Portugal

Yes, holiday time with mamã and papá. On the Monday we drove with vovô and Teresa to sign the final payment for our new house in óbidos and to get the key - yeepeeee. The hard work began....after taking Teresa to Lisbon (thanks again for all the help) we went immediately shopping - major shopping in Ikea and shopping for food and odd things in Lisbon. It was a very late first night and I slept like a log. Up again the next day and more shopping in Caldas da Rainha and work in the house. The next day some more shopping back in Lisbon and dropped off vovô and then we went searching for the Kare warehouse. We found it down a street of converted warehouses - cool shops and spent ages in two shops after a yummy cake and drink :-) I loved our rented van - I was so proud of it, I rode with papá every time. Then back to our house and a day at the house with a number of works including meeting the architects for attic and kitchen. Then we went back to Porto and stayed a few days to see our family, enjoying the weather, cinema and shops and walks along Quinta da Mar. Renata's christening was on the Saturday. She is so cute and looked lovely in her dress. I was very good in the church for the service and afterwards was allowed to play freely with Rodrigo and their cousin also called Tiago as well as my bigger 'cousins'. Tio let us play on his iPad *very happy with this toy". Mamã and papá were able to relax.

Summer vacation

Yes it's time to enjoy my summer holidays yeepeeeeee.
We started with our friends at our house for a pool party - we kids were so excited we created just a few small holes in the pool.

Mama' and Papa' had a night away for work and I had a sleep over at the neighbours whcih I thouroughly enjoyed.

Rodrigo and vovó came to visit and then took me back to Porto. We were so lucky with the weather in Brussels - we went in our pool everyday. We went to Walibi and enjoyed all the kiddie rides. We went to see the dinosaur display at the Expo - do you like my dinosaur impression? After this we also walked around Mini-europe. I start to recognise the places now and learn the flags, sizes. It is still fun through to stop and get an ice cream :-) There was the jazz music fesital near by and an area for kids activities where I enjoyed making massive bubbles.

End of Football Vossem

Yep, it is time to say goodbye to the Saturday football lessons in Vossem and the arguments with my papa' as a coach. We bonded but we also had some heated discussions as I was not a good listener (did I improve after?). I liked to play around with the other kids...it's only some fun....yeh, right...when it's cold and wet and when it's a bunch of mixed skills team it's hard for the coaches. Anyway we made it through to the end of another year. Three years in total and I am thankful papa' and Charlie and Luis invested in us - thank you.

Garden

Our mates and friends came around to enjoy a summer's day in the garden. It was a bit overcast but we were determined to enjoy the small garden pool. Florian, Audrey, Lucas, Leo and I all enjoyed it. we jumped rather a lot we created just a few small holes in the pool...so all downhill now for the end of the life of this pool.

End of swimming

The end of swimming lessons has arrived - I have loved them and learnt so much. I am not afraid of the water, I have learnt all the different types of styles including butterlfy. My parents could join me for a lesson and they got a small flavour of how hard butterfly is :-)

End of school

We had a sports day during school at the end of the school. There was little notice for parents to come and watch so mamã and papá were disappointed to not come to cheer me on. I had been practising during the gym classes and came one day home with a nasty big cut on my knee from falling over a curb around the outside of the gym. Mamã and papá were not amused with the conditions of the area but also trying to help me ensure I look down and around. Oh well, I just bounce back up and continue. So for our year we could run 30 mins and the older kids wanted to run 1 hour. After the 30 mins I asked to continue and i was allowed. I got a certificate for running 10,000 metres in 1 hour. Mamã and papá were very impressed. I kept telling them it was nearly 11,000 metres but then the one hour 'alarm' was up. Yes, I loved that and no new injuries. We had a parents dinner evening on Friday night and we prepared for bad weather as so unsettled. It turned out not to rain, just cold, and us kids enjoyed playing football, cycling, eating all the unhealthy crisps etc...while the parents had wine and pasta and pasta and tried different food from the mixed nationalities. We also watched a short video from our 4 day trip to the farm - mamã and papá had no idea we had done so many different activities as i had not been too talkative about them - we had made bread (they knew that but i did not bring a sample home), we'd milked the animals, we went 'sledging' down the dry hills, went on a tractor ride... At the school year end party, we did a show - song and dance around farming theme. I loved my dungarees and cap. Not quite in sync with everyone else for the singing or dancing, mamã and papá asked if i was focused. Me, focused? Nope :-)

Brussels P&G Office 50 years

It's a special day for the place both mama' and papa' work. The Brussels office of P&G is celebrating 50 years today. I met the marketing characters like Mr Dreft, Mr Proper, I peddled hard to make fresh fruit juice, I visited the consumer research rooms, I put on an apron and could make loads of mess of greasy stains on a sheet and allowed the moment to be captured of us standing in front of one of the 50 years sign.

Expose' on Engineers

I had to prepare an expose' on a profession to present to the class. I chose 'engineer'. I learnt a lot with papa's help to prepare it - I talked about the different types of engineers; what buildings/structures would not exist without engineers; about famous engineers and what they invented. I got a great applause from the class :-)

Mother's day

Yes time for mother's day...which mother's day - UK, Belgium and Portugal all celebrate on different Sundays...so at least we can celebrate three times :-)

Portugal - and our new house

We went to Porto for a long weekend and Mama' and Papa' spent two days visiting 30+ houses....and yes we found our 2nd home. It is just outside the city walls of O'bidos.

I stayed behind in Porto and could play with Rodrigo and Renata - I love them so much.

Losing Teeth

I have also been losing my teeth. I lost two within a few weeks, both while I was eating my favourite food, yep, bread.
Here I am with Mama for one of her favourite restaurants Table D'Argile in Stockel. She loves the salads and I love the macaroni ham cheese. Yummy. So here is a photo before and a photo after the tooth loss....and then the 2nd tooth loss a few weeks later :-) Where is the space inside my mouth for the new ones...I am already talking about having a brace....
Do you like my Angry Birds top?

My first cruise

For the first time in my life, I went on a cruise (around the Mediterranean). And what an experience!
We started in Venice and what a view from the top of the ship. And what a ship - 350 m long and 30 metres wide, 16 floors, more than 3000 guests and 2000 crew with excellent food, entertainment and kids activities every day and all day, 4D cinema, formula racing car test drive, jacuzzis...

Do you like our room - it was  amazingly spacious and I loved my bed. The room contained all the essentials.

Out tour was from Venice to Bari in Italy and then suppose to stop at Olympus but the weather was so bad our next destination timing got changed. Luckily Auntie Rea was so flexible to meet us and here we are in Athens :-)

On to Santorini to the windy city. We visited the ancient city and then to the main town before walking along the ridge for the photogenic scenery and great view of our ship. I took a donkey ride down the cliffside back to the ship.

On the way back we went to Corfu and Dubrovni'k. We watched cricket in Corfu and had a fantastic time walking the city wall in Dubrovni'k.

At the end of the cruise we spent a couple more days in Venice - relaxing, eating pasta...and some rushing around to visit some museums. Then we took a car and went to Slovenia Ljubliana a very cosmopolitan city with rebuilt city fort on hill as a cultural centre. Then we drove into North of Croatia to Pula the Roman city where papa' had been for a P&G Football tournament a year ago. We visited the beautiful coastline and also took a boat to the island reserve called Brijuni (Croatian ex-President Tito lived here)

 

Chilling in the park with my mate Florian

Back to 'warm' Belgium... going for a stroll in the park with my mate Florian. And - of course - use the opportunity to discuss the all-important topic of Pokemon cards!

Snow holidays in Norway

Fantastic 9 days in Norway, with temperatures as low as - 18C!
We had a brilliant trip. We started in Oslo and stayed by the amazing long and high ski jump.
We visited the ship museums before moving on north through to Trondheim where papa' had started 6 months while at university. We then went up into the middle of no where and found our place to stay where I had my own room and a big kitchen/sitting room. I also met the real Father Christmas and he gave me a Tintin Wii Game :-)

We went husky riding - I slept (did I fall asleep?) inside the covered area on the 2nd half...I loved one of the dogs called Megan. My mama' fell off 4 times and papa' dropped his phone once but another rider picked it up.

 cc

St Nicholas

Yes, it's my name day - well my second name day - Tiago Nicholas. I celebrated two times - once at

mamã and papá's work and I got a fantastic face painting and a horse tattoo. I think I scared St Nicholas (although I had just seen the day before a different one in Stockel shopping centre, plus I had not written a letter asking for a lego game which is what I got...not complaining though, as I assmbled it as soon as I got home). On the 6th December, St Nicholas came to our school throwing sweets and giving us a bag when he saw our tangarine on our shoe at school. I also left a picture for him at the fireplace and I got a 3in1 creator lego in the morning (I got out of bed very quickly).

What do you think of my drawing too? Spot the differences with Father Christmas?

Walking with Dinosaurs

They are soooooo big and I loved the roar of the Tyranosaurus Rex mamã and then the baby - very funny. the narrator (a new word for me) even put his hand inside the 'poo' of the dinosaur.
I was happy to eat popcorn, popcorn and popcorn.
Also we saw the 5 Guardians - beautiful with Father Christmas, Tooth Fairy, Sandman (Dreams), Easter Bunny and JAck Frost.