Lightning the Queen and Crafting Dreams

Some kids have a blanket, some have a pacifier, Tiger has a special car.  His name is Lightning the Queen.  This always makes me laugh because I picture Owen Wilson (the voice of Lightning McQueen) dressed as a drag queen when he says the name of his car.

This car is the first thing Tiger thinks of when he wakes up.  "Where is my Lightning?"  He eats with it, he sleeps with it, and yes, you guessed it, he sometimes tries to take it to the toilet with him.

Seth and I have our limits so for sanitation purposes, Lightning is not allowed into the bathroom.  Somehow Tiger thought he was getting away with breaking the rules when he went to the toilet with Lightning the Queen in hand.  He did his business and for storytelling purposes I regret to inform you that all numbers achieved in this particular toilet session, it was then, and only then that his car slipped from his fingers and Lightning the Queen sat in a watery pooppy grave.

Tiger gave a death curdling shriek.  I should probably preface this by mentioning that the kids and I read a picture book about the history of toilets, clearly we are hitting the bottom of the Army library.  So Tiger was just all that much more disgusted by his most beloved car sitting in filth.

I came in, assessed the situation, realized Seth was gone, and knew I had to do what any loving mother does at one point in her career.  I fished the thing out.

Yes, I am the hero, where is my medal?

In other news, I have was a little crafty this week.

A few months ago I went to H&M and bought a skirt on sale.  It was cute but when I tried it on it was easily two sizes too small.  Why does H&M offend my vanity?  I kept the skirt and it sat collecting dust.

This week I decided to take the skirt and turn it into a maxi dress for Stella.

I simply took the skirt in on the back and sewed a t-shirt on the top.  It took about five minutes and is super cute.  Stella loves it.  Can you tell?

Original two sizes too small skirt.  Vanity killer skirt.

Old Navy t-shirt I bought on sale.

Stella in her new maxi dress.

Stella on the porch.

The back which had the part of the skirt that I took in.

Lots of fun to jump in.

When the Sun Shines

I know this blog has become way way to weather-centric lately but its just that important.  This past month, two weeks into July, I was informed that the average day in Belgium is 16.5 hours.  Total sunshine for the month of July: 46 hours.  Do the math, pretty lame.

So, when the sun shines in Belgium you drop everything and celebrate.  This week was started by an impromptu barbecue (really do I do anything other than impromptu celebrating?) Sunday evening.  A new family moved here from the US and they have four kids; add our kids and another family with three kids and it was a soiree.

Monday was a Belgian holiday.  Normally Seth gets Belgian holidays but no such luck this time.  Undeterred, I took the kids out to Kessel-lo (one of my favorite parks in the world) to go swimming- OUTSIDE.

Yes, it was warm enough to swim outside.

The pool was huge and the kids and I had a blast.  So much fun we decided to go the next step and trek out to the beach the next day.

I think everyone in Belgium decided that going to the beach was a great idea because the hour and twenty minute drive took over two hours.  It was awful and Stella said she felt like she had slugs and snails in her stomach.  Really, never a good sign.  But with the help of Harry Potter on disc we somehow made it without the slugs and snails exiting Stella's stomach.

We made it but sadly our friends who we were supposed to rendezvous with made it, but at a separate beach.  Both of us had parked miles away and had no intention of recreating this process so the kids and I spent the day at the beach together, just the three of us.  It was fantastic.

The tide pools were warm and fun

De Haan beach

Stella ready to brave the freezing North Sea

Merpeople

I bought them ice cream.  This picture cracks me up.

Sunny on a rare sunny day in De Haan, Belgium.

After going to the pool and the beach in Belgium I have drawn some conclusions:
1.  Tight Speedos cause many Americans to cringe.  Worse however, are loose Speedos.
2.  I saw eight bare boobs at the beach.  It really didn't faze me, at all, perhaps I am assimilating, or perhaps it is my many years of boob exposure from the nursing years.  But I did wonder why one would want the nipple sunburning.  Ouch!
3.  While Speedos are required at pools in Europe, they are not a requirement at the beach, FYI dudes in case you never got this memo.
4.  Belgians are painfully blinding white.  I fit right in.
5.  I love America and their handicap accessibility.  Hauling my double-decker stroller down three flights of stairs and yelling at my kids to get themselves down the stairs is just not cool.

Luckiest Gal in the World

Despite being grouchy from someone calling and waking me up at 3:00 in the morning (COME ONE AMERICA CHECK YOUR INTERNATIONAL CLOCKS SOMETIMES!), despite being tired from Stella coming into my bed and then Tiger waking up at 6, despite feeling blue from the 14th day of rain and cold; I am a lucky lucky girl and I know it.

If someone had told me ten years ago this would be my life I never would have believed them, but it is and I love it and I am so lucky.  So this is my public declaration of gratitude.  I am so grateful to Seth who is constantly supportive and dedicated to his family, never wavering.  It makes the long hours and late nights a lot easier when you know where you stand.  I am so grateful I have two beautiful kids who actually love each other and get along really well.  They are the first thought when I wake up and the last thought when I go to sleep.  I love them and I love Seth who keeps me sane through it all.

I love this adventure we are on, traveling the world and I am so happy that I get to do it with the three people the make my world turn.

Summering but not Sunning

Americans of America, be jealous.  While you are cooking in weather that looks like this:

America's summers are starting to resemble to fiery flames of hell.

I am in Brussels which is always an example of temperance.

An albino's dream.  No sunscreen ever needed. 

So, while we may not be able to swim outside and I may, or may not, have let my leg hair grow a bit longer than usual for July, it is not stifling and occasionally warm enough to crack a window.  I never have to water my garden, which is good because I think I am giving up the idea that I could be a fantastic gardner with a Secret Garden type paradise in my back yard.  I spent $60 on seeds and I have nothing to show for it other than some growth stunted spinach and two inch carrots (I have hope on the carrots).

I have made good use out of my new red hoodie (although I look much cuter than the dude wearing it in the link).  The kids don't even complain about having to wear their Fall clothes because they don't remember what it is like to have the sun touch their skin.

Not that it has been gray every day, we get spurts of sunshine, and when we do we go out.
We have been busy bees this summer.

We went to the famous Helecine Balloon Festival.  The same festival we went to last year sans successful balloon launch.

This year we were not disappointed.

There were of course, weird French influenced circus people.

A hedge maze

Beautiful scenery (and cute kids)

But this year:

Tiger on Seth's shoulders.

The balloon dudes almost knocking Tiger off Seth's shoulders.

Gymnastics while we wait.

Launch!

Just a quick end note on this balloon launch craziness.  Our neighbor's sister won a ride on the balloon launch, what you can't see in these pictures is a very large patch of cumulonimbus clouds on their way. Sure enough when the neighbor's sister landed the basket tumbled and she broker her arm and leg.  Yikes!

Besides watching balloons at castles we went to Antwerp to see Cirque de Soleil.  It was cool but my advice is to never take a three year old to anything longer than an hour.  It could be people walking upside down and they wouldn't care, oh wait, that is what happened.  I loved it, Stella loved it, Seth thought it was cool, Tiger wanted to go and chase pigeons in the parking lot.

We were also able to do a little shopping in Antwerp, my most favorite city.  It is sales month.  For some unexplainable evil reason large chunks of Europe have government mandated sale months.  In Belgium it is January and July.  So we hit some sales.  We also got a bite to eat at McDonalds, which is very exotic in Belgium.  (Did you know that Belgium has one of the lowest McDonalds to people ratios in the world?) While we waited the kids played hopscotch and cars in Groen Plaats.

Groen Plaats

Hopscotch on ancient squares.

Tiger is able to block out the thousands of pedestrians when he is playing with his cars.  

After all of this excitement, we were rewarded with the best treat yet:

They are BOTH ASLEEP in the car

But the best news of all is that they stayed asleep.  all. night. long.

Hooray!

And for those who are feeling sad or bummed out because of their monsoon weather please check out this video of my sweet Tiger singing Joy to the World (in July).  He mixes French and English and it is awesome.