The past two weekends, we have been celebrating the baptism of Batiste, Béné & Benji' son, and Chloé, Sandrine & Jean-Luc's daughter. Since I am godmother to both of them, both families decided to celebrate the baptism while I was in Belgium.
Batiste is 6 months old and Chloé is 1 1/2 month. Both ceremonies were beautiful.
Chloe's Baptism - 18 Jan 09
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Wordless Saturday...
(Don't forget to turn off or pause the music on the left side of the screen before watching the videos)
Mike, who has been deployed in Irak for about 4 1/2 months now, was assigned for a short mission in Germany. He called me on Friday morning to let me know about it. He thought he could rent a car and drive to Belgium to see us (about 3 1/2h drive). I could not believe it and did not want to get too excited about it till I was sure. I just told my parents but did not say anything to the girls or anybody else. I helped him book a car and got him some civilian clothes.
Saturday afternoon was my godson's Batiste's baptism. (in other post)
Mike got to Germany on Saturday morning where he took care of some business. It took him longer than expected so he finally took the road around 13.00 and got to the after-baptism reception at Beni's house.
I had an idea of when to expect him so I was on the lookout... I was nervous and not really hungry. I was talking to my sister Sandrine and her husband Jean-Luc when I saw him through the window, I ran outside and we hugged and cried for a while till my sister (who was wondering why I had gone out the door like a furry) came out and saw Mike. She screamed 'Mike is here, Mike is here'. I don't know what else happened, a lot of tears and screams. I ran back inside to get the girls. Emilie was the first one to come and I captured that moment on video, then I run to get Claire and got to video tape that moment as well.
The girls in their daddy's arms again after 4 1/2 months...
It was AWESOME !!! and Mike looked GREAT and as handsome as usual!!!
We had not seen Mike since 22 Aug and were not expecting to see him before end of February, beginning of March.
We spent the evening together and he got back on the road to Germany at 8.00 am on Sunday.
It was a very tiring trip for him but it was definitely worth it and it was all we needed to get passed the next 7 weeks!
Emilie sees her dad...
Claire comes to see who the new visitor is... She was not sure at first, you can see she is excited because she is jumping...
Mike, who has been deployed in Irak for about 4 1/2 months now, was assigned for a short mission in Germany. He called me on Friday morning to let me know about it. He thought he could rent a car and drive to Belgium to see us (about 3 1/2h drive). I could not believe it and did not want to get too excited about it till I was sure. I just told my parents but did not say anything to the girls or anybody else. I helped him book a car and got him some civilian clothes.
Saturday afternoon was my godson's Batiste's baptism. (in other post)
Mike got to Germany on Saturday morning where he took care of some business. It took him longer than expected so he finally took the road around 13.00 and got to the after-baptism reception at Beni's house.
I had an idea of when to expect him so I was on the lookout... I was nervous and not really hungry. I was talking to my sister Sandrine and her husband Jean-Luc when I saw him through the window, I ran outside and we hugged and cried for a while till my sister (who was wondering why I had gone out the door like a furry) came out and saw Mike. She screamed 'Mike is here, Mike is here'. I don't know what else happened, a lot of tears and screams. I ran back inside to get the girls. Emilie was the first one to come and I captured that moment on video, then I run to get Claire and got to video tape that moment as well.
The girls in their daddy's arms again after 4 1/2 months...
It was AWESOME !!! and Mike looked GREAT and as handsome as usual!!!
We had not seen Mike since 22 Aug and were not expecting to see him before end of February, beginning of March.
We spent the evening together and he got back on the road to Germany at 8.00 am on Sunday.
It was a very tiring trip for him but it was definitely worth it and it was all we needed to get passed the next 7 weeks!
Emilie sees her dad...
Claire comes to see who the new visitor is... She was not sure at first, you can see she is excited because she is jumping...
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Nativity Scene and last day of school
(From 18 Dec 08 - Sorry it took me so long to post this but I don't seem to be able to load the video on my parents' computer so here is the post without video...)
As I said before, the girls are attending my old school (Enfant-Jésus) while we are in Belgium. Since it is a Catholic school, they celebrate the birth of Jesus more than Santa which is great.
This year, Emilie's teacher's class was the one putting on a live nativity scene (crèche vivante) for the other classes.
Emilie chose to be one of the Kings. At the parents' request, Miss Isabelle, her teacher, and Miss Chloé, the student teacher, decided to have a show for the parents as well. So Papy, Maminou, Sandrine and I went to watch it on Friday afternoon. I saw the version on Thursday (Emilie did better then but I did not have my camera) and on Friday the kids were a little tired and more excited than the previous day but it was still very cute... They did a great job just in 1 1/2 week.
The girls each made a a card for their teacher and brought them a little gift for Christmas. Now they are off for two weeks for the Holidays.
As I said before, the girls are attending my old school (Enfant-Jésus) while we are in Belgium. Since it is a Catholic school, they celebrate the birth of Jesus more than Santa which is great.
This year, Emilie's teacher's class was the one putting on a live nativity scene (crèche vivante) for the other classes.
Emilie chose to be one of the Kings. At the parents' request, Miss Isabelle, her teacher, and Miss Chloé, the student teacher, decided to have a show for the parents as well. So Papy, Maminou, Sandrine and I went to watch it on Friday afternoon. I saw the version on Thursday (Emilie did better then but I did not have my camera) and on Friday the kids were a little tired and more excited than the previous day but it was still very cute... They did a great job just in 1 1/2 week.
The girls each made a a card for their teacher and brought them a little gift for Christmas. Now they are off for two weeks for the Holidays.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We wish you all a Blessed Christmas and
a Wonderful New Year!
May 2009 bring you Joy, Health and Love!
Love,
Anne, Mike, Emilie & Claire
Nous vous souhaitons un très Joyeux Noël
et une Bonne et Heureuse Année!
Que 2009 vous apporte Joie, Santé et Amour!
Bisous,
Anne, Mike, Emilie & Claire
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Disneyland Paris
As I said earlier, St Nicolas brought a special surprise to the girls, a trip to a 'magical land' with Maman and Maminou.
We showed Maminou all the fun rides (it was her first time in a Disney park). We did Dumbo, the Mad Tea cups, It's a small world, ... and discovered some new ones Pinocchio, Snow White, Alice's Labyrinth, Lancelot's Carousel (instead of Cinderella's).
Claire wanted to go only if I was carying her...
and then took our time to head back to the park since our train was leaving at 18.30 that evening. We went on more rides and saw the afternoon parade and left the park to have dinner and take the train back to Brussels where Papy came to pick us up.
Claire is waving to the characters of the Parade...
So on Wednesday morning (very early morning - the first train was at 6.30 AM), we took the train to Brussels to then get on the TGV to Paris (Marne-la-Vallée).
The girls were really excited. After about 1h30 on the TGV, we got out of the train station and Emilie screamed 'Disneyworld! I knew it!'. She had recognized the bus stops for the Disney busses (which are not very different than the regular bus stops in Europe). We took the bus to our hotel, the Newport Bay Club, checked ourselves in, got our room early, dropped our suitcase and headed to the Disneyland park. We got there around 10.00 am and started our adventures.
We showed Maminou all the fun rides (it was her first time in a Disney park). We did Dumbo, the Mad Tea cups, It's a small world, ... and discovered some new ones Pinocchio, Snow White, Alice's Labyrinth, Lancelot's Carousel (instead of Cinderella's).
Alice's Labyrinth
The lines were not bad at all (about 10 min) even if the park got a little more crowded in the afternoon (there is no school for the kids on Wedn afternoon).
The park is much smaller than the one in Florida and we thought about heading back to the hotel in the afternoon to come back for the night shows but ended up staying there, watching the Magic of Winter show
and visiting Santa (THAT line was long, about 50 min!).
Then we had dinner at the Village just outside the gate and came back to watch night parade which was awesome.
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel where Mickey and Minnie came to pay us a visit
Claire wanted to go only if I was carying her...
and then took our time to head back to the park since our train was leaving at 18.30 that evening. We went on more rides and saw the afternoon parade and left the park to have dinner and take the train back to Brussels where Papy came to pick us up.
Claire is waving to the characters of the Parade...
All in all, we had a great time even though we were pretty cold the whole time but we did get some sun on Wedn afternoon and Thursday. We were all glad to be wearing fleece lined pants and warm clothes!
Thank you St Nicolas! :-)
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