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.

vacation to the US

We went to visit family in friends back in the US this summer. We spend two weeks and the kids had an absolute blast!
Just some of the highlights: Lurray caverns, Air and Space museum, Water works pool, swimming at the lake and visiting with family.

Here are the pictures.

Summer time

Nothing says summer more to me then a visit to the outdoor pool. (you have to realize, outdoor pools are kind of rare here, considering that summer is no guarantee for nice weather).
It is usually very crowded, but today we got there early. We did get rained out by a thunderstorm two hours later, but hey we had fun.


And now a few reasons why we look forward to visiting the US in a couple of days:

• See family and friends (of course)
• Mrs Fields cookies (Anne)
• Popeye's chicken (Leland)
• Reese's Peanut butter cups (Leland)
• Corn on the cob (Stoney - he thinks you can only eat that in America)
• Going to a baseball game
• Seeing beautiful Virginia
• Having the kids go to sleep at a decent hour (hopefully) because they will be fooled by it getting dark so much earlier in VA compared to Belgium.
• And there are probably other things i can think off..

end of the school year

And yes, it has spread to Europe: The habit of doing a 'graduation' for kindergartners. As ridiculous as that is, it did make for a nice picture or two.



Monty will go to first grade, God help his poor teacher. On the upside, there will only be eight kids in his class, so hopefully this will work in the benefit of both teacher and Monty. It's hard to say at this point what will happen. Monty can do most things just fine, but gets himself all worked up when he doesn't remember how to do something and at times completely flips out. He'll be in my prayers.

Stoney will go to third grade. He has an excellent rapport card, with a 97% for math - the math genes most have skipped a generation - but strangely enough he doesn't like math at all. He is not interested in it and takes forever and a day to complete his school and homework. We had almost hoped that he had ADD, because at least it would be an explanation as to why he uses his pen as a space ship rather then doing the math, but no dice. They tested him, but he doesn't have it. Oh well, hopefully he'll grow out of it. I guess it is mostly a matter of him enjoying playing much more then working. And with playing i also mean climbing.



Another thing that doesn't help matters when it comes to concentrating on schoolwork, is that both these kids will not go to sleep at night. We blame Day Light Savings time, but even without that we'd be in trouble i guess. It gets dark so stinking late here (sun doesn't set till ten) and these kids just won't go to sleep as long as it is light out.
The other day we went to check on the boys (at 11, when they are finally asleep) and found this in his bed. He build an entire zoo in his bed (mom, it is a saloon, duh!) and then curled up to the far end to find a place to sleep. Crazy child.

party time

The boys had their annual end of the school year party. As usual, the kids perform a dance of some sort. Monty is still in to this. Stoney, on the other hand, not so much. He said: "i don't mind that i have to wave my hands, but why do i have to shake my hips? That's just stupid." I feel your pain kiddo.



Also as usual: Leland and i have a great time snickering about the way people dress around here. Just some observations:

• If you only have two teeth left in your mouth, and your legs are covered in varicose veins, a mini skirt is probably not a good choice
• If you are over a 180 pounds you should not wear skin tight leggings
• If you are going to wear hip hugging jeans that will reveal every bump from the waist down, at least make sure that your bud crack is not poking out
• Florescent green has it purposes in life, however, using it as eye liner is not one of them
• Wearing 4 inch heal pumps, a mini skirt and a top that just barely keeps your boobs from popping out, may be acceptable in some professions, however when you are a kindergarten teacher, at the very least it is not a practical choice.
  
• A burlap sack-dress may be very fashionable on a catwalk in Paris, (I really wouldn’t know), however, it looks somewhat out of place at a party for an elementary school, no matter how cute your shoes are.
• If you have a five year old, but the skin of your face looks a cracked leather substance, it is time to get rid of the tanning bed.

And then now for some cute pictures of Monty:
His class did two songs, one about the color red (hence the red clothes) and one French song, about FlonFlon, le petit mouton (hence the French flag)