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.

School photo

It's time for the official school photo - Greetings to you all for Christmas Holidays and Best Wishes for 2013.
(and this time my parents planned for me to wear different clothes than last year :-)).

I am doing very well at Maths at school and not bad at french - written, understanding and doing well in reading. After only 1 year, I can pick up most books and some comic books and read. Still learning to read and understand everything automatically. I love to drawer. I had to describe myself at school - 3 not so good and 3 good things. I said: distracted, boisterous, 3rd? for bad and intelligent, funny, sporty for good.

29 kg, still lost only 4 teeth, hair getting darker like mamã's. I love stories at bedtime. Love to play Wii for hours. Love my football and swimming on Saturday. I am learning to do butterlfy and crawl better and better each week.

I also gave my first kiss on the lips to my girlfriend, Alaïs :-)

My 7th birthday

Yes, my birthday time :-). Mamã and I made cakes for school - small fairy cakes...Mamã was not so impressed when I told her 37 were not enough and we had to make some biscuits to be close to 50 for the two classes and teachers. I had skeleton cake for the day. Vovó came on the day and for the weekend. THANK YOU everyone for all my presents and cards. I loved everything. I also had a great party with my friends at the Puppet Theatre - Le Peruchet - with the 3 Pigs Story. We had loads of fun and were laughing a lot with the bad wolf. After the story, we had a special party with cakes, bicuits, crisps and my birthday cake arrived on a train behind the curtain of the theatre. We then had a walk around the museum of the puppets. When I got home I opened all my presents. thank you.
My favourite toy/game is Pokémon cards - I got some special ones from vovó. I even spent my own money to buy cards and to trade food for cards at school (a bargain for my friends as a biscuit costs 1 euro and a card costs 90 cents :-))
I got from grandma and ti'pah this warm lazing around Saturday/Sunday morning TV lounger :-) Plus Pirates of Carribean game which I won against mamã :-)

Holidays in Morocco

We had a wonderful time in Morocco - all inclusive hotel Iberostar in Agadir with 3 swimming pools and one was heated; made friends every day talking in french and english, played in the pool, played cards, chatted, played football, danced at the disco, watched two shows, dressed up for Halloween.

We also went on a trip for 3 days to Marakech and Ouarzarate. In Marakech we visited beautiful Saadian tombs, a Palace, walked around the city and around Koutoubia Mosque, had a dinner outside overlooking the church/tombs with music and big meat skewers, we walked through the bazaar for miles (and people all friendly). We saw the main square Place Jemaa el-Fna in the day and at night, so crowded at night with orange sellers, snake dancing, stalls selling many different things. We visited the Film Studios of Ouarzarate where they filmed Asterix (Cleoptra). We stayed in the old town by the old castle, all made from mud. I happily joined in with 3 boys playing football in the main square at night. We also visited Aït Benhaddou town where they were also making a film. Here are some pictures of us.