Efteling Park in The Netherlands

Today we took the kids to a Hans Christian Anderson theme park in the Netherlands called Efteling.  

We had the best time!

The roller coasters were awesome and even Kennedy was tall enough for a few of them.

Check out the trash cans.  They had lots of different characters and when you throw something away, they say something to you, but we didn't know what because it's in Dutch.

The fairy ride--Kennedy's favorite!

They loved watching the guy on the flying carpet go back and forth.

This is the talking tree--so crazy to see in person.  We'd watched him on you tube before we left, but to see him in real life was hysterical.  His face moves just like a real face.  

The Emperor has no clothes

LITERALLY!!!

Only in Europe...

Ethan's pumped about a ride he's not going to get sick on!

At the end of the day, Emory and I went on some sort of haunted boat roller coaster ride.  It was terrifying!  I didn't think it would be a big deal, but Emory screamed the whole time and squeezed my arm and the arm of the poor guy next to us!

Then we caught the water show on our way out.

Best way to celebrate a Birthday--riding roller coasters and laughing lots with my little people and their sweet dad.

Brussels

When we got off the subway in Brussels, we saw this cathedral.  It's called Cathedrale Saints Michel et Gudule.  Beautiful.

There were pictures on the wall of King Felipe and Queen Mathilde on their wedding day.

The kids thought this statue was so fun.

There's a really pretty walk on the way to the Grand Palace that is just one chocolate shop after another.  

We picked our lunch spot based on how good their Belgian waffles looked.

Then we were off to see the palace.

After that we headed toward Planet Chocolate.  This chocolate sculpture in the window is the Grand Palce and behind it is a chocolate sculpture of "little Julian"--a famous fountain in Brussels.

They were doing a chocolate making class in the back of the store.

Emory loved the white chocolate.

Afterwards, we caught a bus and headed toward the EU headquarters.

We toured the Parliamentarium--the EU Parliament museum.  As soon as we walked in, they gave all five of us earpieces so that the tour would be in our language and scanners so that we could read along.  

The kids were given scanners that they used to access the info at their level.  Then they filled out a booklet based on what they learned about the EU and if they got enough questions right, they won a prize.  

Rather than listening to the tour, Ken pretended hers was a cellphone The. Entire. Time.  

While Baylor and Emory were running around trying to get their books completed, Kennedy was all "hey girl!  Yeah...yeah...I know...hmmm.  Okay.  Gotta go.  Love ya.  Bye girl."  "Oh!!!  Got another call...hold on y'all..."