Monday Munchday

Monday has become Munchday over here. Look at what hubby has been bringing home to me on Monday evenings these past few weeks...

And yes, everything tasted delicious!!!

He's taking baking classes and has come home with two types of bread, a regular cake, an apple pie, a pineapple pie, Spanish pie (sweet and sugary and full of calories no doubt) and now I'm waiting for him to bring home some more goodies...

Actually, I think I hear him parking his car as I write this!

Yes, he's home, so sorry, gotta go munch something ;-)

September

I've always loved the word "September". I used to write poetry (which no one was allowed to read of course) and then signed it with my alias September. It's the prelude to Fall, it makes me want to buy hats and scarves for the entire family, it makes me want to go out and buy wool and start knitting... even though I limit myself to scarves. They're easy.

Half of September has almost passed.

It's weird how time seems to go faster when you are back to the old school routine.

But no matter how busy these first few days of school have been, we did have time for a little bit of play (I picked up a chess board for the ridiculously low price of 75 cents, but of course it didn't come with any pawns. When I got home my son quickly set up the game using his toys.)

Purely by coincidence of course, but he put the lion next to the lamb. Made me want to read Twilight all over again*.

(*from the phrase: "and so the lion fell in love with the lamb")

And there was even time for some crafting. The below sketch was drawn entirely by my 6 year old daughter. Her first tutorial! And I think mommy did a pretty good job at creating this "Christmas Mushroom".

She made plenty more tutorials. I think I'm going to work out some of the others she made. That might get some fresh items into my much neglected Etsy shop ;)

Tomorrow

School starts tomorrow. I remember that when I was a kid I had trouble going to sleep before the first day of school. And I usually woke up way too early. Funny, that last part doesn't seem to happen anymore... (well, the waking up part does, but not the actual 'getting out of bed early' part).

By the way, I'm typing this post with a band aid around my ring finger since I gave myself a paper cut. New books, lovely papers to wrap them in and, ah yes, the inevitable paper cut. This time I outdid myself. I hadn't even gotten any paper on the books yet. I cut myself whilst opening the new roll of paper! And these were only just Caitlin's books. Oh boy.

At least I didn't hurt any fingers whilst sewing this:

Excursion update: Bokrijk

I'm finally getting round to posting about our visit to Bokrijk. Bokrijk is an open air museum where historic buildings have been rebuilt. Everything is authentic (furniture, tools etc.) and actors make the village come to life. It brings you back to the way things were around 1900.

There are a lot of schools that plan excursions to this museum, but I guess mine wasn't one of them since I had never been there before. We really liked it! It was very interesting. I only wish I had thought about bringing flat shoes. Walking several miles on cobblestones on your heels (even small ones) is not to be recommended.

This was my personal favorite: seeing the kids dressed up in 19th century clothing...

complete with "klompen"!

Ah, the perfect solution for tired little feet: a "bolderkar" (I have no idea what these are called in English).

Wish I could fit in there ;)

A Tea Party

for Ava. For her mommy, father, brothers and sister. Sharing, remembering, loving, wishing...

The beginning of a new tradition.

Should we use these?

Or these?

Ah, a perfect match.

First some cake...

then some pink milk

to the very last drop!

Happy Birthday Superprincess. I hope you were able to see all the tea parties being held in your honour. You bring families closer together. Make us hold on just a little tighter. Thank you.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes a frown...

is a smile upside down!

Japan in Belgium

Another excursion we made was to the Japanese Garden.

We turned it into an overnight weekend trip and combined it with a trip to Bokrijk (blogpost yet to come).

The weather was slightly overcast but still warm and it wasn't very crowded so it made for a pleasant walk. Though for Caitlin 'walking' can never be considered as 'pleasant'. When we asked the kids at the end of the day whether they had "a fun day", her answer was: "Fun day?!? We hade to WALK all day!". It was actually pretty funny!

Afterwards we went to the playground.

Yes, that's my son in the red shirt, and yes, he did go up higher. I got a little worried when he let go of the ropes to stand on the top platform and I watched him while he was clearly considering jumping to the lower platform...

He decided against it and saved my heart from skipping a few beats. He's such a daredevil. Just like his mom not! ;)