Moran Family Fun

For our second day of sightseeing in Belgium the girls and I decided on a slower day.  We spent part of the morning watching TV and then walked across the street to the BX to look around a little.  We even stopped at the thrift store on base; Madison and Emily both found cute new to them bags. After lunch in our hotel room we set out for the actual sightseeing part of the day, a visit to a house where Van Gogh once lived.  Most of us weren't really that excited about seeing the Maison Van Gogh, but Abigail loves art and she especially loves art by Van Gogh.  Thanks to our trusty GPS we were able to find the tiny little house at the end of a skinny little country lane. Abigail refused to look at me so I could take a picture; she was too busy reading all about crazy Vincent Outside the house there was a path with information about the life of Van Gogh, why he was living in Belgium, and the restoration of the house that's taken place over the last thirty years....

Last week for Spring Break we went on a trip to Belgium.  Jared had to be there for some training so we booked a slightly larger hotel room than he would have needed had he gone alone, packed up the car, and set out to explore and have some fun.  We left on Jared's birthday so I'm afraid he didn't get quite the celebration he deserves this year.  I guess we'll just have to make it up to him next year!  When we got to the hotel, we found that our "family room" wasn't exactly meant for our family.  There were enough beds for four of us, so the girls spent the week trading off sleeping on the floor.  However, our room did have a kitchen complete with a two-burner stove and a dishwasher.  I always appreciate having the   ability to cook when we're on vacation because it saves so much money and sometimes I just want to spend the evening in my pajamas after being out sightseeing all day. I struggled for most of the week because they speak French there...

 Last weekend the weather was beautiful so we decided to take the day and go to Metz, France.  We had a great time. There were beautiful fountains and buildings and an old cathedral with lots of stained glass windows.  We walked on the ramparts that follow the river that winds around the old part of the city. We got French pastries and Doner kebabs. And, most important of all, we had fun together as a family. This fountain was the best and we had fun just sitting there talking and being in the sun.  The cathedral in Metz is really nice and how some really beautiful stained glass.   Because the  day was so sunny the windows were especially pretty. While we were walking along the ramparts we came along the ruins of an old gate.  Samantha and Abigail tried to climb and they got pretty far before Mom and Dad made them come back down.  I think it looks like a cannon blasted a hole in this building.  The build...

Since the beginning of February, Emily has been playing volleyball for her school team.  When the season started she wasn't the best player ever and was really disappointed that she couldn't serve the ball over the net. The coach told me that Emily was having a hard time for two reasons.  First, she's just smaller than the other kids and doesn't have tons of upper body strength.  Second, she's too nice and wasn't getting angry and hitting the ball hard when she served.  To help her improve, we bought her a volleyball so she could practice at home and kept encouraging her to hit the ball as hard as she possibly could.  Even with all the extra practice she was doing at home, she still wasn't getting the ball over the net. After their first match, she was feeling bad that she still hadn't gotten any of her serves over.  Her teammates were surprisingly supportive - I expected middle school athletes to be less encouraging and upset that she hadn't playe...

Earlier this month I sewed Natalie a cute little ruffly skirt and it was so fun and easy that I decided it would be a great idea to sew all the girls Easter clothes.  I got working and quickly busted out a dress for Samantha and a skirt for Abigail.  Natalie and Samantha were easy - I chose the fabric and the patterns without any input from them.  Since Abigail is a little older, she has stronger opinions about her clothes.  She chose the fabric as well as the style of her skirt.  I didn't want their outfits to match perfectly, but I did hope they would coordinate.   Abigail sort of threw that plan with her fabric choice but it did end up looking cute on her. Here she is in her skirt I love this sweet, funny girl That letter A stands for Abigail - she wanted me to add her initial to make the skirt less plain.  I think the monogram does make the look less plain but it will also make the skirt harder to hand down to her sisters!  Anyway, I...

Madison was selected to participate in the District Middle School Honor Band this year.  That was exciting for me because I think she's amazing and it's always nice when other people recognize how great our kids are.  For the first time ever, I have all the girls in school all day so I was able to tag along for two days as a chaperone.  Day one of the Honor Band experience was spent sitting in a high school gym while the band practiced and practiced the same songs all day.  The band consisted of 100 students from seven schools and while all the participants had practiced the music on their own, this was the first day playing together.  It was actually pretty cool to hear them play each piece all together for the first time (most of the songs were really rough) and then to hear them get better and better as the rehearsing continued throughout the day.  It was a long day for me, and I was just sitting and reading.  I can't even imagine how tired the musi...

  It was Dr. Seuss week the first full week of March and our school here always does fun things to celebrate.  There was crazy sock day, and a day to wear their favorite shirt from a place they had visited, but the best day was dress up as your favorite Dr. Seuss character day.  Abigail really, really, really wanted to be Thing 1 from the Cat in the Hat.  She bugged me about it all week and I finally got my stuff together the night before and threw together a Thing 1 shirt.  The next morning we made her hair as crazy as we could and then I sent her out the door to school.   I asked Abigail to smile and I got this . . . yeah, that's not the Abigail I know and love So I asked her to put some personality in the picture and I got this pose.  Yep, she's a gangster.  I knew the real Abigail was hiding in there somewhere!