Cal's summer recap - week 6

This week I did a riding camp European style.
These are all the names of the horses I rode.
. Mercury : was a nice horse,and Mercury is also the roman name for Hermes .

. Nic nac : was the most cooperative horse .

. Loustic (picture not available) : was also  a very cooperative horse.

. Mistagan : was calm horse but he /she ran when he/she had to.

. Jumoe : was one of the tricky horses.

One day was so hot we went bare back ,to refresh the horses and we played with water.
On the last day I did a show. This is for Opa I can do the around the world bare back maybe we can go horse back riding wen you come over.

Epic Paris

That was the word the kids unanimously chose to describe our little trip.

Ever since we moved to Brussels, Emily has asked to go to Paris, specifically the Eiffel Tower. So for her birthday we made it happen. A fast train and a long weekend. Gotta love living in the middle of Europe! 

Paris is Emily's kind of place. 

Art...

Shopping...

Pink and sparkly treats...

Fashion...

And of course, the Eiffel Tower! We had one very happy little girl. 

Cal's summer recap - week 5

This week we were at a Sunpark in de Haan aan Zee. It was the name of the town and it means the chicken on the sea.
A sun park is like camping but with rental cottages and a big central building  with actives, restaurants. We did swimming every day.

Day one we got there and we organized everything. Next we went to the pool we went on a awesome water  slide and the water slide went outside. And there was a wave pool .

Day two, we rented bikes and went on a bike ride. And we had bowling with dinner and I tried bowling with three fingers.

Day three we rented pedal  go karts. We drove them around the sun park. After that we did kids gym .

Day four we left and went to the beach. After that we went home . This image is Sam making sand angels.  

Wandering Normandy

For summer vacation we loaded up the car and headed off into Normandy. Our ultimate destination was a family camp at the Chateau de la Baudonniere, but we decided to take our time getting there are back.

We took the inland route on the way there. Emily had studied Monet in school and very much wanted to see his gardens at Giverny. She loved the experience and even brought her sketch book to do her own drawings. While drawing she was in her own world with the flowers and could have spent much longer there if the gardens hadn't closed for the evening.

The next day, despite the heat, we ventured off to explore Versailles and the gardens, The gardens permit scooters on the grounds in the morning and this made it much easier to explore with the kids. The scooters also came in handy as seats to watch the musical fountains as "le gazon est interdit". (Sam was promptly asked to move after this picture was taken). After lunch we took a boat ride on the grand canal. 

The next day was on to camp but we had time to visit the castle of William the Conqueror at Falaise on the way. It was very well restored with excellent interpretation. The kids loved it and it gave them a taste of the history that followed them around the region for the next week.

Calvin has written a post about the camp so I will leave that to him except to say it was a really fun week for everyone.

The drive back we took the coastal route. We stopped in Bayeux to see the famous tapestry showing William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings in 1066. Calvin picked up a comic book that interprets the real history and is now fascinated by the story. 

The house we rented was right on Juno beach in the town of St Aubin sur Mer. It was an amazing experience to stay there with all the history and the still evident obvious gratitude to the Canadian D-day troops. Of course being a old town not all roads were car-worthy. This is the one our GPS wanted us to take to get to the house...

The next day we went to the town of Honfleur. This is where Samuel de Champlain sailed from. Its a beautiful little port town, was the inspiration for the impressionist artists, and is a popular tourist attraction today. We got back to the house in time for low tide and some beach exploring. 

Our final stop on the way home was Etreat, the French white cliffs. Again, another beautifully preserved little seaside town with gorgeous views. Unfortunately we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked. 

All said, it was a wonderful vacation in a beautiful part of the world. 

Cal's summer recap - week 3&4

On the first day in the morning me and my group did Jedi games and in the afternoon me and my group did aeroball and rock climbing. If you didn't know what aeroball was it's like basketball on a trampoline.

On day two we went to Mont St Michel and it's bay. Did you know that the alley way there inspired Diagon Alley and the abbey there inspired Hogwarts.

On day three we did t-shirt making in the morning and in the afternoon we did the treasure hunt. In the evening we did the ASSAULT COURSE!!!

On day four we  had bread making in the morning and Kermesse in the afternoon. Kermesse is like carnival games.

On day five we had Disney games in the morning and Archery and fencing in the afternoon.

On day six we went to a french market in the morning and canoeing in the afternoon

Camp was the funnest week EVER!