March 2013

During March Ruth, a university friend visited. We went to Waterloo, both the town and the battle field, Mons, Brussels twice and Brugge. We spent the night in Brugge as there was a lot to do there. It was great exploring with Ruth, her sense of direction is so much better than mine so I just handed over the map! We visited the Brugge Zot brewery, very tasty. While Ruth was here we also popped back to Sittard, NL as Abi had a birthday party. Abi travelled in style - a limo - that you can see Ruth and Jacob sitting in. Abi was dressed as a princess for the party, tiara and all! The photo is of her and Haley.

We also had a weekend away in Chimay with Nadine, Phill, Haley and Kaden plus Phill's brother and sister in law. We had a great meal and tasting platter of beer and Chimay cheese, the hotel was right above the restaurant so we could drink the beer while the children watched movies upstairs. There was also a playground and the weather was good so everyone had fun! The next day we walked to the Abbey where they brew the Chimay beer. We will really miss the Mertes family when they move back to America later this year, at least we have somewhere else to visit I suppose!.

 Jacob and Abi had Red Nose Day at school, here's a photo of them dressed up!

January and February 2013

We we welcomed the New Year in in America, watching the fireworks on our balcony over looking Sea World. As soon as we got back to Belgium it then rained for a month! I worked a lot in January, teaching both Jacob and Abi who were very good, as were their classmates.

February brought our first proper break away so in half term we went off to Paris. Marion came with us as she had booked a HPB property to the West of Paris. It was a good location, we spent a day in Paris visiting the Sacre Coeur and Montmatre region, it was good weather and we enjoyed eating and walking around the capital.

My Mum, Dad and niece came out too so we had a busy house for 2 nights as Marion was there too! We visited our local ice cream shop and went on the base for swimming. Marion then flew home and I took everyone to Brussels for the day where we walked around and saw the Manneken Pis and had a good meal of mussels.

I have also been busy with American Girl Scouts. Abi is in Brownies and I am co-leader to the Junior group. I have also taken on the treasurer job for the Girl Scouts and the PR for the swim team - which Jacob and Abi are both in. Jacob got the award for most improved swimmer from the coach and Abi got a T shirt for her hard work.

Christmas 2012 Florida!

I realise I have not been posting for the past 6 months but I have been very busy, no excuse really though! Life in Belgium is hectic as usual, with school and general life I never seem to have a day to myself but I am determined to catch up over the next few weeks. We have of course done lots and visited loads of places over the past 6 months so I am going to be selective as to what I include, hope you don't get too bored.

So this past Christmas we spent two weeks in Florida. It was a lovely and relaxing holiday spending the first week in one Hilton resort and the second week right next to Sea World in a different Hilton Resort. The weather was warm although not sunny all of the time. We spent time in Universal and Disney. All of our favourites was Harry Potter in the Island of Adventures. We all preferred Universal to Disney, I think Jacob and Abi have out grown Disney now!

We hired a car a couple of times so we could go shopping, we loved being back in America enjoying all it had to offer and we all left wishing we'd booked another week!

Grandma Melrose's 1st trip to Belgium.

Marion came over for Jacob's 10th birthday and stayed for 10 days. We had fun exploring the area over the two weekends that she was here. I also had fun taking her out and about while the kids were at school and Allen at work. It was Remebrance Day while she was here and she came along to the service. She also experienced a family's happy hour and did lots of knitting with Abi. We went out to a town called Binche to go to a mask museum. It had been recommended on a web site that SHAPE families use. It was very interesting and we toured the museum with a headset finding out about the town's traditions with dressing up as Gilles. A strange custom but one we will want to go and witness. Have a look at the varierty of photos from the afternoon! I've also added one of Abi and Grandma knitting. Marion and I went to Brugges and had a wonderful day. I drove, we could have gone on the train but there was a strike! The shops were great, the town was beautiful and the weather was lovely and sunny. We found lots of presents and had a superb lunch in a busy little restaurant. We got back in time for the end of school so an excellent trip out. We also had another trip out to a local market in a town called Soignies. It was lots of local vendors and we came away with home made quiches and homegrown garden produce. We also found an excellent bakery that served coffee and cake so Marion was happy. My Mum and Dad are coming out for a couple of days so we're going to revisit Brugges as the ice sculptures are now there as are the Christmas markets. Marion did manage to go to the Canadian and Norwegian ones on base and got a few bits. There has been a Christmas market on base each week since! The British one was pretty good but I have to say the German one has been the best so far.

Jacob's 10th Birthday

Jacob was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday on a Saturday and have Grandma Melrose here too! He didn't get up too early, which was handy as he and Abi had gone with Allen to get Marion the night before, so they had a late night. We only live 25mins from Charleroi airport, a lot easier than before.
Jacob had already had a treat for his birthday. I had managed to get last minute tickets to WWE in Brussels. He went with Allen and they had a brilliant time. He had also had a party back in The Netherlands as we weren't sure what was on offer here.
So for his actual birthday we went bowling and then Grandma, Jacob and Abi went to the cinema. We had cake when they returned and an easy evening. Abi had chosen a wrestling ring as his present and they both played with that for ages. His main present was a Kindle, he got lots of Amazon vouchers too which he will be using to buy books to put on his kindle. The library here also lets you borrow books to put on your kindle for a few weeks so he'll be using that too.

I've included some photos from the day.

SHAPE, Mons.

We have moved into a house right next to the base of SHAPE. We are living on the border of Casteau and Mons. Jacob and Abi are going to the British School on SHAPE. This school does take other Nations but priority goes to British children. Some classes are very mixed others are mainly Brits. Both Jacob and Abi have made a variety of friends and have settled in well. Abi won an award on Friday for high achievement and settling quickly. Jacob's taking it all in his stride and has his first invite to a party next week. I've included a photo of them on our doorstep on their first day of school. They now own proper school sweatshirts with a very nice International logo on them.
We also went into school, as Abi had been away on an overnight trip, and they did a presentation on this. She went to Ypres and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was impressed that she went as she'd only been in school a week. She did her presentation with great confidence.
I have also had my first day of supply. It went extremely well and I have a couple more days booked for Decemeber. Hoping I get something quite regularly, I am volunteering in school as well.

I have included a couple of photos from Abi's trip away.

2nd half term and Halloween

Jacob and Abi were very lucky, they ended up having two half terms as Brunssum's and SHAPE's were different. They did go into school to visit on the Friday of their 1st half term. So their 2nd half term started without Allen as he was still in Poland. We carried on unpacking but also did a little exploring. We found an excellent ice cream and coffee shop which I'm sure we'll visit regularly. I also drove into Mons to have a look at the centre. We popped into a cafe and enjoyed yet more ice cream! The centre on Mons is a little like Sittard but no where near as pretty. I think this is my impression of this area in the whole, it's no where near as pretty as where we have come from. The up side though is our house is 100% better and we can walk to the base and school. There is a lot to offer on the base, a bowling alley, cinema, a cafe and restaurant plus a Carrefour supermarket. It's good to be able to walk to all of these. Cycling is going to be harder here. We were really spoilt in The Netherlands with all of the safe cycling paths. You're lucky to get a walking pavement here let alone a bike path! I have cycled to school with the kids but their road sense is not the greatest. We will give it another go as they are opening a gate much closer to our house so it will mean a much safer cycle to school, it will also knock 15mins off the walking time so that's great too. Jacob and Abi can go on the bus but, for some reason, they are enjoying walking so I'm not arguing.
We went back over to Brunssum to pick up Allen on the Tuesday, staying once again at Chris and Matt's. We had a pizza from the pizza bus, our favourite. We celebrated Halloween on the American base walking around with the Mertes. I've inlcuded a photo of Allen with our kids and then one of Jacob, Abi, Haley and Kaden. They had loads of fun and Jacob met up with a friend there so he was very happy. We drove back to SHAPE that night as we were off to the UK the next day.
We popped back to the UK for a day and a night to pick up our new car. We are trying a Superb Estate. Personally I can't see much difference but I suppose I'll only be able to tell when we go on a skiing trip to see how mcuh I can fit in! It did well with all of the shopping I did in the UK, still room for more!
Rachael.