Between Belgium and Vermont

Sometime over the holidays Ilse and I got the idea to do a book swap. We thought it would be fun for our children to see a book in a different language and I thought it would be fun to see the art in a European picture book.

So just before February, the girls and I chose our books and put together the package. Of course we had to add goodies from Vermont in addition to the books and of course we had to make it look beautiful. So, it was a fun "wintry mix" activity and off it went. You can see it over at Ilse's blog. It was fun for the girls to see the things we made in the hands of kids in Belgium.

Yesterday, we finally managed to pick up our package. I won't go into the grisly details of getting mail in our town. Suffice it to say that it isn't easy to get packages in a timely fashion.


I was just like Ilse in that I had to open it before the girls got home from school. I peeked, then closed it all up for them. We were delighted to find two beautiful books--one to add to our Christmas collection and another gorgeous book about going to the moon. The girls were able to get the gist of the stories and are excited to go read them with a friend of ours who speaks Dutch.

We were also excited to find Belgium chocolate, some honey bread, and some vanilla sugar which we want to try with Dutch pancakes. N was a little upset to come home and find all the chocolate gone :)

This sweet little gnome was also in the package and is about to go on Lou's backpack!

I am guessing that this weekend two families, one in Vermont and one in Belgium, will be eating pancakes--some with Vanilla Sugar and some with Maple syrup.

Thank you Ilse for a delightful treat at a time of year when there aren't a lot of treats!

p.s. for those of you who are just visiting her blog, Ilse has a translator widget in her sidebar as do I.