Music Festival at The Hague, Netherlands

Today we spent the entire day at The American School of The Hague. They hosted a music festival inviting other international schools like ours, ISB. The Hague is 2 hours from Brussels. The twins traveled by bus with the school and Bob and I followed by car. Of course we had at least 3 inches of snow this morning. (Remember we live where they say it never snows. But at least I got to use my new snow shovel to dig us out!) Maria stayed behind and went to the ISB swim meet in Waterloo.
Bob and I got to see the girls play in three different festival entries. Jennifer played with 6 other violas, they both played with their Select Strings after school group and finally Jennifer and Leah played a duet. I have to say the duet was the best I had ever heard it played. After they played the judge asked a few questions.
"Have you played together long?" Yes, we got our music in December.
"How long have you both been playing?" We both started 18 months ago.
"Hey are you sisters? Wait - are you twins?" Yes!
They got to repeat their performance at the end of the day for the strings master class. We heard some unbelievable soloists so it was great for the girls to see what they could be like if they continue to practice their instruments.
Below is the song the Select Strings group played. It isn't the best video and it stops in the middle since it was just a practice but it really is here for the grandparents, so enjoy it Mary, Primo, Don and Mardi!

New Haircuts

Oh my gosh! Thursday the girls got haircuts. We went to three different stylists and all the girls got a little bit more than they thought they were getting. No more ponytails for Leah, the Cleopatra look for Jenn and a lot shorter than expected for Maria.

:)

While going through some of my pictures for the other blog entry I wrote today, I found these pictures of Bob and the girls. They were taken in September at a restaurant in a little town called Jezus-Eik. We pass through this tiny, blink and you miss it, town on our way to Brussels. On one street there are 13 restaurants all clumped together. In the picture above you can see 9 of the restaurants. My goal is to visit every one of them! So far I have been to 4. I have a long way to go! It doesn't help that we keep going to the same place over and over again. It is one of those places where we know the food will always be perfect and the waiters will be fun. Here is a picture of our favorite waiter. His restaurant, CAFE de la FORET, is across the street from the ones in the picure above and is on the edge of the forest. Enjoy these silly pictures...can you pick which one I framed?

1 week's worth of sage advice

#1 If you see a snow shovel, buy it even if the temperature is almost 50 degrees.


#2 Don't put unleaded gasoline in a diesel car. Yeah, this mistake was baaaaad.

#3 12 year olds do not know everything but need to be listened to.

#4 18 year olds think they know everything and still need to be listened to.


#5 48 year olds do know everything, especially about diesel cars.
#6 Our GPS is a good tool but is not always right and can be overruled by 46 year olds who drive all over all Brussels all the time.

COLTS/jets (notice the jets are not capitalized)

9:00 PM Game time for the COLTS/jets game. If we watch the entire game we will be up until 1:15 AM! We have big plans for guests, food and lots of fun. Our friends are jets fans. We are trying to round up some more COLTS fans so we can outnumber the jets!!! Chili, wings, caramel corn plus tons of other football food are all on the menu. I think I will shut down the bar in the third quarter just like they do at the Stadium. The Biasi's are all wearing blue and many of our foods are blue too! We have something orange on the table in honor of Payton Manning's college Alma mater, The University of Tennessee. GO COLTS!

What's for dinner?

Not too long ago, we had friends over for dinner. Leah and Jennifer had a huge hand in the planning.

Leah grated the cheese for Baked Potato Soup. (You can't buy shredded cheddar cheese here.)

Jennifer chopped scallions for the top of the soup.
Both girls set the table. It was Jenn's idea to put the veggies in the coffee cups and Leah set the rest of the table. We decided I need some Polish Pottery dinner plates to go with all the other pieces. Don't worry, there is a trip planned to make pottery purchases at the outlet at the end of January!

(The food was great too.)

Welcome Home Infiniti - "I promise never to hit anything again."

My car is finally fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you follow this blog, you know I have been without my beloved Infiniti since Oct. 23. I love that car! It used to be Bob's and he enjoyed driving it just as much as I do. It has a sun roof, heated seats and more get up and go than Tiger woods on the run from his estranged wife. I was almost afraid to pick it up out fear that it would be painted orange or not quite as perfect as it used to be. But here is is!...
And below is the piece of junk I had to drive while we waited for my Infiniti parts to arrive from Russia. The loaner car was from the repair shop called Carrosserie W.O. (care-o-sir-ee woo) These words were written on both sides of the car so I was free advertisement for them while I drove all over Brussels. A friend of mine called it the WOO CAR. You even had to crank the windows by hand. The twins got a big kick out this feature. To them it was as novel as a record player.
If I had to do it over again, I probably would not bring a car to a foreign country. The red tape to get it legalized took over a year to complete. Oddly enough, I got the final ok from the Belgian government for plates and legal vehicle status while the car was in the shop for its 2 1/2 month repair. Ironic.

Finally Pictures Finally!

Wow! I am finally able to post pictures!!! I have no idea why this didn't work this morning, yesterday or even last week. Anyway, posting is working now and I am going to capitalize on the opportunity. Here are pictures of last week's snow storm. We didn't bring our giant snow shovel with us nor did we bring our snow blower. The pictures show all the tools we use to get rid of the white stuff.Here we have Maria shoveling the front walk leading to the street. Doesn't she look happy and excited? She is using our biggest and only shovel. It isn't really a snow shovel but it does a good job.

Maria was a little unhappy and cold. She needed a ride to a friend's house and couldn't leave until we dug ourselves out of the snow. On the positive side, look how healthy she is!!! She just had surgery to remove the pins and screws from her spine a short 3 weeks before this picture was taken. She never complained about pain or used her back as an excuse. Good girl!This is Bob. Take a look at the tool he gets to use to remove snow. It is a squeegee! He is one very resourceful guy.
Leah gets her resourcefulness from her father. In this picture she is using a giant IKEA shoehorn to scrape the ice off the driveway. Good girl!
And finally Jennifer with the broom. She grabbed whatever handled object was left in the garage. She and Bob used their tools in tandem. Good girl!

Aren't you wondering which tool I used? I was lucky enough to be in charge of picture taking!

Snow Pictures

...still no pictures...Sorry Mary!

Snow Snow Go Away Come Again Another Day (when Bob is home to shovel it!)

If it were just a little warmer, all the snow we have had in Belgium would be rain. Rain is normal here but snow is not, at least not as much as we have had in the past month. I know my friends and family back home are snickering because they have had more than their share of the white stuff too. I sure wish we would have brought our collection of sturdy snow shovels with us from Indiana. We believed everyone when they said it never snows in Belgium and we left all the snow blowing/scooping/pushing supplies back in the states!

This is the space where lots of pictures should be! But for some reason, I can't upload anything. Check back in the next 24 hours.

Strikes

European Farmers’ Anger Spills Into the Streets of Brussels
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/global/06milk.html?_r=1&hp


Take a look at the link above. Protests like this happen all the time in Brussels. Most of the time, strikes are held around a holiday so the participants get an extra day off from work. That is just my outsiders opinion, but I am usually right! Of course the striking farmers don't ever get a day off since their animals still have to be fed and milked, so my hypothesis isn't correct in that instance. But for the most part, we usually see a transportation strike or a grocery store employee strike right around a long weekend. We have a holiday on Friday, January 22. Anybody want to place a bet about which of our public works will be on strike?

Same kids - Old picture

I didn't have any new pictures so I dug this one up from the summer (2008) before we moved. The girls are at Mt. Rushmore. Maria looks so young! What a difference there is between 16 years old and 18 years old! Leah and Jennifer haven't changed much. Can you tell who is who?
The picture reminds me of our wonderful trip that summer to visit Brad, Kirstian, Valerie, Joe and Tom. We made some unique and special memories sliding down snow covered hills in the mountains at the Continental Divide. Miss you guys!

The Recipe Box

Over this holiday I tried to make an effort to attack and clean the parts of the house that don't get much attention...the drawers of the desk we never sit at, the cabinet above the TV which I thought was empty, the closet in the guest bedroom, etc etc. I even cleaned out my recipe box. Here are a few of the recipes I found.

"Fake Guacamole"? Seriously? Asparagus instead of avocados? In what country would I ever live that they wouldn't have avocados? Yuck!! I threw this one away.
Why did I need to write this one down?I had six of these coupons for a free kids meal at Chili's. They don't expire but the twins will be old ladies by the time I get around to remembering I have them at the same time I am at the restaurant that is only located in a country I only visit twice a year.

Grandma's recipes are so thorough! This one for Macaroni Salad took up two sides of the recipe card. I have never made it but it stays in the recipe box because it's from Grandma.
Beets? Spinach? I cut this out of a magazine in the 90's. What made me think anyone in our family would eat it? It got tossed. (Ha Ha Good pun!)

Here is another that got tossed. Pimento cheese? Deviled ham?I think this post-it has the ingredients for the best cookie I have ever eaten. If I am correct, it came from my friend Sue...I sure hope you are reading the blog, Sue...I need more info! Is this your delicious and oh so popular Oreo cookie recipe? How do I make the first 3 ingredients into the outer parts of the cookie? Now I am hungry! Help!

And finally, Texas Cake Icing. This is the best icing in the entire world. It's a keeper.

Library Contest

The library at ISB is holding a contest when the kids finally go back to school on Monday.
"Bring in a picture of yourself reading during the holiday vacation. The most creative reading location will win a prize!"
While at Disney, Jennifer (on the left) and Leah (on the right), planned to pose for their contest submission on a roller coaster. Thy tried on Rockin Roller Coaster but it was too fast to take pics. They tried on the kiddie train but the pictures were too boring. They finally had success on Big Thunder Mountain. All of the pictures were actually taken while the roller coaster was moving! Bob was the camera man.

It really was cold especially on the outdoor rides like this fast roller coaster. I can't quite believe we didn't have more complaints. As I said in a previous post, we had a great time!

Grandma's Cookie Recipe

This cute little snowman is the result of Grandma's cookie recipe. We made lots and lots of these little guys before Maria's surgery. We gave them as gifts to anyone who would accept, but there were so many that we still have a few hanging around the kitchen! The snowmen were inspired by the huge amounts of snow we have enjoyed in Belgium. It is not supposed to snow here but the joke is on us because we have had snow 3 times already this winter!

Christmas Holiday Part 2

The second part of our Christmas vacation was spent at Disneyland Paris. We love this place! Although it was the opposite of our stay in Southern France, we had a super time in both locations!

The park was decorated for the Holiday Season and the Castle was the prettiest of all with lights covering every surface.

France is really cold in December and January! I often wonder what the Disney leaders were thinking when they picked Paris as the location of a theme park.
Check out the icicles hanging from paddle wheel!

To accommodate for the low temperatures, Disney has provided lots of little indoor shortcuts from one part of the park to another. Jennifer found them all on the map and led us all over the park with very little outdoor time. In the picture below you can see the back of the girls on their way through an indoor passage. They were going to get a Fast Pass at Big Thunder Mountain, our favorite roller coaster in Disneyland. (Our favorite in MGM is Rockin Roller Coaster -we rode it 5 times!)














Our Christmas travels were fun even in the cold weather!

Christmas Holiday Part 1

Our Christmas Holiday trip was actually to two locations. I hope my clues didn't confuse you too much! The first stop was in South West France. We were so relaxed, so comfortable and so happy that we didn't take one picture!!! The beautiful picture above is not mine but it is typical of the little towns in the area where we stayed. We traveled with friends and enjoyed a very pleasant stay on their country estate. There were a total of 11 people. We all took walks in the rainy/sunny weather and shared wonderful food and wine at the huge dining room table. The area is inhabited with field after field of grapes and wineries around every corner. We tasted wines of the region and actually talked to the winemakers. We had a perfect time and will definitely travel again with those very generous friends. Thanks for sharing your home and the French side of your life!

We're Back!

I will post pictures and give all the details of our trip tomorrow. But for now, you will have to guess where we went from the following clues:
wine
wineries
ducks and geese
sheep
long walks
200 year old building
friends
good food
foie gras
Mickey
Castle
60 degrees and 30 degrees