Somewhere in the Middle

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone enjoys a spooky and fun Halloween!

Me + King Tut

Well... I never really thought I'd ever say this but I just booked a flight on Egypt Air. Guess who's going to Egypt!! I'm so excited of course there is also a bit of nervousness mixed in too.

Visiting Egypt will be like a dream come true... I was just 8 years old when my Dad took me out of school for a day to see the King Tut exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City back in 1976. The exhibit had a profound effect on me to say the least.

Thank you S for being such an incredible partner and making this adventure possible for me. I love you!

I have lots to share and will try my best to write & post photos as soon as possible. Things are crazy busy. But it's all good stuff.

Birthday photos coming too... I promise. ;)

Melt Down Thursday

Now that C's birthday has passed I thought this week would begin to slow down. Yeah... not really. But that's okay. I love being busy but all this running around is starting to catch up to us. Monday I volunteered to help at the English conversation table for the Welcome Luncheon. Volunteering for the group gave me an opportunity to meet lots of new ladies that are so eager to start practicing their English. There were two really sweet ladies from Albania & Spain that I hope to see again. I strayed from the table for a few minutes and mingled with some friends and also inquired about an Italian conversation class. I would so love to be able to speak Italian. But before I join a conversation group I think I need to take an introductory course.

This week I've also been pulling out all of C's clothes that no longer fit him. I'm actually really good about recycling his clothes so I don't have a huge amount of clothes thank goodness. Since I didn't do the flea market this year I'm trying to make a big effort and sell or donate the clothes to local thrift shops. And I'm trying to do the same with my clothes as well. So far it's working out pretty well.

Lil' C has been super busy too. Between school, homework, rehearsals, dance class and a late dinner with friends last night it's been a lot for him. He seems to be handling it well but since he doesn't have much time to wind down he's going to sleep much later. So today at dance he had a complete melt down.  This is what happened...

When we pulled into the dance school it actually looked like it was closed. Had I missed a notice about the school closing today? hmm... it was completely possible since we skipped a class due to his birthday party. I decided to wait a few minutes to see if any of the other parents showed up. Lil' C's vote was to leave and go home which didn't sound like a bad idea to me... I could start dinner early & we could work on his homework somewhere other than the inside of our car. But slowly parents started to arrive and dance class was back on.

It was pretty obvious C did not want to go to class. This has happened before and once C actually gets into the class he has a good time. But today was completely different.

He started crying and saying, "I don't want to go. All the kids laugh at me and they stare at me. And I don't like it. I don't have any friends in the class."

I tried to reassure him and explained that the kids were probably looking at him because he did something different than what the teacher had asked since he doesn't understand French completely. I told C it takes time to learn the language and make friends.  But C kept crying and clinging to me. At this point, C had drawn the attention of everyone in the room. The owner of the dance school came up to us & asked me if everything was ok and I gave her a weak "Oui". I tried to tell C that perhaps the kids weren't laughing at him but maybe the teacher said something funny and they were laughing with her. But he just kept saying he didn't want to go. By now the dance instructor was curious about why C was crying. I wanted to explain it to her so badly but I just couldn't find the words and I found myself starting to choke up. I feel for C. It shouldn't be this hard. I look around the room and all the parents are watching. Do they realize how difficult it is to live in a country when we're not completely fluent in their native tongue. For all the wonderful things we experience here there are also these difficult and challenging periods as well. I pulled myself together and did my best to explain to the instructor why C was crying. And she nodded like she understood. The owner & instructor were really sweet and they told C that "Maman" would come in the class with him and that they would ask one of the little girls to talk a bit of English to him. I kept telling C to take a deep breath and I reminded him of how much he enjoys dancing and not to let this stop him from doing something he loves. C seem to calm down for a few seconds only to start crying again. I came so close to saying, "Ok, let's go." But I didn't. I just kept talking to him and we started walking towards the classroom. Poor C was so concerned about whether his eyes were red. He didn't want his classmates to know he was crying. I assured him that he looked fine. And we went into the class together. And he danced. And I watched... knowing this was not easy for him. But I kept smiling and encouraging him. At the end of the class I told him how proud I was of him.

Celebrating Year 7 :: Birthday wishes

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! I hope you enjoyed your weekend of birthday celebrations. We love you so much!

Details & photos about C's Birthday to come soon.

Counting the hours...

It’s almost 3am and here I am drinking a tall glass of milk and eating speculoos cookies. I can't help myself. A slice of pizza for dinner just wasn't cutting it. I've been running around all day getting ready for Lil' C's birthday party tomorrow. Every day this week I've been preparing. Lil' C even helped me put all his goodie bags together. He's super excited about his party!

Earlier this week I baked five 8" & one 10" round pound cakes and the best part is... the cakes didn't burn nor did they crumble like in previous years! I was off to a good start! lol! And yesterday I baked 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with a ganache topping and rainbow nonpareils sprinkled on top for Lil 'C to share with his classmates today. The cupcakes came really cute and again my oven cooperated. I was shocked! I found this fabulous recipe on Epicurious. What drew my attention was the title... Easiest Chocolate Cake. And it really was! It's the type of recipe that you can easily whip up. Love those types of recipes. The ganache frosting was a bit of a risk considering I made it primarily with dark chocolate but we're in Belgium these kids are used to dark chocolate. lol! When I picked up Lil'C from school today he commented on how everyone loved the cupcakes so much they ate them all. But then C's best friend Lil' J (Counting Grrrl's daughter) told me that the cupcakes dropped on the floor. For a second I wasn't sure I heard her correctly. Did she really say the cupcakes fell on the floor? Lil' C explained how he thought the cupcake container was closed and when he picked it up he dropped the cupcakes.

I asked, "How many fell on the floor?"

Lil'C... "All of them"

Me..."All of them?"

But Lil'C was quick to add that even though the cupcakes fell on the carpet everyone still ate them since "only a few of the cupcakes got smushed". I guess the kids really did love my cupcakes if they were willing to eat them after they fell on the floor! I think C has some die hard chocolate fans in his class. lol! ;)

Now Lil' C's cake was anything but easy. I was quite ambitious with his birthday cake this year. I was planning to make a cake similar to C's invites.. an upside down top hat with a bunny coming out of it. Yes, I realize I'm not a professional baker but watching the Cake Boss makes you think you really can do these elaborate cakes. So I'm blaming the Cake Boss' ; it's all his fault. I mean you would think after burning countless of cakes and with my oven constantly lying to me you'd think I'd give up. But no the Cake Boss got me thinking... "Maybe this time it'll work." And because I'm completely obsessed with the show and everything looks super easy I thought no problem I'll make the cake. HA!! Now the Cake Boss always uses fondant so I ordered 5 gallons of black and 2 gallons of white for C's birthday cake. Don't even ask me how much the final cost of this cake is coming out to be after all the materials & supplies I've purchased! I think I would have been better off asking the Cake Boss himself to bake it and mail it to me. lol! Anyway... up until yesterday I wasn't even sure there was going to be a fondant cake since the package had not arrived. So I had a Plan B... make a chocolate buttercream with ganache on top for a silky, smooth look. Luckily, the fondant arrived today! If it weren't for S I think I would still be working on the cake right now. He was an absolute life saver and prepared all the fondant for me. The top hat was pretty easy to make but for some reason the fondant is starting to sag in certain areas. God, I hope it doesn't fall apart through the night. 

Now the bunny on top of the cake wasn't as easy to cover as the top hat. Since the bunny was made out of rice krispie treats my girlfriend, the Pastry Chef, told me it would be best to use fondant first and then decorate. Well, this was all fine and dandy but S & I could not get the fondant on correctly. Not having enough fondant for a second go meant move on to plan C... frost it and sprinkle with coconut flakes. But even this wasn't working. My buttercream seem to have lost it's staying power so around 11pm I made another batch and this time it worked. Hopefully, it'll harden a bit in the refrigerator. My original plan for the wording was to color the fondant red & make stencils for the name & title. But I was a bit worried it wasn't going to work so I piped it on instead. Tomorrow it'll all come together. Nicely, I hope.

I still have lots to do tomorrow  plus I'd like to get some sleep tonight! lol! But I didn't want this day to slip by without trying to capture the moment. Can't forget the little stuff... it's what makes events so special. So here are some details of Lil' C's party I'm sure we'll enjoy reading several years from now.

C's Music Playlist he helped create:

I've Got a Feeling :: Black Eyed Peas

Celebration ::  Madonna

Just Dance :: Lady Ga Ga & Colby O' Donis

I Want You Back (Kenny Hayes Sunshine Funk Remix :: Jackson 5

When Love Takes Over :: David Guetta

Give It 2 Me :: Madonna

Pretty Please :: Estelle

Don't Turn Off the Lights :: Enrique Iglesias

Since You've Been Gone :: Kelly Clarkson

Do Your Thing :: Basement Jaxx

American Boy :: Estelle

What's on the Menu?

Kids :: Apples :: Cheese :: Pretzels :: Tortilla Chips :: Fruit Skewers :: Rice Krispie Treats :: Fresh Lemonade

Adults :: Crab Dip :: Curry Coconut Chicken Turnovers :: Olives :: Teriyaki Chicken Skewers :: Mulled Wine :: Pimms #3 with Ginger Ale (only if I can find ginger ale tomorrow morning; our grocery store was completely sold out)

Activities & Games

Decorate Magic Cups :: Create Fairy doors :: Magic Show :: Dancing Statues :: Unwrap the Gift

Celebrate the Unexpected.

The best things in life are unexpected, because there were no expectations.

- Eli Khamarov

I love this quote.

Life seems to be full of expectations. Often my expectations are quite high... not only for myself but of my family & friends.

Wonder what life would be like if I let go of some of my expectations? I suppose there would be less disappointment and more surprises waiting to be revealed.

The Beginnings of a Magic Party

 

This year I'm all about planning ahead. I want the next few months to be relaxing so in keeping with my goal I started working on Lil' C's birthday invitations. I'm really happy with the results. The basic idea is from an invitation I saw online with a few changes of my own. I decided to put a red strip in front and include a magic instruction card that holds a 7 of hearts with the party details. I also outlined the top hat with red glitter because really doesn't everything look more festive with a sprinkle of glitter. lol! The biggest difference... these cards didn't set me back $55 dollars for just 10 invites.

The Bunny looks much cuter in person. His ears and cheek have a light dusting of pink chalk to brighten him up. When you pull the Bunny out he's is holding a magic instructions card.

When you open the card, you'll find a seven of hearts with the party details. I also included some star confetti inside the envelopes for fun. I love the way they turned out.

This whole magic theme came about a few months ago when I asked Lil C what he wanted to do for his birthday & he said, "I want to have a magic party."

When I asked him why he chose magic he said, "Because some of my friends don't believe in magic and I want to show them that magic is real."

Can you imagine... 5 & 6 year olds not believing in magic? That's crazy talk! So now C & I are on a mission to convince his friends that magic really does exist. ;)

Let the Rehearsals begin...

Guess who received a part in our upcoming community play? Lil' C!! We received the notification e-mail this evening! S & I are so excited for him! Way to go my little man!!

Hello October

Love the month of October... the days are getting cooler but the sun is still shining bright, leaves are changing colors, Lil' C's birthday is around the corner, and of course Halloween. The weather has been incredibly beautiful. We've been trying to take advantage of the weather and going out as much as possible. And this past weekend was a perfect weekend to be out & about.

Last Saturday Greek Grrrl and I took our kids to the Labyrinthe near Durbuy. It was a gorgeous day! The kids had a blast. The Labyrinthe is essentially a gigantic corn field they turn into a maze. Every year they cut the fields differently to change the design of the maze. There are 6 characters hidden throughout the maze and the goal is to find them. Once you find the characters they perform little skits. 

The skits seem interesting but it would have been nice to understand what they were talking about. Especially the character who was running around laughing and throwing the map booklets in the air. I'm not sure what that was about! lol!

At the beginning, Greek Grrrl & I let the boys navigate us around the maze.I enjoyed watching them while they looked at the map in detail trying to figure out the best possible route.

It was really cute to watch Lil' C & Lil' X work together to figure out which path was the correct one. They were a great little team! Both boys were so excited to lead us to the characters and eager to go ahead of us and check whether a particular path was a dead end or not.

After about an hour or two Greek Grrrl and I started to look at the map. We didn't necessarily want to stay in the maze the entire day. lol! I'm sure the kids could have wondered around for a while longer. We managed to find 4 characters which was pretty good.

When we found the last one, the witch, we were the only people there so she started to do her skit in English. She was talking about a magic potion to clean her castle and I also think she started to talk about fairies. I'm not sure though since a few minutes after she began her performance a big group of people came into the circle and she began speaking in French again.

Once we found our way out of the maze, we went to a smaller maze which was really fun. The kids had a great time. Lil'C & Lil' X were having so much fun hiding from Greek Grrrl and I. It was fun at first but I started to freak out a bit when I couldn't find Lil' C. At one point we couldn't get ourselves out of the maze. The doors to get in or out of the maze were locked and we didn't know the code. Thank goodness, someone eventually came to the door and unlocked it for us.

Here is Lil' Greek Grrrl, Lil' X's sister. She is so adorable and will completely melt your heart with her cuteness. Any time Lil' Greek Grrrl would run off Lil' C would try to stop her. He was being super protective of her. It was cute to watch. He'd be such a great big brother.

The following day I woke up super early and went to a flea market outside of Brussels. It wasn't your normal type of Brocante... it was more like a garage sale you'd see back home. Lots of neighbors outside selling things they no longer wanted. It was a perfect event for people looking for french books, toys and clothing for children. I didn't see very many things I liked but I did walk away with a pair of little girl wooden dutch shoes... in red! I already have a pair in black so these red ones will be a nice addition. I also found a Turkish little plate for .50 Euro cents that matches a tiny bowl I bought at the Turkish International luncheon a while back. I was thrilled to find this little treasure.

After I came home S went grocery shopping and C & I worked on some math homework. Once we were done we drove to centre of Tournai. The town was hosting a Medieval festival that sounded fun. Since we went in the later part of the day I wasn't sure if the festival would be dying down but it was quite the opposite.

There were lots of dance & theatrical performances, live music, and concession stands with medieval products like bows & arrows, knives, jewelry, leather products and small fairy statues. Lil' C wanted a wooden bow & arrow which we thought would be really fun for him. The other day he designed his own bull's eye to practice.

These knights were fighting in a very small square and they came dangerously close to us. We had to continue to tell Lil' C to move back. There were swords and spiked, metal balls flying all over the place.

At the back of the church there were several food vendors selling products like apples, honey, candy, churros, and Falafels... my favorite. My friend, Marathon Grrrl & her husband UPS man introduced me to Falafels a few years ago when I met them in Paris. And I love them! So when I saw these falafels I couldn't resist. S has never tried them so I definitely had to buy him some as well. Now ordering falafels took forever and when I say forever I mean FOOOORREVER!! This guy knew how to work the crowd. He'd make just a few falafels at a time which made everyone want them even more. And when people see a crowd they natuarally go to the area to see what all the fuss is about. Once people stopped by the stand I'm sure they were wondering what was going on since the man wasn't doing much. Eventually he started to cook but he was taking his sweet time to make each falafel. The man was in no rush. I must have waited for about 10 mins and during those 10 mins no one was helped nor was he cooking anything! It was crazy! Maybe he really was crazy because he just kept talking and talking. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular either. So I got frustrated and walked away only to come back 5 mins later. Yes... I really, really wanted those falafels!

When I returned Mr. Falafel was at least started to roll the ingredients into medium sized balls. He must have rolled enough dough for about 4 orders even though there were about 12 people waiting to order. Mr. Falafel also had another hot skillet ready to go but why use it when you could have this large crowd waiting patiently?! Since everyone was ahead of me I knew this was going to take a while so I started snapping some photos.

This must have caught his attention because when the first batch of falafels were done he gave me an order and he said with a big smile, "Pour le photographer". Merci! 

The falafels & hummus were delicious. And S loved them too!

The Auditions

Earlier this week I took Lil' C to audition for a local community play. I asked him several  times if he wanted to audition and the answer was always "Yes". So we went. I was so excited for him.

It was our first audition so we weren't sure what to expect. Once the auditions began the producer had all the children move to the front of the theatre and the parents sat in the back which was a great idea. Lil' C rarely ever sings in front of me so the fact that he couldn't see me was definitely a good thing.

The music director passed out sheets with the words of a song from the play and she spent about 10 mins teaching the kids to sing a few of the verses. The experience was so grown up... here Lil' C was all by himself in the front of the theatre, holding a piece of music sheet, and singing all by himself! I was so nervous for him.

I kept thinking, "Does he know how to read all the words on the sheet? Is he really going to go through with this and sing in front of such a big audience?" He was the third child to sing. Lil' C started out loud but soon after I could barely hear him. It was the same for a lot of other kids. I'm sure I would have been the same! 

Next the choreographer divided the group into 2 sets and taught them a dance routine. Lil' C did awesome! The director advised the children to smile & let their personalities come through. And boy did Lil' C let his personality shine through. He did a fantastic job and he was really getting into the movements. And at the end C gave his biggest smile. It was too cute! While he was on stage he saw where I was sitting and at the end of each dance he'd look in my direction and give me a big smile. You could just see how excited and proud he was of himself.

At the end of the audition the director called me over to discuss some date conflicts we had for the rehearsals. Unfortunately, there is a good chance C will miss the last performance along with some rehearsals. The schedule is extremely demanding and I'm not sure how C will handle it or if the director is willing to work with our schedule. But whether or not C gets a part in the play I'm just happy he had this amazing experience. I am so proud of him!