Feb 26th- Trip to Museum of Natural Science Brussels

What was planned as a family Saturday outing turned into Daddy/Aidan outing as Jaxon woke up sick with vomiting and diahrrea...Bummer!   The museum has the largest dinosaur collection in Europe and we heard it is very cool.  The down side is there is no parking nearby so Aidan and I had to park a half kilometer away and walk up hill so Aidan was tired by the time we got to museum.  We saw the Mars Exhibition, Dinasaur exhibit, ocean and land animals exhibit and Evolution exhibit.  We had lunch at the museum Dino Cafe as you can see in pic below.  After visiting the museum store, Aidan got a stuffed animal snake and one for Jaxon since he was sick at home.  When attempting to leave the museum we realized it was down pouring rain and with a long walk to the car, Aidan and I went back into the musuem store...we are now proud owners of a "Dinosaur" museum umbrella.  After returning to our car in Place Du Nord Aidan and I were in need of some dessert.  Since there was no waffle stands nearby we went to a historic coffee/dessert cafe right by our car.  I had a wonderful expresso (starbucks has no chance here) and Aidan and each had a handcrafted chocolate mousse dessert.  Yummm!  What a way to end our morning.

Feb 23rd - Aidans 1st Haircut in Europe/Jaxon in Pirate hat/ Aidan's Croissant

Aidan got his first haircut in our town Tervuren.

Jaxon found the pirate hat

Aidan likes his fresh Croissant

Jax's first haircut here! 2-22-11

I did not have my camera to take pictures during his haircut, but here are some pictures of the finished product.  He went to a barber next to the little gym today. He sat very nice considering there was no cartoon to watch and no sucker to eat. The barber only used a scissors, back home they use the electric razor thing.

Antwerp Central Station Feb 19th, 2011

I was told about an American grocery store in Antwerp; on Saturday we made a trip there after nap and then headed to Antwerp Central Station.  The grocery store had a few things we bought like stove top stuffing and some soups, but it was very expensive, next time we will just call Margaret's cousin Mary for grocery help.
Once we arrived at the station the boys got waffles! Jaxon loves waffles. The station was beautiful, great architecture. We took some time to walk around the station and then ventured outside.  It is still wet and chilly here so we did not last long outside, plus Fletchy pees every 2 seconds to mark his territory. It will definately be a place to go again.  There is even a zoo right next to the station.

Dog sitting

Well you all know how much I love animals, so when another mom from Aidan's school asked me if I would watch Fletchy for a few days I agreed.  Later to find out he goes everywhere with them. People here bring their dogs into stores, restaurants and malls. He is a good dog, but it is so wet here he smells. The boys love having him here.  Jaxon loves to sit in the dog bed with him. He will have stayed with us for 6 days, I am ready to be done.  Cats are so much easier!

The not so Quick visit to Quick

Ok, this is a little out of order but that's how we are. So, at the end of January before I got sick we made a trip to the Quick burger, there version of McDonalds.  We got there around 5:30pm, there was a line of about 6 people. There was one person on the register, one on the grill, one on the drive thru. I think Greg waited in line for at least 20 minutes to order our food, thankfully there was a indoor play area for the kids.  I took them to play while Greg waited to order and get our food.  I can at least say it was fresh.  I don't think we have been back to the Quick burger since. 
Although Greg did pick up McDonalds for us this past Sunday, February 20th. It tasted just like home! Expensive 20 plus Euro for 2 happy meals and 2 adult meals. We won't be going there too often.

First week of Feb 2011- Playing around the house, first grilling attempt and visit to African Museum

In the first couple weeks of February we had some decent weather and not only did they have some fun on the Wii indoors but also got outside a bit.  Jaxon enjoyed playing ball in the back yard, Greg attempted to grill some (steaks??) and potatoes on the built in grill with charcoal and man was it disappointing.  We even went to walk around the amazing grounds of the African Museum in our town on a Sunday morning.

Aidan Likes to pretend he is a weather man and use our giant map



Amy and the kids playing Toy Story Mania on the Wii




Jaxon found a tennis ball in the yard and was having a good time playing fetch with himself.



We have arrived at the African Museum in our town





The charcoal is finally hot and the steaks and potatoes are on the grill

The Beutiful park in the back of the African museum

 






Jan 27-29th- Last days with Margaret and our first Castle trip

On Margaret's last day with us, we enjoyed some nice wine, excellent desserts and of course watched the movie Airplane, even though margaret suggested we listen in French since Amy and her know every sentence in the movie :).  Anyway, after Margaret left we made our first big outing to a Castle that was recomended not too far away by one of Greg's Colleagues.  Kasteel Van Gaasbeek( Van Gaasbeek website) is only about 45 minutes SW of our house and Aidan was begging everyday since we arrived to see a castle so why not on a frosty, frigid, windy Saturday morning....of course the website reads as though it is open...However after arriving and walking about 1/2mile we figured out the castle is actually closed until April 1st.   Oh well... we still got some cool pictures- The pic of Aidan with the gnome is in front of the pub across the street. 

Here is Amy and Margaret enjoying the movie Airplane!

Catch up info

Well it has been hard to update this since we were without internet for 2 weeks after arriving.  So I thought I would just give a brief overview of all we have done and experienced since being here. 
Thankfully, the boys adjusted to the new time zone within a few days, amazing and a God send.  I need my sleep and so do they.  They are both doing great.  Aidan started school 5 days after we got here.  He started off going half days to school.  The teachers recommended he go all day, since a majority of kids his age stay all day.  He was not napping anymore at home without a struggle so the second week he started as an "all day child" and is loving it.  He gets to eat lunch with his friends, make bread and help set the table.  We are so happy we started with Montessori school and were able to continue that here.

Aidan had his first trip to a doctor on January 22nd. He had been complaining off and on since we arrived that his ears hurt. I figured it was just pressure from the plane because he complained on descent too.  Anyway he spiked a high fever and I assumed he had an ear infection.  We did not know how to find a doctor on a saturday so while Greg was in with Jaxon I ran across the street and knocked on a neighbors door.  An older lady answered and spoke English she was nice enough to call the doctor for me and help me get Aidan an appointment.  It turned out Aidan just had pressure built up but no ear infection, his fever continued for 3 days but then he was better.

Then on January 31st I came down with what was thought to be the stomach flu. After 8 days of "stomach flu" and having been seen by a doctor 4 days into it I saw another doctor provided 3 stool samples and was diagnosed with campybactor.  I am doing better now that it is February 13th.

Aidan with his two Teachers (English on left and French speaking on right).  They have been wonderful.

1/22--1/27- Our first outings in Belgium

After getting somewhat settled we were able to make a few brief excursions with Margaret and the kids to the city center of Brussels and the othe "University Town" close to us Leuven.  We spent the Sunday morning in the Grand Place which is the beutiful main square in Brussels and we met up with Mary, who is Margeret's cousin and lives in Mons, Belgium working with military as a teacher.  As you can see by the pics below the kids enjoyed the european architecture :) and enjoyed walking around brussels. 

We went to Leuven one evening to check out a toy shop that the kids got GCs for during Christmas and we had dinner which was amazing.  As with all of Belgium there is a pastry shop every 50 feet so there is a picture of Aidan hanging in the shop. 

 
This is our quick trip to Leuven

1/21-1/24/2011- Our first couple days in Belgium

After getting most of the boxes unpacked on day one and day thanks to Margarets help!  We made some trips to our local grocery store (Carrfour) which is truly an intense process since all of the labels are either in French or Dutch and since we are not fluent or not even close to fluent in either it makes things a challenge to say the least.... you could be buying meatball or bull testicles...who knows :)  It is always refreshing to see pics of branded items  (Mr Clean pic is always the same but its not called that here).  

On Monday 1/24 we made had our big appt at the ING branch with the manager to get our accounts finalized which despite the nearly two hour meeting things went smooth.  We left with a temporary cash card and after our money was wired from our US account we actually had some funds! 

Shortly after it was off to the city hall where our relocation agent met us to help with process of filing for our residence permits...Got to love all the legal documents...thank goodness for the for immigration attorneys.  After filing for our residence permit a police officer came to our door abour a week later to confirm we live there (yes we do) and then our applications were almost done.  Once they are finalized all of us will get a hard plastic electronic residence card which we will bring with our US driver license to the police station to get our international driver license. 

The pictures below are from our first day in the house, the kids first ride in mommy's new car and then our first trip into brussels (in the underground parking ramp)