Sorry this is a bit late but I've been very busy with the school Christmas Fayre. It is now over so I'll add what we've been up to over the last 3 weeks. Grandma Melrose (Allen's mum) visited us for Jacob's birthday. We had a lovely time with her. We visited Monte Verde, a local park that has different gardens from around the world. It has a warm indoor tropical area with loads of birds flying about. Abi and I collected some brilliantly coloured feathers. Not sure what we're going to do with them but they are impressive. I liked the Chinese and Japanese gardens best. There was bumper cars, a big bouncy thing, a violent pirate ship ride and a high swing thing. There were also 2 white tigers in a large enclosure. When the children ran along the side of the enclosure the tigers bounded after them. Jacob and Abi had great fun making them run! I've included a few photos from the day out.
Allen had a day in Maastricht with his mum. I dropped them at the station and they had a relaxing day. We also walked into our closest town, Sittard to have coffee. Marion enjoyed the garden centre too. She wanted to buy lots of things but was constrained due to flying with Ryanair with only hand luggage! Marion and I did a long walk to a cafe at Puth and luckily made it home without geting lost!
Jacob's birthday party went well at an indoor playplace in Belgium. Not many of his class made it but he still had a great time. It lasted an hour longer than we thought for which was fine as the weather outside was horrid - very wet.
Since Marion went home we were busy with the school Christmas Fayre. Now it's over and we have snow so I had 2 very happy children this morning playing out before school. The bus was 45 mins late so they had even more fun rolling around in the snow at the bus stop. At least they were well dressed in their ski gear. I've got to brave it and walk to the local shops so my ski trousers will be getting an outting too!
Rachael.
