Beautiful Sunset

Halloween and Stake Conference

It's been a fun weekend!  Friday was Halloween.  We were invited to an amazing party in a nearby ward.  The kids had a ball getting dressed up, of course.  Kayanna was Rarity (from My Little Pony), Molly was a bat, Sarah was a clown, and the boys were both knights.  We were in a hurry to leave, so we forgot to get pictures of everyone before the party.  Molly did the face paint, of course, even on herself.  Kayanna had amazing purple hair extensions and cutie marks painted on her cheek.  She wore my high-heeled boots all evening.

Sir BJ

Molly, Sarah, and Abraham.  I'm not sure why it's so fuzzy!

Sarah, Robin, and Abe with their pumpkin

Sarah the Clown

Molly (and Sarah)

Our Jack-O-Lanterns

This morning we piled into the car at 8:30 am to go to the 10 am session of stake conference in Brussels.  The kids were thrilled to learn that there would be headphones with an English translation.  The conference was wonderful, of course.  After the meeting, we had a great time connecting with other English-speaking expat families.  Last night at the adult meeting, a family that lives in Brussels invited us to lunch today.

They have 5 kids, too.  We all had a lovely afternoon talking in English and playing games.  Kayanna found that the older daughters love to read, and they lent her 4 books.  I'm sure she'll have them read by Super Saturday next week.  She's planning to return them and bring some of hers to lend.

Two Wild Weeks

We had a couple of wild and fun weeks with my parents here. It was hard to keep up with blogging! Now we're back to school, which also takes a lot of time.  Before I completely forget, I want to write a list of what we did. I'll try to elaborate and add pictures in future posts.

Not everyone participated in each activity, but here are some of our destinations:

Downtown Liege
Fort de Loncin
Dinner at Le Duc d'Anjou
Cathedral in Cologne, Germany
Several Liege chateaux
Paris

It's Always Fun For Everyone When...

As we were eating lunch yesterday, the bell on our gate sounded.  We all jumped up from the table and ran outside to meet my parents.  It's so wonderful to see them again.  All the kids kept talking at the same time.  They got the full tour of the house, of course, and then ate lunch.  After lunch, Sarah suggested we go for a walk to the woods down the lane.  It was Molly who next suggested that we try and make it to the chateau again.

It was a long and somewhat marshy walk, but we succeeded in finding it.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.  The chateau is a private residence, so we didn't get too close.  It is very beautiful.  I hope to find an intact chateau that we can tour.

In the evening, we surprised my parents with a dramatic production of "Snow-White and Rose-Red."  The kids all did a great job on their parts.  I think they all get an "A" on this particular Fine Arts project.

Having grandparents in the house is a new experience for us because we have always lived close to my parents.  We have had the fun of seeing them very often, but we have never had the opportunity for them to stay in our house.  The kids are so excited.  This week should be fun and exciting.  I like that I can schedule my own fall break for school!  I hope they'll still learn a lot on field trips, though.

American Alimentation and Annatunnel at Antwerp

Last week we learned that there is an American Food Store in Antwerp.  It's a bit of a drive, but we thought we'd go check it out last Saturday.

It was hilarious how excited my kids got about seeing Twinkies--especially since I never buy them.  It was neat to see things we don't see here!  The prices were high (2.50 Euros for 1 box of Macaroni and Cheese), but at least I do know where I can find cranberry sauce, stuffing mix, and other things for Thanksgiving.

We then looked for something else to do in Antwerp and found a cool attraction:  Sint Annatunnel.  It's a pedestrian tunnel that goes under a river.  You have to take 2 long escalators to get down to the tunnel and 2 more to get back up.

Ben and the kids going up

They were built in the 1930s, and they're made of wood!

At the other end of the tunnel, we came up to a beautiful park area with several playgrounds.

The girls on the teeter-totter

Another playground had a neat Viking-type ship and beach sand.  There were also anchors, buoys, propellers, and other objects I didn't recognize sitting around.  We tried to get a nice family picture in front of one of them.  They weren't too nice, but here they are anyway!

Then it was time to go back through the tunnel.

It was a fun trip!