Andrew's and Charlie's Everyday Adventures

To the Beach

2008-04-13T10:36:00.004+02:00

The Picture above is Andrew's pirate ship!

Sorry for the long absence but with 1/2 term time really flies by. Yesterday we all went for a lovely drive to IJsselmeer and Markermeer in the Nederlands and then onto the coast. It was a lovely sunny day, just a shame it was so windy. It was nice going to the sea. The boys enjoyed it and Andrew got soaked! He was told not to go in the water but he never listens and his shoes and jeans both are soaking wet, covered in sand. Charlie enjoyed throwing shells into the waves.

Bring on the summer!

Dinosaurs, Roooaaarrrr!

2008-03-09T19:09:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, Saturday we all went to the Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen in Brussels which had the most wonderful dinosaurs! Andrew on the way to the museum kept asking was it like Jurassic Park? Are they alive? When we got the the museum it took alot of convincing that the dino's are in fact dead, a long time ago.

First we had to feed our bellies and had some lunch. Filled and ready to go we cautiously entered the exhibition. When we first got through Andrew was still a little worried he was going to chased by a T-Rex or something equally scarey! Once he saw that it was skeletons everything was ok!

There were lots of really good displays of all different sorts of dino's. Some displays were interactive and all information was in 4 languages so we were able to understand everything. Even little Charlie had a ball. He now roars like a little T-Rex and thinks all animals make that sound which is really funny.

When we finished our dino tour we thought thawas it but there was tons more to see in the museum. It had all different animals on display and some insects, dead and alive. At least the alive ones were behind 2 thick pieces of glass!

It was such a good day out that at the end we were all so tired and felt like we had walked miles. We spent 4 hrs looking at everything and the boys both had so much fun.

The pics wont upload at the moment but you can see them here.

To the Boerderij (The Farm)

2008-03-05T20:38:00.004+01:00

Andrew went on his big trip on Monday morning to Viersprong Boederij with school. After mummy spent all day Sunday ironing his name onto every single thing that went with him to the farm, including pants, socks and pillow, he was all ready to go on his first trip overnight without his family!

He was a very excited little boy waiting for us to get ready to go, so excited he couldn't eat his breakfast. Papa as always was a slow coach at getting ready to go and we finally left the house at 8.00am to take Andrew meet his friends. When we got the farm and Papa parked the car we were greeted by the biggest chickens we have ever seen, even Papa was impressed. "Do they feed them little boys?" Papa asked Andrew! We delivered him safely inside to the teacher and his other class mates and our parting words were ".. now remember to listen to you juf and have lots of fun. I love you! Bye bye" and that was that. My little boy was away.

The house was very quiet at dinner time with just Papa, Mummy and Charlie. I kept wondering what he was doing and if he was having fun. Of course he was! Even the next morning it was so quiet without Andrew. At 2.30pm I reminded Papa to pick Andrew up. 4.00pm came and I was waiting patiently for them to come home. A few moments later the door bust open and in came a tired little boy. Papa said that when he met Andrew at the farm he was in a trailer at the back of a tractor but when he saw his Papa he started to cry! Even when he came in he said to me that he missed me!

At the farm he made some very yummy bread and got to bring it home to share with us. He also milked a cow, cleaned out some stables and fed the animals but it wasn't all hard work he also got to ride the donkey! At night I don't think they got much sleep as all the children slept in the same room with bunk beds. Needless to say he was in bed early when he came home and slept in on Wednesday morning as school hard an exceptional closure but I think it was a day off for the teachers to recover!

Overall he says it was fun but missed his Mummy, Papa and little brother!

Andrew is on the far right, talking to the little girl.

Something to make you smile!

2008-02-28T20:59:00.006+01:00

Look what my little baby has discovered he can do! I can't even blame Andrew for this one. We keep asking Charlie to point to parts on his body and he will point to them and of course then he found 2 little holes perfect for little fingers.

A funny story, last night when we were waiting for the main electric garage door to open we all lined up to race down the hill to our garage. (Andrew and I do this everyday coming home from school.) There we waited and the door slowly creapt up, Andrew eager to win thought the door was open enough for him and cycled straight into it, crash. Of course we just laughed. Needless to say Andrew won the race.

Maybe it was one of those things were you had to be there!

What a Weekend!

2008-02-24T21:39:00.009+01:00

First on Saturday we all went for a mega cycle. As always it was only meant to be a little one but somehow it was very long! We cycled down the canal on the cycle path then turned off down the country and stayed in Turnhout, or so we thought! Turns out we had cycled to the next town down, opps. At least the weather was nice even at 6.30pm.

Today, Sunday, we decided to go for a walk. Not too far mind we all had sore legs from yesterday. We all hopped into the car with our obligatory pick nick (for my hungry boys) and headed south. We ended up going to a lovely area near a village called Robertville. Yes it really was called that!

There is a dam and a very nice castle called the Reinhardstein. Around the castle there is a walk that is quite hilly, okay I lied it is very mountainous. Never mind our sore legs but we had a lovely walk around the valley under the castle. We also got to see the highest/longest waterfall in Belgium which is 60 mts.

We took so many pictures I will put them on our photo site. They are all lovely.

Where has February gone?

2008-02-23T21:53:00.011+01:00

I cannot believe it is almost March and I haven't written anything. First I was ill then Robert went away and then we were busy doing silly things and the time has just flown by. We haven't really done very much. Even though Feb is the shortest month it sometimes seems to last forever with all the dull weather and not much to do. Today we went out for a long cycle even though it was meant to be a short ride. We made a wrong trn somewhere and ended up a lot further than we thought, oops!

Andrew is plodding along but getting very excited about going away with school to the farm. His class and the class above are going for a night away at a working farm on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th March. The first night away own his own!

Charlie has discovered welly boots. He brings them to me every morning to put on and will not take them off until bed time.

Here he is in his boots. He is so grown up lately and very bossy, we have already got the terrible two's tantrums! He copies everything Andrew does and they love to play with each other. They disappear away to their room and all I can hear is them laughing.

Here is a picture Papa took this morning and I can't believe how big they have both gotten. My big boys.

Drielandenpunt, Sunday is walking day!

2008-01-27T20:02:00.001+01:00

The last week has been really quiet. That is except for Andrew being sick on Friday night. He seems to be feeling much better now. Poor little man.

Today we all went for a lovely walk in Drielandenpunt (three land point). It is the point where Belgium, Netherlands and Germany all meet. It is a wooded area with lots of walks and there is a Lybrinth that you get lost in! Today we just went wandeling (walking to us english speaking lot) around the trees.

Andrew was very excited about walking but was not so happy about getting his new walking boots dirty! As always the first thing the boys do is find big sticks to walk with so off they went in pursuit for the straightest branches they could find. With that accomplished we all set off enjoying the lovely scenary. Papa got bored following the set path so we diverted off up a hill through the trees with much moaning from Andrew that his legs and feet were sore.

About 20 mins later we all reached the starting point and Andrew went to play in the park while Papa bought us all some lekker frietjes (yummy chips). Charlie loved them. He then went to play with Andrew in the park and got really annoyed when he couldn't walk up the slide on the part you are supposed to slide down, silly billy!

Andrew's 8th Birthday!

2008-01-18T18:48:00.000+01:00

Today, the 18th January is Andrew's 8th birthday. Wow 8 years old. It started off with a loud shout coming from the boys room, 'It's my birthday today!' No sooner said than a little excited boy came flying out of his room declaring he wanted eggs and bacon for breakfast. A little pile of presents awaited while mummy made fried eggs, bacon and toast for her little men.

Andrew got some lovely clothes from Oma and Opa, a t-shirt from Auntie Jilly and Uncle Steven, and some wonderful socks from Auntie Stephanie. From mummy and papa and Charlie some new figures for the work in progress castle build.

Later in the post came another parcel from Nanny and Grandad that was excitedly ripped open. When Papa came home from work we all had some yummy cake and watched A Night In The Museum (a present from Nanny and Grandad). It all came to an end too quickly and soon it was time for bed. But tomorrow there is a party .....

Saturday fun

2008-01-13T11:14:00.001+01:00

Here is Andrew starting to build his new castle using his bricks that Santa brought. Of course Papa had to 'help'. Andrew sat for about 1.5hrs working away until he was told to go to bed. Not long after Andrew went to bed Papa was sitting in the same chair building as well, what a pair of boys!

I was also able to pursuade Papa to help me make some felt food for the boys. Here he is working away. I stopped to take the picture but I did help!

Here was the end result. With thanks from Andrew for the design on Papa's face!

Hi and hello

2008-01-11T14:51:00.000+01:00

Well here is our new blog! I thought it would be nice to share our everyday life with others, oh you lucky people. For now all I wanted to do was say hi. It might take a while for me to work out how everything works but hey-ho it will be fun.