POD-191: Happy Thanksgiving

Living in Belgium has never stopped us from celebrating with a nice American-style feast for Thanksgiving. This year we got together with my other American friend in the neighborhood and made a nice dinner for a few of our close friends. We fixed all the traditional dishes with a turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and of course pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream.

I was feeling thankful for so many wonderful things this year early in the week, but then kind of had the rug swept out from under my feet making me think about things a bit differently. In the end, getting together with one of my greatest friends was not only exactly what I needed, but really put things back into perspective.




Morgan was in charge of the green beans. She helped me snap them all in half and made the dressing. I asked her how many she was going to eat since she helped make them and she told me "one." In the end she ate 5 whole green beans.


Noah was quite patient while we spent the whole day cooking.


Morgan and Thomas.


Morgan was happy to share kitty with Noah, but didn't quite like him being thrown on the floor.

POD-190: Fall Cookies

I love Terrie, what else can I say? Oh yeah, yum!

POD-189: Morgan and Jules

You've probably seen these already, but there's more + the story on Morgan's blog.

POD-188: Sinterklaasfeest at Work

Morgan was so excited to go to the Sinterklaas party at my work, mostly because she wanted to see my work. They had a big party with lots of fun stuff for the kids to do. She made her own cocktail, got a balloon dog, decorated a cupcake, made a flower, sang for the Sint and zwarte Pieten (how did I miss a picture of them!!?), and got lots of candy. Surely that will skew her perception of what I really do at work.

POD-187: Vorselaar Castle

We were grateful for a nice enough day to go visit this nearby castle we've been wanting to see. It's a bit of a hike to get there which was nice since it isn't open for visitors.




Morgan says, "look, Mommy, football." lol


Morgan charmed a cookie and truffle from a nice grandmother walking in the woods.


Still a few mushrooms in the woods. Not and of the cute red ones with white spots, but still mushrooms.










This is what Morgan did when I asked her to put her cheek on my cheek. Then it became quite the funny game.


"You can't pass"

POD-186: Morning Sunlight

Admire for a second if you will...not the pretty orchid or the photograph itself, but the sun coming in my window this morning. And on a weekend none the less.

POD-185: Matching

Morgan is really into matching colors these days and while we're working on growing out her bangs these days (or "fringe" as some might say) she loves to pick out her barrettes in the morning. We've had to set limits on how many she is allowed, but this particular day she managed to find one to match each stripe in her dress. How can you say no to that? It was incredibly hard to capture (especially in the morning rush), but you get the idea:)

POD-184: Misty

Okay, so this picture is a little creepy, not to mention over-exposed. I was riding my bike home from work on this incredibly misty day and was wiping the moisture off my eyes the whole ride home even though it wasn't raining at all. The shots didn't quite come out like I had in mind, but I've shared plenty of other "non share worthy" shots throughout the year so year it is...my self portrait...

POD-183: Tower Crashing

Morgan was so happy to have Brenna over at our house to play. They had fun building this tower together and crashing it.

POD-182: Gone with the Grass

This was a particularly dreary week followed by a particularly dreary, wet, long weekend, but finally Sunday afternoon there was enough of a break in the rain that I scratched my plan to finish painting Morgan's room and headed outside to tackle the trimming of our beautiful 7 foot grass in the back.

POD-181: Kabouter Morgan

A sure sign of fall in Belgium are Kabouters (gnomes) and paddestoelen (mushrooms). This was the theme of the week in Morgan's class and they ended the week with a kabouter party and came home with painted cheeks and cool hats. The kids were searching for kabouters hidden in the playground and found a pancake griddle. Naturally, the party ended with Belgian style pancakes topped with sugar. I wasn't allowed to wash those cute cheeks all weekend.

POD-180: Dopido

Morgan working on some projects on the workbooks she brings home from school. Give her some things to tape or glue and she's having a great time.

What I'm loving now/in the near future

My sweet little Flemmish-American girl
Belgian Christmas Ales
Another Thanksgiving with great friends
Christmas Markets
Thick blankets
Visit "home"
Pumpkin soup with corriander (although nearly every night will put this on the "I'm sick of list" pretty soon)
Uggs
Great friends
Blue sky...since it's rare these days

POD-179: Popjes

A quick snapshot of Morgan after school on one of those days she gave me a look like "what are YOU doing here ALREADY?" I always love seeing what she's really up to since she always just tells me she played with the dolls all day. Oh wait, that's what she's doing.

I was told today by her teacher that the baby doll she's carrying is well known to be hers. She is very particular about it and will notice if its wearing the wrong clothes. She knows what she wants and that's a good thing says juf Sofie.

POD-178: Huh?

You don't think hot dogs and pineapple sound good?

POD-177: Reeses

Yep, Morgan's still got some American in her and enjoys good ol peanut butter and chocolate.

POD-176: Sorting Coins

POD-175: Ardennes

A few pictures of something other than Morgan for a change...
What started out as a nice pretty day in the north of Belgium was a bit cold and foggy (reminded me of the smokies actually) down in the Ardennes. I should have brought along the flash (and taken Morgan out of the backpack), but here are a few mushrooms we found.







And so Morgan doesn't feel left out...

POD-174: Nachtengalen Park

One of my favorite parks in Belgium. I think they're all so fun and imaginative and a bit dangerous. And, of course they all have a nice cafe to sit and have a beer or coffee and sandwich. Both times I've been here I've been amazed at how polite and courteous kids are to each other. The big kids always make an extra effort to make sure everyone is taking turns, helping the little ones on and off the big swings and stuff, and a girl who was helping push while Morgan was riding up front was asking her how fast she wanted to go. When she told her fast she asked, a little fast or a lot fast. A lot fast.

POD-173: Kitty has a neck

Not just another morning bike picture, but look...kitty can sit up on her own again without being all folded and tucked in.