First time for everything

I had a long day at the office yesterday, only got home at 8:30, sadly this is not the first time.

But, guess what I came home to? Freshly baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

First time Cat baked cookies all by herself, and they were perfect, big, chewy and soft.

Himself was also making dinner – yay!

Then they told me that Cat had gone to the shops in her bicycle all by herself – another first!

She forgot to buy eggs so she had to go back but she didn’t want to people at the check-out to think she is stupid so she went to another store.  She is so funny sometimes.

Tiger had about 5 bites of his dinner last night, when we asked him why he said he was full, but you only had 1 cookie. Nope, he had 4! I guess he also thought his sister did a good job.

all that was left by the time I got home

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This morning I got to the train station, something was clearly going on cause there were loads of people standing around. Inside the boards said:  Due to a bomb scare at Braine l‘alleud the trains are not running.

Clearly this was the first time this person decided to call in a bomb scare cause Braine l’alleud station is really not a big or important station (cept for the fact that it effects the line the runs through my town). Plus the police are right next door!

It turns out that the call was a hoaxes, the only thing that happened was that a lot of us were late for work.

Life with our kids

It is not often that I arrive home from work to find someone cooking in my kitchen. This, despite the fact that Himself is a better cook than me. Clearly my cooking is not bad enough to make him cook dinner more often. The only upside to the fact that he doesn’t cook often is the fact that cleanup is a lot easier when he doesn’t cook … if you get my drift J

Anyway, last night I find him and the two kids in the kitchen covered in flower. He was keeping in eye on Cat who was making pizza, from scratch.

And that is not all she made, she also made spaghetti bolognaise for them for lunch. The only thing that Himself did was chop the onion for her.

And let me tell you if her spaghetti was ½ as nice as her pizza I might not be the one cooking dinner for much longer. My girl is growing up!

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We also took the kids to the late night show at the movies last night. The Wolverine. They love the fact that they can stay up so late during their school holidays (vacation).

So in the car on the way home the following conversation takes place:

Tiger: 'thanks dad'

Himself: 'for what?'

Tiger: 'taking us to the movies'

Himself: 'pleasure'

Tiger: 'and what do you say, Jo?'

Me: 'that I have a very cheeky son'

Tiger: 'seems that way, doesn't it'

ps. they loved the movie and didn’t have any nightmares

The 7th King

Yesterday was National day here in Belgium. But it was a National day with a difference. At roughly 12:00 yesterday, Philippe was sworn in as our 7^th king.

His father, Albert II decided, 3 weeks ago,  that after 20 years on the throne, at the age of 79 it was the right time to step down and hand over to the next generation.

Our new king, Phlippe is 53 years old. He did active military service and is a qualified fighter pilot and a paratrooper- and commando officer, (in 2004 he got his civilian helicopter lisence). He also attended Trinity College, University of Oxford (UK) and the Graduate School of Stanford University (USA) where he took a “Master of Arts Degree” in political science.

Philippe married to Mathilde on 4 December 1999. She is not just a pretty face; she speaks 4 languages and is a qualified speech therapist and also has a master’s degree in psychology. She set up her own professional speech therapy practice in Brussels, where she worked from 1995 until the end of 1999.

Together they have 4 kids. Princess Elisabeth (the 11 year old crown princess), Prince Gabriel (10), Prince Emmanuel (8) and Princess Eléonore (5).

Yesterday’s inauguration was a pretty relaxed afire. Because of the short notice, other than the abdication and inauguration the ‘normal’ national day events took place. There was the usual military parade and fireworks to end it all.

Our royal family is pretty laid back. I’ve even had lunch, at the Pizza Hut across from my office at the same time as the ‘black sheep’ of the family Prince Laurent. 

Signing of the  charters during the abdication of his father King Albert II of Belgium

Swearing in of King Philippe

   

a kiss for his queen

Front row: Queen Fabiola (wife of king Baudouin (brother of king Albert II), princess Eléonore, prince Gabriel, crown princess Elisabeth, prince Emmanuel, Queen Paola  Back row: Queen Mathilde, King Philippe and King Albert II

  (all images via google images)