Last week culminated with getting one of our new cars -- hooray! TJ went to the DMV-equivalent on Thursday to get the license plate, and found himself at the end of a long, long line of unhappy-looking folks, being slowly served by a scant few DMV employees. Somewhat dejected, TJ returned to the office without the license plate, but found that he could hire the insurance company to go stand in line in his place. So that's exactly what we did! A rep from the insurance agency came to the house Friday morning and picked up the paperwork; she went to the DMV and got the license plate. She got everything to TJ, who hitched a ride to the garage (who was making the second license plate), and he arrived home with our Opal Zafira minivan.
I had the luxury of having the car for the day, but not the luxury of having two willing children. They went somewhat gamely along with the idea of meeting a friend for lunch (bribes: the chocolate that came with my cappuccino, two rides on the Mickey Mouse ride in the square [which played "It's a Small, Small World" nonstep -- I know, Mom -- it's payback time!], and a Leo (like a Kit Kat) bar. Unfortunately, all bribes were given out before my lunch even arrived.
Then it was off on a new shopping adventure -- Colruyt. It was like a mini-BJ's or Sam's. Very small (VERY!) and very industrial, but some good finds. Juice boxes, pretzels (only 40 cents a bag!!), and fake Goldfish crackers were the gold nuggets here. I hear they have a good meat counter. To order meat, you take an order form, check off the kind of meat you want, and turn the form in. I plan to take a form, bring it home, translate it and then enjoy something other than chicken.
My mom is horrified that I bought some chateaubriand and put it in the crockpot. Honestly, it was one of the few cuts of meat that I recognize (though I sure didn't know if it was a good cut, a mediocre cut or a bad cut), so I bought it. Lucky for me, the crockpot meat turned out fantastic, and I'm not sure if I should be proud to say that I'll probably do it again...
Our Trip to the Shore
In our efforts to get out on the weekends, we headed to a town called Knokke on the North Sea coast (http://www.trabel.com/knokke/knokke-voorpagina.htm). It was cold, and rainy and windy. And this was before we left. So why, oh why, you say, did you think that going to the coast would be a good idea?? Well, we heard that stores were open there on Sunday. Good enough of a reason for us, so off we went.
And, indeed, it was cold, and rainy, and windy. But the rain would break, and the sun would come out just a little. Amelia insisted that she wanted to go swimming, but was appeased by just going for a run in the sand with TJ to the water's edge.
Jack tried valiantly to catch up with them but mostly just lost his balance and would fall in the sand.
Our "shopping" ended up being coffee and lunch in a cafe, and buying Amelia a plastic baby deer at a toy store. Although it wasn't great weather (to say the least), it was a pretty drive and would definitely be a place where we would return in nicer weather. They had a nice boardwalk with lots of riding toys you could rent for kids (and yourself, too) and a lot of cafes with outdoor seatng (in better weather).
And the baby deer? When we got home, the deer was nowhere to be found. I searched the car. TJ searched the car. I even went back out in the rain to search under the car. Nothing. TJ wrote a "letter" from the deer, saying that it was lonely and had gone back home. Amelia thought that was cute, and she wrote a note back to the deer. Lo and behold, hours later, I discovered the deer crammed into her Snack Trap, munching happily on Honey Nut Cheerios. Who knew deer liked Cheerios? I was just glad that my 4 euros wasn't for naught...
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