Go, Jack, Go

Uh huh. That's right. Honor Roll. Let's all take a moment to bask in Jack's intellectual glory.

OK, now we're done.

Way to go, Jack!

Quality Time

This counts as quality family time, right?

Comic Strip Trail

One of the things Belgians are really proud of are their comic strips. From Smurfs to Tintin to a host of others, they love their comic creators, and it shows all over town. Not only do they have a Comic Strip museum and a ton of comic stores, but they also have comic murals painted on building walls all over town. They call it the Comic Strip Trail, and you can grab a map of them and walk through Brussels seeking them out. We drove into Brussels yesterday - it was pretty cold, and we had doggies waiting at home, so we didn't have to hit all of them (49 or so), but we managed to hit 10 of them before grabbing a celebratory waffle and heading back home. Can't wait to head back again to track down the rest!

Today's Three Things

(1) We got a visit from "Flat Sandy" from Jack and Ellie's cousin Rebecca in North Carolina. She came on a rainy, dreary day (not uncommon around these parts), but we still managed a quick visit to the Grand Place for a chocolate-filled waffle and a visit to the Guardhouse monkey.

(2) I became one of "those people" - those people who give their kids cell phones. (Yes, feel free to start mocking me .... NOW!) To be fair, they're not smart phones, just the cheap 20 euro pay-as-you-go phones. And it's because we recently had a small scare where there was a mix-up, and one of the kids took the bus home when they were supposed to be picked up, leaving me having to make multiple calls to the school/school bus office/bus driver, and Jack having a bit of a scare when I wasn't there to pick him up at the stop. But yeah, it's still a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old with a phone. So you're fully justified in mocking me. Trust me, I would totally mock you.

(3) Ellie went to her first sleepover in Belgium. It was with the Girl Scouts, to kick off cookie season, and she had a great time. There were movies, pizza, popcorn, cookies, games, fort-making, and lots of girl silliness. And of course, she stayed up way too late, which is a firm requirement at a sleepover. She brought her cell phone with her - for EMERGENCIES, of course (ahem) - and managed to find many "emergency" situations requiring calls home - "Dad, I need to go to the bathroom, but the stall door won't lock - what should I do?" "Mom, I'm bored right now what should I do?" "Dad, I can't sleep, what should I do?" Thank goodness she had that cell phone, because who knows the catastrophe that might have befallen her if she didn't have it. Phew!

Queen for the Day

Here in Belgium, one of the traditions is to have a galette des rois ("King's Cake") on January 6th, or Epiphany, to celebrate when the Wise Men visited the baby Jesus. A small figurine is baked into the cake (well, it's not really a cake, it's more of a pastry), and whoever gets the figurine in his/her slice is 'king for the day' - or 'queen for the day,' in our case. I'm fairly certain some cheating was involved, but Ellie found the wise man figurine, and immediately made some queenly declarations, including the rule that all must bow to her. Luckily, she forgot about her royal nature after a bit, so we weren't stuck groveling (at least no more than normal). I'm still trying to figure out a way to incorporate chocolate into this whole King's Cake thing, but still, I'm looking forward to next year - maybe if I get the figurine, my kids will actually LISTEN to me for just one day! I know, crazy talk.

New Year's Day

Here's Jack and Ellie at Big Ben in London:

OK, so, not quite - it's the MINIATURE Big Ben, which is at Mini-Europe in Brussels. We decided to head into Brussels on New Year's Day to check out Atomium (a big steel structure designed to look, apparently, like the unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times - I guess - I'm just repeating that, since I have no idea what an iron crystal would look like; heck, I'm not even sure how my toaster works). There was a really, really, really long line to get into the Atomium, but the top sphere does have a cool view of the city. Then we headed over to Mini-Europe, which has miniature replications of famous landmarks around Europe. The kids got a kick out of that, even though we rushed through it because of the cold temperature.

Two things saved the day for us: first, we met Maria and Abraham, two foreign exchange students from Colombia standing in the long, long line with us. They were very friendly, and willing to let Jared practice his Spanish with them. And second, Maria and Abraham had found a Mexican restaurant nearby Mini-Europe. Since we haven't found a Mexican restaurant in the almost three months we've been here, that alone was worth the cold and the long lines. So, not a bad New Year's Day after all!



At the top of the Atomium. Maria took this picture of us - when I tried to explain that I don't really like photos of myself, she was genuinely and thoroughly confused. Apparently kids of her generation don't understand the concept of not wanting 8,000 photos of oneself.

This one is of the Grand Place right in Brussels.

You can see the funky-looking Atomium in the background.

Hello, Sir Jack

I heard the palace guards aren't supposed to smile, but I'll accept it this time, since this guard is just so cute

Jack and Ellie, of the cold red noses