Brussels Flower Carpet

Every other year Brussels does a ginormous flower carpet at the Grand Place. We went down on the last day of it so the flowers were a little wilted. Kherington enjoyed finding little ledges to climb/sit on.

We also enjoyed these delicious waffles. I must say that the best waffles are still down at Stockel Market, but the topping on these were pretty good (strawberries & whipped cream and white chocolate syrup). We also visited the Manneken Pis for Ryan's first time. The first time I went there it took me a while to figure out what all the little things moving in the windows were...after raising 4 boys, we figure that some day Ryan's mom should be the proud owner of a big statue that she can proudly display in their front yard (she could even dress it for different holiday's and season).

African Museum

The first Wednesday of each month is free museum day (after 1pm). In August we joined some friends for a visit to the African museum. Kherington didn’t make it through the entire inside, but really enjoyed the steps and the elephants outside.

Upgrade

...and since yesterday was so much fun, today we upgraded Kherington's pool:

Le Crueset

One of the best perks about living in Belgium is that we’re just an hour away from a Le Creuset outlet store! As many of you know Ryan collects baseball hats but since we’re here it doesn’t make much sense to keep collecting (the hats are downstairs in storage… the hat collecting will resume when we return) SO instead I’ve started collecting Le Creuset items! During sale months (July & January) we got an additional 30% off the already outlet price AND since we went the first weekend of sale month got an additional 10% off! I use the normal size pot all the item. Very very nice since it retains heat and our store is ‘energy efficient’ which means it turns on and off and on and off. It make boiling water or simmering stuff so much easier! We did give 8 of the mini pots away for the prize of our Dixon family banana (running race) so we are down to 4, but we plan on getting 8 more :)

Ommegang Dinner

Ryan’s boss was very generous and paid for us to attend a dinner and performance in downtown Brussels. The restaurant overlook the Grand Place (main square) where a 3 hours parade/show performed that included royalty from all over Belgium. In the ally below the restaurant we could watch the performers get ready. The coolest was all the people climbing up onto their stilts....it must take skill to walk around on really high stilts on cobblestone. To be honest the food was little ‘rich’ for my taste (I love Café Rio or Pei Wei kind of places), but it was fun to have a free night out.

Since you've been having Kherington withdrawls...

Here's some great Kherington moments:

Today we decided to go 'swimming'...well as close to it as we could...

And guess what...

...nope we did not get a dog...but we did dog sit one. I would have to honestly say now that we will never own our own dog. We'll just have to borrow one every now and again so she can get her fill.

Kherington is a very inventive girl. She loves playing the dirt and mulch that outlines the yard. She also has been loving the big pillows and reading books in the chair that she can now climb on and off of by herself, and digging through the cupboards that I recently baby proofed so she can have hours of enjoyment unloading. She not only takes stuff out of the cupboards but also puts stuff in. I found a dirty diaper this week :)...yeah, we ususally store them on the computer desk until I take them outside, but she now can reach stuff on the table so off it went.

Battle of the Bulge / Luxembourg

Does anyone remember what the Battle of the Bulge was aside from thinking it sounds familiar. Hopefully I’m not alone in that. We learned that there was a memorial a couple hours a way so we headed off for a visit. I’ve never been (nor will be) a history buff, but I now think I’ll actually remember this one.

We then headed down to Luxembourg to visit a castle some friends had told us about. The original plan was to go to Luxembourg, however we modified our plans based on how Kherington was doing. She was a trooper to spend as much time in the car as she did. We enjoyed climbing around the castle ruins. The castle was in a small, but charming town with a small river running through it (perfect for picnics).