Last day of school for the boys so we reviewed all of their workbooks and exercises. Frunty and Pit were keen to explain and show off their accomplishments. It was fun to see Pit's "evolution du bonhomme" where they teach the child to draw a picture of a person (could be of themselves) each month and you can see the differences as time progresses. Pit's drawings were interesting because he explained very seriously who each person was. There was a picture of The Daddy, then The Mommy, Frunty, Pit, even Stitch (his stuffed toy), and a funny serious of squiggly lines - "Who's that?" and he replied with perfect normalcy, “It’s a brain.”

We were invited to the school this morning to partake in Frunty’s end of year ceremony. Grades 1 through 6 and their many parents gathered in the gym to hear some final words from staff and students. The awards ceremony was actually quite short but the name-by-name announcement of all the departing 6th graders took quite some time. So much so, that some poor kids that had prepared a song and dance finale had almost all but been forgotten in the rush to escape the gym.

The saving grace from this tedious hour was a chance to socialize with the other parents and review the kids school work in their classroom. The parents had chipped in to bring snacks, drinks and small gifts for Madame Maricq. It’s worth noting that last week's homework had Frunty practising his writing by transcribing the invitation. In that text, he had copied the term “...drink en classe...” and with the text being in French, Frunty asked me what “drink” meant in French. A split second later, a wry smile grew on his face as the realisation dawned on him that the invitation had simply borrowed an English word. And, this being Europe, the drinks were real drinks: juice or water for kids but white or rosé for adults. Truly a touch of class.

Daddy had a really good idea and that was to have dinner early and then go to the club for a family swim. It was super hot today in Brussels, probably 32 Celsius in the sun at least, and I loved the idea of swimming. Daddy ran to the club while I drove the kids over and we met in the pool. I enjoyed a steam room and sauna and Frunty came in the light therapy room with me. He acted like he has done this everyday for years. He put his towel down, positioned a wooden pillow under it, and lay down on his stomach. Quiet as a church mouse, just enjoying the warmth. Our toes touched. It was really nice.

Wavre had a mega street sale today and I sold some more items between 9-3pm. Daddy and the boys helped deliver more and more items. It feels good to de-clutter! That's it for now...I am ready to collapse!

As we have told most everyone by now, Daddy is checking out a job possibility in Singapore. The initial reaction of the kids was pretty negative, especially Frunty who would like a "new house but in the same village". Pit has become a bit more positive over time as we look at the exciting opportunities of possibly relocating and how we can still keep in touch with family and friends, most of whom will visit us hopefully.

On Thursday we were having our lunch time picnic at the park and talking a bit about Singapore. I mentioned that there is a ferry to Sentosa island that looks really neat when Frunty said, "Good!" I thought, "wow! that's positive" when all of a sudden he added, "I can jump off that ferry and swim back to Belgium!"

I could not help laughing my head off and even Frunty tried his hardest not to laugh, keeping his lips pursed as tightly together as possible. I think humour will get us through, whatever we end up deciding to do.

Daddy received some maps of Singapore so we can take a look at what's what. It does look like a very exciting opportunity. We will miss a lot of things about Belgium like:

*friends we have made
*opportunities to travel within Europe
*the club
*(in the past and missing right now already) chocolate, waffles and beer

Some of us won't miss the weather, not naming any names!!

Well, we'll keep you all posted!

We have had the most glorious three days of weather imaginable with a lovely heat and a beautiful breeze. The kids and I have enjoyed picnics at lunch time in the park across from the school. Instead of coming home for lunch, I pick them up from school and we go to GB where both boys can choose what we have for lunch. We always try to spend at least 20 Euros so we can get the Disney stickers for the album that all kids in Belgium are competing to complete.

Afterschool today we got to the club for Karate earlier than usual as my friend from Australia kindly gave us a lift. This gave us time to play games in the room where Karate is held and luckily, it had been unlocked. We played touche-touche (the game we always play, almost everyday!), and the wolf-green-light-red-light game and finally Dodgeball, remembering the 5 key actions: dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge. We are all pretty great at this game too! It is a lot of fun. We also had races.

At 4:15pm, Karate started and after awhile, Pit wanted to go to Aspirini Land to play and colour. I watched the whole Karate as Frunty got awarded a certificate, medaillon and is one step closer to receiving his green belt as he completed a preliminary test. Daddy made it at the very end for the award's ceremony and we are both proud of his achievement as is he...when he got home, he set up a little table with his white/yellow belts on it, his medaillon, his soccer team photo that was given to him yesterday at the picnic and some other memorabilia. Good for him to be proud of himself!

We have a busy weekend with lunch at our Canadian friends who are friends of my cousins in Scotland, an afternoon birthday party for Pit at his friend, Luisa's house, and finally a bbq in the evening at our British friends, the Simpsons. Sunday is equally busy with a garage sale here (still trying to get rid of items we don't need). Hopefully the weather stays good although it is looking pretty grey now. That's Belgium!

Amazing! No one came to our bed in the middle of the night. It was just before 7am when our little year-of-the-rooster-boy came to wake us. He came for cuddles and The Mommy was trying to hug and kiss him. That's when Pit squirmed away and said, "I don't want to love girls, I don't like them because they're stinky." But The Mommy persisted and convinced him that she wasn't just any girl and could hug and kiss him so Pit finally said, "Only you can. "

We came back late from Frunty’s usual Thursday soccer practice because it was the last one of the season and so we had a grand picnic to celebrate. School ends next week on June 30, many kids are going away on summer holidays and Coach Eirek and Frunty’s classmate, Albert will be moving to their home country, Norway. Frunty enjoyed playing a bit of organised football each week, most times in wet patch of grass, but today was dry, sunny and warm - perfect for our picnic of cold roast chicken and champagne. Everyone contributed something and the French, of course, had their cheese and wine. It was a little sad to say goodbye to Albert’s family but when many of your friends work in the foreign service, then you know at the beginning that they will move on. Best of luck to them and we’ll just have to find a new football coach.

Happy birthday to The Mommy! We were ready to hit the battlefields first thing in the morning. The re-enactment started at 10am so we needed to leave early enough to find parking and good seats in the grandstand. It was amazing how big the fields and how complex all the troop movements were. Canons, horses, wagons, scouts, platoons, medics... they all had their part in the story. The canons were quite loud and the smell gunpowder was thick in the air but the boys were not scared. The show lasted more than 2 hours and the boys enjoyed themselves. It was a bit of a true boy’s day out affair, maybe not the ideal “mommy” birthday event, but The Mommy said she had lots of fun.

Afterwards, we went to Cafe Wellington at the foot of the Butte du Lion for some drinks and snacks. Later in the afternoon, The Mommy went to her club for some quiet time, sauna, and even fell asleep. We had a BBQ of lamb chops, skewers and sausages that had been specially requested and enjoyed with a bottle of Bordeaux. As a birthday gift, The Mommy received a new waterproof camera that should be able to handle sunscreen, sand and water – ready for the summer vacations. Many happy returns!

Frunty must have an atomic clock ticking down the minutes from his previous birthday because shortly after midnight, in a delirious state, he was at the side of my bed shaking me awake telling me it was "morning time" which equates to "gift-opening time". I sent him away and there was much crying in the darkness.... He explained later that he thought it was morning time because he saw the pink light of dawn outside his window, but I suppose it was the orange tinge of the street lamps that confused him.

At 7:30am, he reminded me that he should hunt for his presents by following a string laid out throughout the flat, just like his nonna did for him on a previous occasion. So, he and Pit waited patiently while The Mommy and I, bleary-eyed and half-asleep, strung 30 or more meters of red cord. Finally, he calmly followed his treasure hunt of string and presents, careful to rewind it in a new spool. He was excited to get his new Pokémon and Littlest Pet Shop toys and thanked all the various gift givers. But there was more, because we were going on a surprise adventure and needed picnic supplies. So The Mommy took Pit to GB and I took Frunty to the butcher for sausages and ham.

With the picnic ready, we went off to Waterloo to go back 194 years in history when Napoleon had his last stand almost on this very day. The Battle of Waterloo is re-enacted by hundreds of hobbyists and actors each year, visit their official website here. We visited the bivouacs and headquarters of Napoleon and saw the troops getting ready for tomorrows big battle. It was interesting to see their camps and their preparations but with smatterings of rain, a chill wind, and a set of new toys at home, the boys were more eager to get home and play than to march around the fields. Nonetheless, they were troopers and we stayed for several hours before going home to Frunty’s birthday dinner request of sausages and polenta.

Bedtime was relatively easy because everyone is a little sick with sore throats, coughs and sniffles, not to mention poor night time sleeps. Despite this being Frunty’s birthday, he doesn’t only think of himself because he gave favourite blankie for The Mommy because she’s sick.

The last two days, we have walked to school with birthday cakes and loot bags in tow and luckily it didn't rain on us. Here is Frunty in the classroom with his cake and his teacher, Mme Maricq.

June 18th was Pit's birthday and as is the custom here in Belgium, the children bring a cake to school to be shared with his/her classmates. I made a chocolate cake in the shape of a train with Pit's face on the front and his feet on the caboose. Frunty wanted the same which was fine by me. I think I have gotten it down pat now, a cake without gluten/wheat/egg/dairy that tastes, in my opinion, very good.

The kids' helped me choose the loot bag items and make up the bags themselves which was a nice activity to do together. I like this Belgian tradition by the way as I think each child gets to feel special on his day. Although we also had private parties, one at home for Pit and one at the club with Frunty, it is nice that they can share their special day with all their friends at school.

Yesterday Pit and I snuggled after our special lunch while Frunty went back to school and Daddy worked and we watched Space Buddies. Then we got Frunty and went to soccer practise during which Pit and I played touche-touche. Pit practised riding his bike and was pleased with himself that he can put his legs down on the ground, squeeze the hand break and stop his bike all by himself.

When we got home, Daddy had prepared our yummy zucchini/jambon Gordon Ramsay's appetizer and we toasted Pit with Kidibul Cherry and Daddy and I had some Cremant. We read Happy Birthday Thomas before bed.

Tomorrow is Frunty's 7th and we have a special weekend planned. Must get ready...some parents ask, "where did the time go?" For me, it has moved along at just the right pace and I have enjoyed (nearly) every moment with these two, big guys!

Today is Pit's birthday! It's an all day celebration. The Mommy prepare a train cake to take to school so Pit could celebrate with his little classmates. They were hovering around the cake licking their lips and admiring Pit's picture on the front and back. At lunch, Frunty had been very excited to throw a wonderful birthday lunch for his little brother. The Mommy prepared everything so that as soon as they walked from school, Pit would see all his presents. He immediately jumped in to rip off wrappers and play with his new toys: a Littlest Pet Shop Bunny and Pokémon figures. We'll have to read the books later when there's less excitement but he did interrupt a moment to look at the card and photos from Grandma and Grandpa. The Mommy also prepared a wonderful lunch: Pit likes chicken so we had a proper hot meal with a roast chicken, potatoes, peas, carrots and asparagus and a cherry/cassis champagne for kids. I wonder what we'll have for dinner? (probably leftovers!)

Just so everyone knows how silly we can be at times, here's a picture of us burning our trash. Actually, we’re doing much more than that. We found two crafts gathering dust that we made last year after our trip to Cairo: an Egyptian home and a Nile River boat. We were going to simply throw them out until “providence” would deliver us a sparrow that must have flown into our clean windows and conked out on our back porch. Rather than throw out the bird and the crafts, we decided to recreate the ancient Egyptian funerary solar barque ceremony by setting everything on fire. (By the way, in the background, you can see the remnants of the climbing vine that Felix, the "cute" rabbit, decided to nibble to death.)

I suppose there are various maladies going around at school. Several little friends we know have recently had the chicken pox, the highly variable spring weather is causing runny noses, and possibly even lice, fleas and other such parasites are out and about - although I don't know of any specific cases. Regardless, it must be on the minds of our boys because at bedtime, Frunty was clear to point out that we shouldn't pass our "microbes" (spoken with thick French accent). At the mention of the word "microbes", Pit had to add his information: "You know daddy, microbes are tiny animals that scratch our hair..."

It's Father's Day in Belgium. This is part 1 for me since I get Part 2 when Canada celebrates Father's Day. The boys had each prepared special gifts at school and we opened them at lunch. On Friday, I mentioned all the wonderful cards and drawings, now I got see that inside the big green roll was a placemat with a my name written by Frunty and coloured beautifully green. He also painted a ceramic fish that was part of a "scrap-book" exercise - a sheet of paper with a crocodile scale design upon which where several pictures of Frunty and his brother enjoying a snowy vacation in Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn. From Pit, I received a small, zippered, cloth change-purse decorated with a perfectly painted bicycle. Pit admitted that Madame Claire helped with the painting and reminded me that I can put my "monies" in there. I went and collected the loose British coins that I have in various places and so his gift has come in very handy already.

We celebrated Frunty's birthday party with his friends today at the Royal La Rasante sports club where he is a member. The Mommy did an excellent job of organising the invitations and the planning. His invitees (from left to right) were his little brother, Ying Ying (Taiwan), Xhun (Guatemala), Antoine (France), Albert (Norway), and Leo (from England but absent for the photo) - not a single Belgian! The Mommy enlisted my help for execution and I was given my orders: buy snacks at the grocery store, make sandwiches, horse around in the pool, play soccer in the field, take pictures, etc., etc. complete with hour-by-hour schedule. Gosh that was easy and fun!

Frunty received his club guests at the front entrance where there is a little playground. They played on the jungle gym and as his friends would arrive, he would open his gifts and they would go back to playing. When the group was complete, we split into teams to hit the change rooms and off to the swimming pool. Going at noon is great because everyone is having lunch and so we had the pool to ourselves. I was in the water, while The Mommy and Friend stayed in regular clothes just in case. We played chase, "Swim the underwater tunnel", "Chuck the Child", and "Drown the Daddy".

After pool time, we went to the back fields to have a picnic - snacks and sandwiches - and to play soccer. But I think the children we too tired from the pool to really play any games. They preferred to sit in the shade and take it easy. We played "pass the parcel" with a slight twist - I was singing the music and The Mommy and Friend danced. I think the children didn't know what to do: pass the parcel or watch the show.

Cake time was yummy since they were very chocolaty. Of course, the cakes have no gluten, no dairy, and no eggs but no one noticed they were different from any other cake. Overall, things went very smoothly thanks to The Mommy's great planning. The weather was warm and sunny, no fights erupted, no one got hurt, and no one even shed a tear. We left the club shortly afterwards to go home where the boys calmly played with the new toys. Just before lights-out, I asked Frunty if he enjoyed his party and he said, "Oh yes! I loved it!"

Both boys came home from school today with special packages for me. I think this coming Sunday is Father's Day in Belgium but I'm not sure since I consider next Sunday 21-June as Father's Day. Oh well, I get to celebrate it twice. They took turns showing me what they prepared. Pit was explicit in saying that his teacher, Madame Claire, helped him do the painting, but it's so perfect that as usual, we think she did most of the work. She must really enjoy doing pre-school crafts. Frunty made extra drawings, one of which is my computer with the words I [heart] you, which maybe you can see in the picture. Now I have to wait 2 days to open my gifts!

At about 3:30am this morning, I heard another of Pit's usual use of the term "super". In the still darkness of the wee hours, he breaks the quiet with his comment, "I'm super hungry!" He's in the habit of simply indicating his state - I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I have to pee.... and so my standard reply is something along the lines of "good for you". Sometimes we remind him (Alex Trebek style) that the correct phrase is in the form of a question. And more importantly, a polite question. At 3:30am, I never heard the question and so the darkness stayed still. Somehow, he fell back asleep without his snack but I stayed awake until dawn and kept wondering if I should get treats and snacks for myself....

Pit's favourite word lately has been "super", as in, "I am super angry" while stomping foot, or "I am super rocketing..." when he wants to explain that he's very fast. This morning he was "super annoyed" with me because we didn't walk the path he wanted to take to school.

Also this morning, Pit blurted out a surprise for Frunty. I'm surprised the suspense lasted 15 hours. Yesterday afternoon, Pit and The Mommy went to a toy store to buy some Littlest Pet Shop animals for Frunty's birthday. At the store, The Mommy made Pit promise to keep it a secret. As soon as they picked up Frunty from school Pit exclaimed to Frunty, "We got something from the toy store!" But The Mommy clamped down before he could say anything further. They were under supervision the rest of the day so no words were exchanged until this morning. Frunty came downstairs to announce that he was happy at the prospect of receiving Pet Shop animals for his birthday and when we asked him how he knew, he matter-of-factly said that Pit told him. Crossly, we subpoenaed Pit and asked why he told Frunty about his surprise. Pit's innocent reply was simple, “He asked me.”

Each boy woke up on opposite sides of the bed this morning. On the walk to school just now, Pit was skipping and jogging and prancing all the way to school. He detoured through peoples gardens to smell the flowers and cheered and hummed right into his classroom. Frunty, on the other hand was melancholy saying that it's too bad he wasn't small like Pit so he could go to his classroom. I asked him why and he said, "Firstly, my backpack is too heavy and Pit has a small backpack. Secondly, I want to work from home so that I don't have to carry my backpack to school each time and also because I like English because French is really annoying. And thirdly I miss my friends from my class.". I tried to talk to him but we were already at school and he got distracted by a friend and cheered up and Pit took off without so much as a backward glance.

Happy Birthday to my brother and Kish on June 4th and to my nephew, O, on the 5th.

Today we celebrated Pit's birthday by having a party with his friends in our home. I am really thrilled at how well it went...no tears, no fights, just fun. We invited 9 kids but only 5 could come. I have to say that Frunty did an excellent job of helping me prepare by blowing up balloons and creating the tin-can-toss game which was a hit, albeit noisy, with tin cans crashing to the ground. We also did fishing on the back porch and it luckily stopped raining for the short time we needed to enjoy that game. We also enjoyed pass-the-parcel and the prize was Haribos that all the kids could have on the spot. For craft time, we coloured some pirate pictures and decorated picture frames again this year. I will put the birthday picture in them tomorrow when I get them developed and deliver to each child. The two girls worked on making candle holders but the boys were pretty happy playing with the new gifts together.

I like how Frunty told the kids what to do next and how he explained the gift-giving game during which you pass around the balloon and do a song. When the song stops and the balloon is in your hands, the birthday child opens your gift. I forgot the name but will ask Frunts tomorrow. His French is so great and his ability to organize the games and kids really helped me a great deal.

Daddy went early to the market and bought beautiful fruit for the party: watermelon, cherries, apricots and tons of strawberries. I am super pleased with the two cakes I made from the cookbook Daddy gave me for gluten-free vegans. I made a divine chocolate brownie-cake and a carrot cake with pineapple and shredded coconut. I really loved when Pit and Frunty laughed when they saw the chocolate cake which I made into a train. On the front car, I had put a picture of Pit's face and on the caboose, a picture of his feet. Frunty wants the same for his cake! He wants a carrot cake with chocolate icing for his swimming party at our club next Saturday.

It was just such a nice party. And Pit and Frunty played in the front room so beautifully afterwards with the late evening sun starting to shine in. I took a picture and will include it soon. It was a beautiful moment to see them together like that, enjoying eachother's company. What a day!

Pit and I practiced some more bicycle exercises and his confidence since yesterday has really improved. He's a lot more comfortable now with sitting on his seat with his feet on the pedals while I hold the bike. Then, after a countdown, I let go and he tips over while putting his feet down. He's maybe not ready to pedal but at least he's not wailing for his training wheels.

After the bike practice, he got into the baby seat on the back of The Mommy's bike and I took him and Frunty to the Environmental Day festival at the Cinquantenaire Park. Getting them out of the house a few hours before the start of his party was important to allow The Mommy to make last minute preparations, not to mention letting Frunty burn off some excitement. They had fun exploring the various expositions and collected some give-away goodies - reflector straps for cyclists - and spaghetti serving forks(?!) Unfortunately, it started to rain - we were not dressed for getting wet - but I never heard a single complaint despite the damp cold. Now that we're back home, wet clothes are a perfect excuse for putting on dry clothes that are nicer and more appropriate for the birthday party that begins in 15 minutes!

I purchased a number of fresh fruits and vegetables at the market this morning. One fruit in particular was a hit. No, it wasn’t the watermelon or the strawberries or cherries but the figs. Every once in a while, the boys enjoy dried figs but sometimes they don’t like the toughness of the dried fruit. This time there was no toughness with the fresh figs. They were good and maybe could be a little riper but they gobbled it up, especially Frunty. I think Pit still prefers the dried ones because they don’t make his hands so messy and sticky.

It was reasonably sunny and warm, and The Mommy needed time to bake cakes for tomorrow's party, so I took the boys to Woluwe Park for a couple of hours. It was a good chance to play outside and kick a ball around. We also tried tossing the boomerangs but we don't have the technique to make come back full circle. We'll have to keep practicing. One thing we did practice was Pit's bicycle riding. Two weekends ago, he wanted to remove his training wheels and ride down the street like his older brother. So I unscrewed the brackets and held the bike for him while he peddled for about 10 metres before he tipped over and had a little fright.

Ever since that time, Pit has just wanted the training wheels back on. But today in the park, I convinced him to try a couple of exercises without actually riding. So we took time to stretch up and down, then jump up and down and finally stand on one leg, then the other. To make a long story short, we went through a series of steps until he wanted to get back on the bicycle simply to avoid my mundane cycling warm-ups. The best part was getting him to sit on the seat as he practiced putting his feet down when he tipped over. At least he's not adamant about getting his training wheels back on and he's back to looking at Frunty for inspiration.

Perhaps it's been written somewhere in the blog before but it's worth mentioning again because of what happened this morning. Pit crept into our bed in the middle of the night and was between us starting to stir. Before either grown-up was fully awake, as if some huge lottery had just been won, Pit exclaimed, "Yoohoo! I touched your neck!"

Here's the background to his excitement. Ever since he stopped breast-feeding, Pit has required some alternative skin-to-skin contact. Since the milk bar was closed, the next closest place was the neck. He started caressing The Mommy’s neck which was cute and cuddly. This transition has persisted over the past two years and at times it has been less than desirable to have a small person clawing at your neck with cold hands or razor-sharp baby nails. Thus began the real transition of limiting neck touching of The Mommy. Naturally, I became the next obvious target and over the past several months most bed-time routines involve getting my neck caressed. Sometimes there are comments about my "sharp" skin due to stubble or questions about that "bump" on my throat, but for the most part it's a short moment and reasonably bearable.

Actually getting to touch The Mommy’s neck is like winning some major prize and hence Pit’s super excitement (and the jolt out of morning drowsiness) with the loud “Yoohoo! I touched your neck!”

This morning The Mommy and I were waking up the boys and Pit perked up very fast and said,

"Mommy, I have a joke."
"Ok, what it is?", The Mommy said.
"What's your name?", he said.
"Mommy"
[short pause]
"Now you say 'What's your name?'"
"What's your name?"
"[Pit]"
[another short pause]
"Where's the funny part?"
"I don't know.", he says in a sleepy voice.

I think he woke up too fast and had something else running through his head but just couldn't remember it.

About a week ago we noticed a sign in the neighbourhood advertising a street sale on June 1. Monday is actually a statutory vacation day and we had been planning a 3 day long weekend in France but decided to fore-go the trip in favour of staying around town to participate in the street sale. Not to buy of course, but to sell! In the process of some harsh spring cleaning, we identified many items that were just not worth keeping. So we moved the contents of our cellar storage room (la cave) to a piece of sidewalk next to Petillon metro station at around 8am with the intent of making a few extra euro. The boys helped with the the first full car load of stuff and I realised as I was unloading the second car load that the boys needed to be removed from the situation otherwise our house would refill itself with other peoples cellar storage stuff.

By 9:30am, I parked the car at the edge of the Forêt de Soignes and tricked them into trekking 2.2km to a playground. We stopped along the way to balance-walk on fallen tree trunks, float sticks down the creek straight from the spring source of water, observe and confuse a chipmunk for a lizard, lament that the pond where Mowgli would wade was now fenced off to protect the nesting area of the martin-pêcheur, and so on a so forth. One and a half hours later, we arrived at the playground whose centrepiece is a great big pirate ship next to the Rouge-Cloître. After about an hour, I warned the boys that we should start heading back towards the car if they were hungry. Frunty almost immediately campaigned to his little brother to head back because he was starving and Pit starting asking to be carried home. I announced that it would not be necessary for Pit to be carried because we would take a short cut and Frunty replied that he hoped "...the short cut would not be too long." Lucky for everyone, I wasn't a trickster and only marched them 1.5km back to the car during which time we had to listen to Frunty complain that Pit was too slow and that we could die of hunger. By 1pm, we were home and snacking on rice-crackers with peanut butter and jam.

Shortly afterwards, we were on bike to the snack shop for falafel and fries to deliver to The Mommy who most surely needed a break. But no! The Mommy was fading but did not want to part with her belongings without some cash to show for it until the very last moment. So I ran back home to get a duffel bag of soccer balls and took the boys (and some neighbourhood friends) to the local school playground for about an hour of football and playtime. By this time The Mommy was finished so I got the car and filled it with half a load.

Thanks to The Mommy's hard-sell sales tactics, the other 1.5 car loads that I brought 7 hours earlier had been transformed into a neat 3 digit cash amount. Everybody pitched in today, especially the boys who had some angst about parting with their old things but managed to understand what needed to be done.