read notes, get a feel for the strings and learn some hand-eye coordination. He can switch to guitar later if he wants too.


Stoney and his violin teacher.

Speaking of Music... Monty is our little dancer. A silly one, but a dancer anyway. Please ignore Leland's legs in this video.