Grandparents on the Farm

The big highlight of our month of April was the visit of my dad, aka Grandpa, and his new wife, Grandma Judy. I traveled, along with Wesley and Laura, to the US for their wedding a year ago, but some of the family had not yet met Grandma Judy.
They spent three weeks here, helping out on the farm, doing odd jobs, touring Europe a bit (they braved going to London on their own), and spoiling us. We tried to spoil them too.

A taste of America in France!

Visiting Mons, Belgium

Indoor mini golfing in Belgium (yes, that is a beer stein, Belgium is famous for good beer!).

Belgium is also home to the French Fry!!! And you thought they were French!!!

Saxophones were invented in Belgium too.

Train ride home from Paris (think they look tired?) (I am looking for more Paris pictures)

Visiting Fort Leveau in Feignies

More on Goats on our Farm

Anybody out there still wondering what we named the baby goats? We haven't reported back on this, because we are very embarrassed to say that we can't seem to agree, so we are still calling them: Boy Goat and Girl Goat. Here are a few of the "winning" names:

Thessa and Nicky (this is what the Bible scholars prefer)
Caramel and Nougat
Star and Buck (my own personal favorite)
Caddie and Whompus
Ginger and Pablo (this is the preference of the younger set, based on books and video games)

Good thing we never let the children in on naming the new human babies! They would still be running around nameless!

Needless to say that the (goat) babies aren't very little any more (they are way bigger than the photos here), and are into all sorts of trouble when they manage to get out of their pen. I am not sure I will have many flowers in our courtyard this summer. In case you didn't know, goats LOVE geraniums. They assume any and ALL geraniums were planted for their pleasure, and they prefer the ones that are the hardest to reach. Which means that they trample anything in their way to get at them!

Don't let this cute little face fool you!!!!!!! It is just looking for trouble!

We are enjoying fresh goat cheese and goat milk. 

More Babies on the Farm

We try to buy chicks every spring, and this year was no exception. We keep them warm for several weeks under lamps, and they go from being cute little chicks to being ugly chickens!

The beach on the English Channel for Easter!!!!

Our church joined with several other churches in the Lille area for a weekend retreat at the beach. This is exciting for several reasons. For the children of course, the beach was the main draw. For us, it is a great chance to fellowship with Christian friends we don't see very often, and also to have an Easter Sunday service that was standing room only! (I am exaggerating a bit here!)

I had checked the weather forecast before leaving and didn't really think we would enjoy the beach much, but as the pictures show, we didn't let the cool weather stop us.

Sand castle contest winner (everybody won something)

I didn't try the water, but it didn't look very warm!!!

The last evening we had a talent show (most of the "talent" was hilarious) where the public was supposed to all be bedouins. Some of us took this more seriously than others!