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Today was the last day of school for the year, and for Olive and Edie their last day at Da Vinci International School.
Olive and Edie on their first day of School last September.
And here they are this morning on the last day. Olive is channeling Madonna circa 1984!
Like we did for the Jufs last year, I got the girls to draw pictures of their teachers which I embroidered over and turned into a bookmark. We added some great kiwi tea towels and special cards made by the girls. Both teachers were very touched.
A bookmark for Mrs Olga…
and one for Miss Sarah.
Special gifts for two very special teachers.
The girls have had such a wonderful year – both thriving under the care and guidance of two excellent teachers. We will miss you Mrs Olga and Miss Sarah, but you will not be forgotten.
Tomorrow sees the first steps in our new American adventure. We’re off to Winchester, VA to have a look around and hopefully find a house and schooling – wish us luck!
About an hour’s drive from Antwerp you will find Efteling, a beautiful theme park based around the fairytales or sprookjes of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault. Opened in 1952, Efteling is one of the oldest theme parks in the world. We’d been told that we couldn’t leave Belgium without making a visit, so on Saturday we spent a wonderful day exploring the world of fairytales.
The sprookjesboom or fairytale tree. He is a wise old oak who tells stories about the other inhabitants of the fairytale forest.
Efteling began it’s life as a fairytale forest where ten fairytales had been brought to life. Over time it has grown into a full sized theme park with a range of rides and attractions, but it is the sprookjesbos which is the most beautiful and unique part of the park.
The witch ascending to the top of the tower via Rapunzel’s hair.
Edie posing in the sprookjesbos.
The rather well-endowed Little Mermaid.
Gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel.
Tom Thumb attempting to steal the giant’s boots. He is known here as Klein Duimpje.
This castle is home to Snow White’s evil stepmother – complete with talking magic mirror!
The flying Fakir on his magic carpet.
As well as exploring the Sprookjesbos, we went on lots of rides. Our favourite was the Droomvlucht or Dreamflight ride, where we flew through a dream world of forests, fairies, castles and trolls.
Singing fairies in the Droomvlucht.
They were singing and swinging.
A dreamlike fairy world – so beautiful.
If you’d like to see many more Efteling pics, click on the link to my Flickr photos. We thoroughly enjoyed our day – we’ve been to a few theme parks now but have never stayed right until closing time as we did at Efteling. We can all highly recommend it.
Us girls at the end of a very long but very enjoyable day 🙂
Tomorrow it is Olive and Edie’s last day of school and then on Wednesday morning we fly to Virginia to have a look round. It’s going to be a big week, full of many emotions. I’m going to try and write a post from Virginia just to let you catch a small glimpse of our new stomping ground.
Take care everyone. Lots of love xxx
The end of the school year is rapidly approaching. I still find it hard to get my head around the school year ending in the middle of the calendar year – I don’t think it will ever feel right to me! Moving to the States is going to give me many more opportunities to get used to it 🙂
Every year the kindergarten children put on a summer show and today was the big performance. Their show was based on this story about a leopard missing his mummy who has gone to look for food. The other animals try to help by giving him cuddles but none of them feel right. It’s only when he is reunited with his mother that he gets the special cuddle he is so desperately seeking.
The school gym had been transformed into a jungle.
Both girls had been very secretive about the performance. If Edie tried to sing any of the songs at home she was swiftly silenced by her older sister. All I knew is that Edie was a bear, Olive was the Mummy leopard and, fortunately for me, I didn’t have to make any costumes!
Here come the bears…
Mummy leopard and her babies – she’d had a few more since the book was published!
The babies get ready to go and find Mummy.
The snakes were too slimy to give good cuddles.
Look! There’s Mummy over behind the crocodiles. Their cuddles were too snappy.
Olive’s classmates made great monkeys but alas, their cuddles didn’t cut the mustard either.
Reunited at last – and then all the children ran to their mums and cuddled them! Serious need for tissues 🙂
One fierce mother!
It was lovely. When I asked the girls later what their favourite part had been, Edie answered “all of it!” and Olive declared that she had loved being in front of such a big audience.
My favourite bits xxx
I have to admit to feeling sadness whilst I watched. It was the same sadness I felt at the Garden Party over the weekend. The realisation that we are leaving such a lovely school community, such wonderful teachers and friends, has really hit me. It’s good to be sad though. It means that we are leaving behind something of great value. And it’s also what goes hand in hand with change. So I’m okay with some sadness – here’s to the many happy moments awaiting us.
I have an overwhelming sense of homesickness today. Getting ready to leave our home in Antwerp has led to me thinking of New Zealand a great deal. But that’s okay too…
how could you not be a bit homesick for this 🙂
Lots of love to you all from the leopard, the bear and the kiwi xxx
Hot on the heels of the very successful REACH week of awareness, the students at Da Vinci took part in a school wide art week. Modern Art was chosen as the overall theme, with each class focussing on the work and style of one particular artist. The children worked on an individual piece of art, and then as a class produced a group piece. Those of us with children in the kindergarten classes, were invited into the classes to help the smallest artists create their masterpieces.
Individual art works created by Kindergarten Two. These were inspired by the artist Gale Kaseguma.
Olive’s class explored the work of Brazilian neo-pop artist Romero Britto. His work combines elements of cubism, graffiti and pop-art, and is full of warmth and optimism. Olive loved dabbling in Britto’s style – the bold colours and simple shapes really captured the children’s interest and it was lots of fun painting with them.
The Britto inspired work of Kindergarten Three. Olive created the “Britto bride” on the left hand side in the bottom row.
For their group piece, Miss Olga got the children to “Britto” a simple set of drawers. Olive was particularly proud of this.
In Kindergarten One, Niki de Saint Phalle was the chosen artist. De Saint Phalle was a French sculptor and painter who became known for her work reflecting on the position of women in society. She created numerous “Nanas” – sculptures of voluptuous women decorated in vivid colours. Edie was particularly taken with the name “Niki de Saint Phalle” and took every opportunity to say it aloud. When it was time for me to help with her painted Nana, in true Edie style, she didn’t let me help at all! I relished the opportunity to watch as she wielded her paint brush and am very proud of the fact that her canvas is one hundred percent her own work.
The Nanas of Kindergarten One. Edie’s is hard left, second row up from the bottom.
Kindergarten One’s group piece. Their own little Nana sculpture.
At the conclusion of art week the PTA were charged with the task of displaying the many wonderful pieces created by the students. We decided to set up an art gallery and fortunately there was an empty room which was crying out for a makeover. We painted every wall and most of the windows white and our two wonderful caretakers helped us to arrange and hang every canvas. It was a great deal of work but the kind of work that you can’t help but enjoy.
Inside the Da Vinci art gallery.
Individual pieces from Grades One, Five and Six.
Roy Lichtenstein inspired self-portraits by the students of Grade Eight.
Work from the upper secondary students.
Grade Three’s group piece is very special for Da Vinci. It’s a cubist inspired rendering of the school exterior.
Grade Five’s group piece is one of my favourites. It’s a quilt made from Warhol inspired self portraits.
The ultimate Da Vinci group work – photos of every child and teacher.
One of our parents took all the photos, whilst another ran them all through PhotoShop.
The result was pretty impressive.
On Saturday Da Vinci held it’s annual garden party. There were food stalls representing many of the different cultures in our school community, a talent quest, performances by the rock band and the dance group and, of course, face painting!
Tiger Olive.
Edie chose the hummingbird.
The highlight of the afternoon was the art auction. Each group piece went under the hammer. Apart from online auctions on Trade Me, this was the first live auction I’d ever actively taken part in and it was very exciting. Parents competing for works created by their precious children led to a bidding frenzy and a significant amount of money was raised for the school. Olive was over the moon when I successfully bid on and won the set of drawers created by Kindergarten Three – only had to go over my budget a teeny bit! Phew 🙂
Click on the link to my Flickr photos if you’d like to see more art week and Garden Party photos.
After sharing in the wonderful occasion of Miss Sarah’s wedding, and letting Richard grab a couple of hours shuteye as he’d only just arrived back in the country, we packed the car and headed for Germany. Our destination was Berlin, but as it’s such a long drive from Antwerp we stopped for the night in the city of Bielefeld. Here we ate yummy Middle Eastern food (in honour of the fact that Richard’s favourite fact about Berlin is that the most eaten food item there is the doner kebab!), and stumbled across a fair. As we are getting close to summer fairs are starting to pop up all over the place – big one in Antwerp this weekend. It was the usual sort of thing – loud music, lots of neon, overpriced rides and lots of sausages for sale at the food stalls. The girls had a pony ride which they loved – sorry no photos – left the camera in the car.
In the morning we made our way to Berlin via a quick stop in the city of Magdeburg. In Magdeburg I stocked up on a few Reisenthel goodies and we discovered a men’s clothing store where 50% of the clothing on sale was branded with all sorts of kiwiana – NZ flags on sleeves and “Auckland” emblazoned across the front of tshirts! Since the rest of the clothing in the store all bore Karl Lagerfeld’s label, one can only conclude that there is some cachet in Magdeburg wearing a tshirt with the name of a New Zealand city on it! Definitely one of the weirdest things we’ve encountered. Perhaps one wears them whilst decorating one’s garden with these.
We were a bit late arriving in Berlin owing to the enormous traffic jam we got stuck in just after leaving Magdeburg. A huge truck had somehow overheated and burst into flames – quite a dramatic scene once we were able to drive past. The girls were very impressed!
Berlin was sunny and warm when we arrived late Saturday afternoon. Our hotel was in the Tiergarten – an area of central Berlin dominated by a large park. As soon as we’d checked in and stowed our gear we headed out to do some exploring.
Waiting at the Tiergarten stop for the S-Bahn or city train.
Our first stop was the Brandenburg gate, perhaps the most well-known landmark of Berlin. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered.
From the Brandenberg Gate it was a short stroll to the Riechstag and the Holocaust Memorial.
The Reichstag building was built to house the parliament of the German Empire but fell into disuse after the partition of Berlin. After the reunification of Berlin it was renovated and once again is home to the German parliament.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a roughly 5 acre square site covered in 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.
The slabs vary in height and are designed to produce an uneasy and confusing atmosphere.
I definitely had feelings of unease and confusion. The evening was so beautiful. Dotted around on top of the slabs were people – reading, sunbathing, chatting, Olive and Edie loved seeing which slabs they could scale and then used them like giant stepping stones. In one corner a small groups of monks were chanting – all in all it was quiet, serene and beautiful. And yet here we were in a place that marked so much death and despair. My initial reaction was to tell the girls to stop climbing, be quiet and show some respect. But of course I couldn’t expect that of them and in retrospect seeing the memorial covered in “life” is probably the best way to honour those who were murdered. The construction of this memorial was not without controversy which I guess is only to be expected when dealing with such a sensitive subject.
As we only had one full day in Berlin I asked the concierge at the hotel what his recommendations were and he suggested the zoo and the wall. Because we live within a stone’s throw of the Antwerp Zoo we tend not to make zoo visits on our travels, but Berlin’s zoo is one of the most popular zoos in the world and is the most visited zoo in Europe, plus it was such a beautiful day, so we were happy to spend half our day in Berlin amongst 17,500 animals.
Hippos basking in the sun. During the second world war the zoo was completely destroyed and only 91 out of 3,715 animals survived.
We all had a wee giggle when we learned the name of the standing polar bear – Nancy!
Along with watching the polar bears feed, seeing this panda up close was a real highlight.
A very glum looking ape 😦
We loved the mountain goats little alpine hut.
After leaving the zoo we caught the S-Bahn and headed to one of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. We’d been advised to visit the section known as the East Side Gallery. This is a 1.3km long section which was decorated with murals by international artists in 1990. Unfortunately many of the paintings have been damaged by erosion, graffiti and vandalism.
Checking out the remains of the Berlin Wall.
It had a real wasteland feel to it – lots of rubbish on the ground, people milling around – not quite what I was expecting.
The East Side Gallery.
Answering Olive’s questions about why the wall was there and what happened when people tried to get over it was proving a bit challenging too! So we retreated back to the cool of our hotel for a wee rest before dinner.
Once again we’d been given great tips from friends about places to go in Berlin, so after freshening up we made a beeline for Hackesche Hofe – Germany’s largest enclosed courtyard area. Here we ate schnitzel and apple strudel and then explored the 8 interconnected courtyards which were designed in the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau style.
Art Nouveau courtyard.
Checking out the beautiful blue tiling.
It was really beautiful and inside some of the courtyards were stores selling products designed and made in Berlin. My favourite was the Ampelmann shop where you could buy a whole range of things inspired by the little red and green figures that were used on the traffic lights in East Berlin.
The Ampelmann.
Apartment building inside one of the courtyards.
Olive and Edie were thrilled to discover this see saw when we ventured into another courtyard.
From there we headed for the river front, enjoying the first real warm weather we’d experienced for months. There were people everywhere enjoying the late evening sun and we were thrilled to stumble upon a very cool outdoor cafe and dance floor…
Beautiful buildings down by the river.
And some Ampelmann traffic lights in action.
Dancing al fresco – very cool. The girls would have watched for hours.
Soon it was time to catch the train home. The following morning we began the long drive back to Antwerp. Because we are leaving Europe soon and want to see as much as possible in our remaining few months, we took a detour to the city of Leipzig where Bach worked for many years and where Wagner was born. Schumann, Mahler and Mendelssohn all worked in the city too, giving it a very illustrious musical pedigree.
Messing around in Leipzig.
Cathedral where Bach worked.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Germany – Berlin in particular was a great city – I enjoyed it much more than I had expected.
Richard went back to the States this morning and after popping home for a very quick two days he’s then off to New Zealand for two weeks. We’re all looking forward to the end of all that travelling once we get to the States!
I’m hoping to visit and write about a few Antwerp landmarks that I’ve sorely neglected and now that time is running out I really need to get to them! Take care everyone. Sending lots of love from a scorching Antwerp – whilst crossing my fingers that the stunning weather lasts 🙂
Last Friday we were very lucky to be present at the wedding of Edie’s teacher, Miss Sarah. To say that Edie likes Miss Sarah is something of an understatement. Miss Sarah is to Edie what Miss Honey is to Matilda and what Miss Binney is to Ramona. Quite simply, Edie adores her and so we were thrilled to be present at her marriage to Pieter.
Polka dots are one of Miss Sarah’s favourite things so there was really only one outfit option for the girls…
all polka dotted out in honour of Miss Sarah.
The wedding was held at the district house in Borgerhout which is directly opposite Miss Sarah and Pieter’s house. Shortly after 10am the bride and groom emerged.
A very grand building to be married in. Love the bunting.
The bride and groom emerge – compulsory grab for the tissues!
As every bride should, Miss Sarah looked radiant and Pieter scrubbed up pretty well too. I’m not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes when I saw her and even more when she was greeted by her students.
The beautiful bride and her groom.
Rushing to greet a very fancy Miss Sarah.
As I said – adores her!
After many fond greetings and much ooohing and aaahing over the bridal couple we moved into the district house for the ceremony.
Heading into the Trouwzaal or wedding hall.
Best seats in the house for this little gang.
It was a lovely mix of the formal and informal – there were serious moments but also lots of laughter and of course a great big kiss!
Getting down to the serious business of trouwen or getting married.
Lots of smiling and laughter throughout the ceremony.
And a little bit of love too!
The rings were entrusted to the beautiful flower girl – big responsibility!
After the formalities were over the children were invited to write or draw on the marriage certificate, and then it was outside for more congratulations and some bubble blowing!
Pondering what to write – I love big sis whispering advice!
More big hugs. As we left the wedding Edie said she would love Miss Sarah forever!!
Edie even had polka dots on her sandals – such is her devotion to her beloved teacher!
Olive preparing to unleash some bubbles.
We toasted the happy couple with grown up bubbles at the cafe across the road. The children played and the grownups chatted and basked in that lovely feeling of seeing a couple so happy together embarking on the next stage of their lives as husband and wife. It’s going to be a very special Belgian memory for us and we must say a very big thank you to Sarah and Pieter for sharing their big day. As we would say in New Zealand – Arohanui!
I’ve reserved the final picture for Miss Sarah’s bouquet. It’s made of felt, as was Pieter’s buttonhole flower. So beautiful and will last forever.
Congratulations Miss Sarah and Pieter!!
PS Lots more wedding pics if you click on the link to my Flickr photos.
My Mummy by Edie
It’s Mother’s Day here in Belgium on Sunday. Before he left last Monday, Richard orchestrated an early Mother’s Day for me and today I went to a mother’s day celebration at school.
There was singing and rhymes and a few tears in many Mummy’s eyes!
The kindergarten children getting ready to serenade their mothers.
Edie’s class was up first and she performed her song and rhyme with great gusto!
In true Edie style she manoeuvred herself right to the front of the performers!
Then it was Olive’s class.
More enthusiastic singing. My favourite line : My mum’s ever so clever, she may not have a degree, but she can help with my homework and that’s what matters to me!! After hearing the lines about cleaning and shopping and making tea I figured the song must have been written in the fifties – not so – it’s only ten years old!
All the children had made gifts which were presented to us – it was very sweet.
A jewellery box complete with pendant…
and an everlasting bouquet.
It was a lovely afternoon. I’ve come a long way as a Mum and it was very special to see and hear my girls celebrating me!
Back where it all began. Olive, 21 months old. Edie, about 3 hours old.
And to my own wonderful Mum – thank you for being such a strong, wise and inspiring woman. Even though I’m a big grown up lady of 40, I still need you and I miss you very much.
Happy Mother’s Day to a truly wonderful mother and grandmother. We love you lots xxx
It’s been a busy few weeks for us – weeks that have been full of, for want of a better word, experiences. Living in Europe has allowed us to do so many wonderful things and it seems like the past few weeks have been particularly “experience” focused.
The weekend before last we visited Rotterdam. One of the great things about our time in Belgium is meeting people who have already done a great deal of travelling and are full of great recommendations. One of our friends suggested we go to Rotterdam and stay in a particular place – the New York Hotel. This very cool place is situated right on Wilhelmina pier and used to be the offices of the Holland America Line, which carried many emigrants from Europe to the United States. It’s been kept in it’s original style and is full of nautical memorabilia. I did take lots of pics but our camera had a meltdown when we got back home and we lost most of them 😦 Here’s a few that we did manage to salvage.
Hotel New York
Travelling from the hotel to the city is simply a matter of hopping on a water taxi – big hit with the girls!
Okay…and a big hit with me too 🙂
As you can see the weather was rubbish so we spent some time in the Maritime Museum – pretty appropriate since shipping and water is such a feature of Rotterdam. Every exhibit was fascinating – the girls particularly liked the pirates!
“Left! No right! I’m the Captain! No! I’m the Captain!”
“Attention!”
My own big experiences of late have come from my work with the PTA. I’d always envisioned getting involved with my children’s schools and I know firsthand what a valuable and important contribution parents make to a school community – I just never would have predicted that the school I’d be helping would be an international one in the heart of Europe.
Da Vinci hasn’t had an active PTA for the past few years so it’s been a new but very positive experience for everyone. Our first big project was supporting the Grade 7 students with the awareness week that is going to be an annual part of their curriculum. We dubbed this week of awareness REACH and helped the students and staff advertise and execute a range of fundraising activities. We held a clothing and bedding collection for a local mothers charity and collected toys for an organisation that helps refugees and asylum seekers.
The big goal of REACH was to raise 6000 Euros for a school in Myanmar, the former Burma. Our headmistress knows a Belgian family who have started a charity to help with education, sanitation and medical projects in Myanmar. They had started to build a school but did not have enough funds to complete the second storey of the building. So during the REACH week there was a book and bake sale, a sponsored walk and a family feast. 6000 Euros seemed a pretty impossible target but at the end of the week we had raised over 10,000 – enough to finish the school building and build an additional toilet block.
Today, the Ambassador from Myanmar came to school to hear about the work of the students and along with Yve, receive the big cheque. Unbeknownst to me Olive was asked to present flowers to the Ambassador and she even made a wee speech!
Olive with the Ambassador for Myanmar and Yve who started the charity.
New and wonderful experiences for everyone!
Afterwards I got to have a coffee and chat with the Ambassador and now have a standing invitation to drop in at the Embassy in Brussels if I’m ever passing (!) and Yve wants all the PTA to come to Myanmar and see the school for ourselves.
If you click here you can see many photos from the REACH week.
On Saturday we had another memorable experience. We joined in celebrating the christening of our friends son. A christening is always a memorable occasion and Koen’s was beautiful but what made it even more special is that it was held in a chapel designed by Rubens – arguably Antwerp’s most famous son.
Inside the chapel – pretty gorgeous!
Koen – the star of the show.
The priest was great and got all the children involved. Koen, bless him, didn’t utter a sound 🙂
All these events just serve to remind me how lucky we are to have embarked on this journey. And there are many new and exciting experiences looming on our horizon. Yes there’s some big change ahead for our little family – that’s all I’m going to say at the moment but you can count on me to keep you posted 🙂
Richard headed back to the States this morning so with two sleeping daughters I’m off now to enjoy my time alone – cup of tea, piece of cake and something rubbishy on the telly! xxx
So we now have a very big six year old in our house. For Olive it was a very long time coming. For at least the last three months there was much discussion in our house around the topic of the 6th birthday. How many more days until my birthday? I’d like this cake / that cake and it’s going to be this theme / that theme for my party – I think you get the picture.
I love the theme that Olive finally settled on – children of the world. It just sums up perfectly for me one of the big rewards of this expat life. Both Olive and Edie are so interested in different cultures and languages, and are now so much more aware of the incredibly diverse world that we live in. Attending an international school just highlights this further.
I gave Olive the option of getting a professionally designed invitation – so easy to do and not that expensive if you use a site like Etsy – but she insisted that the design be hers. I was really proud of the effort she put into her invitation and we were all thrilled with the result.
First she drew the globe, then the children. She cut everything out herself then we scanned it into the computer. Voila! An original Olive design.
The other thing that Olive was determined to do was have her party at home. With 24 children on the guest list this was going to be something of a challenge but the teacher in me rose to the occasion and planning it all was lots of fun. The party itself was lots of fun too but I very much needed several glasses of wine come Saturday evening and I think it’s safe to say that’s the last big birthday party we host at home!
Here are some photos from the day Olive turned six and the big children of the world party.
Zes jaar oud vandaag! Hip hip hoera!
One of the great things about birthdays now is the parcels that come from New Zealand - especially when there are chocolate fish in them! Thanks Granny 🙂
A birthday hug for big sis.
Olive loved the fact that this year she could read all her birthday cards herself.
This is all she asked for -a kids cook book.
Berry pancakes for breakfast are a birthday tradition in our house.
The day of Olive's birthday was spent trying out a recipe from her new cook book. Just like her Mum, she went straight for a sweet one.
With Richard still in the States, cake making duties fell to me. My husband sets the bar pretty high when it comes to birthday cake making so I was feeling the pressure!
With a theme of children of the world the cake could really only be one thing - the world! Gulp!
All I can say is thank god for ready to roll icing and the internet.
Not looking too shabby.
The finished cake. The flags represent all the different countries in attendance at the party.
There was a wee bit of cupcake baking too.
Ready for the party to start. Fingers crossed!
Edie and Olive - children of the world.
They've even got the whole world in their hands - sorry, couldn't resist!
Neither of the girls wanted to wear their Maori costumes so I was left to fly the flag for Aotearoa.
Olive asked her friends to wear something from their culture. Here's Milla in her Aussie Rules t-shirt - brilliant!
We had a cowboy...
and a statue of liberty! She even had the torch.
Captain America came too.
Crowd control.
Working on the birthday flag that we got the children to decorate for Olive.
Kinderen van de wereld.
We are so happy to have Richard home for a couple of weeks and are planning a little trip away this weekend. Hope you are all well and we’re sending lots of love xxx
hetbelgischekoekje 