Ella's Birthday Party

Grace was so excited celebrating with Ella for her 4th birthday!

Nap time

Nothing like curling up on the couch and taking a nap with Gaga!

Chevron Wall

For months now I have been wanting to paint the wall behind our kaminofen. I didn't want to hang anything on the walls, but wanted to paint something that would be a perfect accent to the room.

My mom made some new pillows for the couch so I decided to paint the chevron design yellow.

I looked and looked on Pinterest to find ideas of the best way to tape it off. Finally my mom found one that seemed to be the most simple way. I had a 12 inch square piece of cardboard and traced around it on the entire wall with chalk. Then I taped from corner to corner going up and down to mimic the design. After about an hour and a half I it was done!

When I was at work on Friday my mom painted and I came home to a completed project.

I love it! It's a perfect design for the room. 

Fasching

Jackson's german immersion class (along with the other 3 classes) had a Fasching party in the gym on Thursday. The kids dressed up in all sorts of costumes. 

Fasching is Germany's carnival season just as Mardi Gras is to New Orleans. It starts on the 11th day of November at exactly 11 minutes after 11am and ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday. It's a time to break and poke fun at the rules. The day of the party fell on Thursday and by tradition women are allowed to cut off a man's tie if they are wearing one. So most of the teachers had scissors with them. If I was thinking I would of put Jackson in one of Jason's old tie's. 

It was fun to see them sing and dance to the traditional german songs!

 Jackson and his bud, Luke

 Jackson's teacher, Frau Whitely was dressed up so cute.

Face Painting with Gaga

The kids have always remembered when my mom painted their faces the last time she was here. So this time they couldn't wait for her to do it.

The kids hung out with Gaga on Monday (no school for Jackson) while I went to work. I came home to their faces painted like this:

 Amazing!

 Darth Maul

Grace didn't want her face painted, so she had a pony on her arm.

'

 Round 2 of Alex and Jackson

Holly and Hannah the kids other neighbor friends.

Tongeren, Belgium

Tongeren is one of my favorite places to shop for unique items here in Europe. When I went there last May with some friends, I bought our coffee table that I love so much. 

While my mom was here for a visit we took a short weekend trip to Belgium. We stayed in Liege which is located only 30 minutes from Tongeren. On Saturday we drove around to some shops and upon Jason's request went and bought a handful of the yummy Belgium beer.

At about 6 on Sunday morning we drove to Tongeren and began shopping.

This black swan was so pretty!

This is a bread bowl from India I got for 30 euro.

(I bought it from the same man I got our coffee table from.)

 I couldn't pass up the the beautiful golden demi john!

 This is the corner rack I got including two wooden dough boards and one metal one. It is what the dutch used to use (way back in the day) for their dough to rise. According to the woman we bought it from it is from the early 1900's.

I love it!!

 Tongeren didn't fail our expectations at all! I love picking up unique treasures and bringing them into my home to admire for years to come.