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.

October half term - Playmobil Germany

Hi

We had a fun half term, first we moved out of our house in Munstergeleen and into our new house in Casteau, Mons. This was not the easy move I had planned as Jacob came down with a chest infection on the day I was meant to be cleaning. All of the furniture left Thursday morning and I spent the morning taking Jacob to the doctors, dropping him at school and then picking him up 45mins later as they thought he was too ill to be there. The doctor had said he could go but he was tired from being up in the night coughing. Luckily my next door neighbour, Chris, took him in and he slept around there while I cleaned. I was going to let them go to school in Brunssum on the Friday but, as Jacob wasn't allowed back, I decided to drive over and join Allen in our new house. Again my kind neighbours, Chris and Matt fed us before we left and it was straight to bed once we got to our new house.
The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and then we made our way back over to Munstergeleen to finish the cleaning for the march out on the Monday. We stayed next door and they fed us again! The march out was fine, I'm glad I'd cleaned behind the radiators as he used his torch to check them - it had taken me about 2 hours to do this and I had had enough by the end.
Allen went off on exercise to Poland for ten days and Jacob, Abi and me went to the South of Germany to the Playmobil funpark. Nadine drove us, she'd booked it all too. We stayed in a great Holiday Inn Express and had a brilliant time at the Playmobil place. I've included a variety of photos from the day there. Abi and Haley enjoyed the panning for jewels the best and Jacob loved the throwing balls at bottles activity!
After two nights here we moved a little further south of Nuremberg to visit Nadine's Grandma. I've included a photo of Jacob next to a Jacob beer truck - it was parked in the car park of the hotel we were staying. So we had a brilliant first half term.
Rachael.

Early 10th Birthday for Jacob

Jacob decided to do his 10th Birthday party here as we will have just moved for his actual birthday on the 10th November. He would have only  have been in school for a week so we thought it would be best all round to have his current friends to celebrate.

He has wanted to do laser tag for a while so we booked for 10 people at the Valkenburg caves. You get a game of laser tag in the caves, then a ride up on a chair lift to the Toboggan run. Then 4 goes on the toboggan, back down int he chair lift and pizza back in the caves. This all takes 2 and a half hours. They had a great time, Jacob would do it all again. Allen took part in the laser tag as one boy didn't turn up. He enjoyed it but said it was very hot! I had a go on the toboggan with Abi but wouldn't let her go as fast as she wanted to!

We finished off with cookies, a brilliant early birthday!

Berlin Swim Meet

Jacob and Abi are both in the Orcas swim team here. They go to swim meets every other weekend and a month ago we had a swim meet in Berlin. We chose to go by train whoch took about 5 hours. Most of the rest of the team, 70 people, that included parents and sibblings too, went by coach - overnight. I'm glad we took our option as an over night on a coach with kids can't be all that fun! We then addred an extra day on too so had a great time exploring Berlin. It's not a pretty city but there was loads to do. We stayed in a good location and bought a travel card that meant we could use any form of public transport for the three days we were there.

From the photos you will see we went up the TV tower, went to a large piece of the wall that had an exhibition along with it, saw the World Clock, visited the Holocaust Memorial and the Brandenburg Gate. We did a bus tour too, so a busy but fun weekend in Berlin.