Rowan turns 3

Today Rowan turned three. It is kind of hard to believe he is already a little boy. His celebrations started yesterday when at school, he received a special birthday hat and a bunch of drawings from his classmates and also got to eat some of Colby's cake.

This is the birthday sign Rowan and I have been working on for the last couple of weeks.

Today Rowan's celebrations began with some 6:30 AM present opening.

Then we had a party with a bunch of his friends. We played a prize walk game, pin the tire on the wheel (his party was a car theme), and balloon volleyball. And of course, the cake Colby made was delicious.



Rowan's birthday dinner consisted of one of his favorite words "chich kebob" and a massive pile of Belgian fries.

my birthday.

Colby threw me a great birthday party. I got to invite a bunch of friends over and he prepared a 4 course meal. It was so fun and the food was, of course, excellent. He wrangled in a few men to come and help him serve.

Here is the lot of us.


Most of my gifts included books . . . how did they know? One such gift was decorated with a Zwarte Piet chocolate lollipop.

The yummy cakes. Carrot and chocolate.


Happy birthday was sung to me in Italian, Spanish and English. It was great.

The men doing the dishes.

mom and catherine come to visit.

I had reserved some spots for us all to go up the bell tower and listen to a concert. But they lost the keys so we didn't get to go. But I got a funny photo of Catherine and mom waiting, so the cancellation turned out positive after all . . .


A free balloon.

A glass of milk.

The playground.


My sister is cool.

Reading to Rowan.

An early birthday party for Rowan resulted in a new stuffed elephant from his second cousin who lives in Switzerland.


Visiting Brussels.

Sickness and Halloween

This week Rowan experienced an odd stomach sickness that had only one symptom: throwing up. So we spent Sunday morning making a ginger bread house that we have had on our shelf for the last two years. The idea of making it seemed like a fun kid activity, but it really wasn't. The burning hot sugar, which is used to put it together and stick the candy on the roof, continually burned our hands. Oh well, it was a nice try.


Some of the puke ended up hitting tee-too. So he needed a bath and was put out on the line to dry.

Rowan sick.

On Friday night we did a little trick-or-treating on a nearby street. Our friend from Canada organized it. She put flyers on people's doors and told them what to do when kids came to knock on their door. The whole event was a new experience for the many Belgians who participated. For example, the ghosts located on the right of this photo also had belts on. Thus, they had no arm holes and ended up having to reach through their mouth holes to get their candy. It made them very scary. Also, the candy given out consisted of either entire treat bags or of someone opening a bag of cookies and giving each kid one, which they in turn, had to eat right on the spot. Rowan ate many cookies.

Rowan didn't want to wear his spiderman costume, it scared him. But lack of costume did not prevent him from partaking in candy consumption.

On Saturday, we went to a Halloween party where there was a pinata. It was a new experience for Rowan.

Colby and I stole our costume ideas from our friends the night before. We went as the Incredibles. I had to anyway, since my new haircut makes me look like the mom from that movie.
This is me and Todd.

Colby and I being Incredible.

Rowan wrestling.

the daily stuff.

Watching the sunrise on our tiny front balcony.



Rowan shaving.


The other day, Rowan put a barrett in his hair, hid in the closet and said "I'm a girl!"

Rowan questioning . . .

Last week our friend Brian came back in town. Brian used to live, a couple of years ago, with his family in what is now our apartment. When we first came to Leuven we stayed in their place. Phyllis was along with us for the move. When she saw this napkin holder on the table she thought that "matz" was the Flemish word for napkin. But in reality, it was the last name of Brian. So, when Brian and family moved back to the States, he left us his "matz" holder. It was so kind of him.

Rowan dancing with tee-too.

8 years.

Every year, while we lived in St. Louis, we would celebrate our anniversary by going apple picking, making a bunch of apple pies and bringing them to whoever happened to be home that day. After a two-year hiatus, we decided it was once again time to work our apple peeler and make some pies. This year was different from years past in that we had a little Rowan to assist in the cooking and deliveries. In fact, he ended up being the main one to hand out the pies. Also, this year was different in that we weren't able to find disposable pie tins so we had to work with what we could find which were these tiny disposable escargot tins. These made the pies extra super cute.







In the evening we were able to go out for a date of mossolen and frieten and then we went to see Away We Go. Were were the only ones in the theater for the 10:45 PM showing.




On a side note, I like how the extra virgin olive oil from Israel and Palestine are side-by-side on the shelves in the Oxfam store.

The Antwerp Zoo.

Yesterday we took advantage of the great weather and went to the Antwerp zoo. Unlike the St. Louis zoo, this zoo has a somewhat pricey entrance fee. But Colby did some research and found a train ticket/zoo ticket in one and ended up saving us some money. The zoo did not disappoint. There were a lot of those little colored frogs and the grounds were designed to please.

I have to say that this photo of Rowan with the painted elephant is pretty cute.



There was a huge turtle shell in which you could crawl.

I wanted to climb in like Rowan . . . but Colby was too cool to climb in.

A tree with personality.


One of the aquariums had a bike in it . . . it was so true to life, just like Leuven. There are always bikes in the canal.








The zoo was right next to the train station. Here is the backside of the station.




The Antwerp train station continues to be one of our favorites.