Arrgh! Star Wars Episode 99

I am long suffering, my friends. Not only do I have to witness and participate in light-sabre duels with my four-year-old, but I have to play "star wars" figurines with him, watch the movies over and over and over again and participate in lengthy family discussions about Princess Leia's parentage, but now I've been dragged to the exhibit of STAR WARS. Last weekend (with again lovely weather) we went to an exhibition hall here in Brussels and for 13 Euro each, got in early to the first weekend of the show. Luckily we went when we did, as when we left the place around 4 p.m the line ups were out the door and around the building.

I should be knighted with that sabre for my patience and giving nature...I'm starting a petition now if you'd like to sign it...

It was 2 hours of viewing paraphenalia of the six movies. Now, granted, the costumes and maquettes (models) were spectacular, but the best part was witnessing the excitement of my husband and our sons over stuff I didn't even know existed (did you know the names of the moons around Tatooine? all three of the men in my house do!). The worst part was resisting the, "mom, can I buy that?" or, "Dad, how much does this cost?" when in the gift shop as final room of the exhibition. Here one of my boys is posing with a life-size model of Jango Fett (I had to ask who this was). Needless to say, we didn't fork out a scheckle for anything as this was definitely not the reason why we went.

As I said, it was a lovely day, and we left the exhibit looking for a cafe patio to wind down. We are not very familiar with the Gare du Nord (incidentally, right next to where M's father worked when he was here in 2004) so weren't successful in finding such a spot open on a Sunday afternoon. Instead we went to the convenience store, got a couple of cans of beer, a big baguette, some aged gouda cheese cubes and iced tea for the boys and picnicked on the cement terrace outside the train station. The boys burned off some steam (as you see here) and we all enjoyed the fresh breezes in the dying rays of the day's sunshine. It was quite cool only an hour later when we walked up the steps to our house, as the air is not accumulating any warmth the sun provides yet. The soil is warming up, though since the daffodils and crocuses are out in full bloom and the ornamental cherry tree outside our bedroom window is awakening in its gown of blush pink with buds like ruby bead accessories

This weekend was also lovely, but disappeared in a wink. We had our first dinner out without kiddies and took all the next morning to recover (long awaited celebrations will do that to a liver) and had Belgian guests in for a BBQ this sunday afternoon. Their older son was very patient with ours, playing archery over the pool and being humiliated by my first born who made the target almost every time with his homemade bow and arrow (willow sticks and butcher twine). This is the first time in about a month where I've had to struggle to use my french again. When I wasn't working, I actually practiced more since I was out and about more shopping, meeting neighbours on the street, listening to conversations at the mall. Now when I'm busy every day teaching, speaking and working in English, I get no chance at all. It was quite a stretch at first for my wee vocabulary, but I think I did okay...but not great. Perhaps there will be other occasions in the spring with more people out in their gardens and the days getting longer.

Hope you're getting a breath of spring, where ever you read this from...I'll send you our cherry blossom photos next week, as they'll be at their peak then.