Cuckoo for Cocoa

One of the ways that I knew I was pregnant last year was the fact that chocolate- my usual obsession, actually made me nauseous.  I mean, seriously, why did we even move here if not to drink the beer or eat the chocolate?!  Ok, so that's easy, just don't go down that aisle at the grocery store, right? Welllll that wasn't exactly an option, because as it turns out, every aisle is the chocolate aisle in Belgium :)

But I'm not pregnant anymore, and back on the (chocolate covered) wagon.  Instead of racing through the store gagging, I can now fully enjoy the deliciousness of a cocoa crazy shopping trip!

Lets start with the cereal aisle.  No exaggeration, but 90% of the cereals are chocolate. We've got your basic puffs, pebbles, and chocolate granola.  "Fitness" brand cereal is sort of like a "Just Right" but with chocolate.  Special K has a whole line of dark, milk, white and even stracciatella (fancy, right!) flavored cereals.

In the refrigerated aisle they have dozens of different chocolate yogurts and puddings but most bizarre, here we find chocolate Philadelphia cream cheese and chocolate butter spread!

Two different flavors!

                                                          

Ok, im not 100% sure this is chocolate butter, but its in the refridge aisle and "Balade" is a brand of margarine

Speaking of spreads, lets take a little look at what I call  the "nutella" aisle.  It has so many shapes, sizes and flavors of spreadable chocolate!


Fun fact: This aisle is also where they hide the chocolate sprinkles... you know, in case you want a sprinkle sandwich!


Chocolate for Belgian babies?  Of course! Baby aisle includes a wide variety of chocolate baby formulas and biscuits.

Going the healthy route? The health food aisle has a ridiculous amount of chocolate options, including my favorite, chocolate covered rice cakes!


And then there is the actual chocolate chocolate aisles.  My usual grocery store has two full aisles, separated into boxed, block, bar and more candy types. Although there are tons of fabulous "fancy" chocolate shops in Brussels, there's nothing wrong with a little grocery store chocolate :)

Carnaval in Aalst

Somehow we missed this last year, but Carnaval is a BIG deal over here!  Although it is impossible to find a halloween costume in Belgium (other than a witch hat or ghost...umm sheet) they sure do break out the big guns for this holiday! After some careful research about which town to spend our "fat" Sunday we decided on Aalst because its parade looked fun and lets face it, its the closest.  This cutie town is about 30 mins away looks sort of like Ghent without the canals, or Leuven without the University.  Anyways, it was bright sunny day, we found a parking spot and headed to the Grote Market (which is always the place to be in any good Belgian town)  We were a bit early and there wasn't too much going on but the town looked ready for some rowdiness! Every store front, building and even the interiors of bars were boarded up like they were preparing for a hurricane.  Apparently the fun goes on for a few days in Aalst, and all businesses are closed until Ash Wednesday, craziness!

Enjoying a festival Brat

So what happens in an Aalst Carnaval, you ask? Well there are LOTS of men dressed as women, there are blood oranges thrown, there is a lively and musical parade that goes on for hours, there is a lot of boozing, and many costumes that we in the King family simply don't "get"
Anywho, we had a great time- surely didn't stay for the whole thing because it was getting really cold.  Sofie was nice and warm in her new sheepskin stroller bag (like an Ugg sleeping bag!) but Chris and I were cold to a point no amount of gluwein could cure.

P.S....Happy Valentines Day!

The hills are alive with the sound of...

Sofie. Screaming. From the backseat.
I'm exaggerating, she actually did pretty well.  But, yes we decided to test our fussy little road-traveller with a trip to the Austrian Alps this past weekend.  Granted we didn't win any awards for speed but I think we can say that she will *tolerate* an adventure in the Audi when given a steady supply of cookies, toys, songs and stop breaks.

It was so worth it though! One of Chris' co-workers had recommended that we go to the Tirol region of Austria, to ski in the Zugspitz Arena.  We did a little research and found a town called Berwang with a reasonable hotel right on the mountain, literally next to a chair-lift. The place was called the Singer Sporthotel and like I told the countless hotel employees who asked constantly how we were doing, I never wanted to leave! Seriously are all Austrians this nice?  They insisted that we bring Sofie to dinner each night in their delicious restaurant which was way to fancy for an 8-month old. We had always had a special table set up with her chair, special food for her, and when she really could make it any longer (they were like 6 course meals!) they gladly sent the rest up to our room.  Members of the Singer family were always stopping us to say hi, it was so nice!  They have a spa, fun daily activities, even warmers for your ski boots! 

Hanging out with our "Singer family" in the lounge

On Saturday morning Chris went out for a little snowboarding while Sofie and I hit up the indoor/outdoor heated pool.  Since we missed our swimming class this week, we made sure to sing all of our regular pool songs :)

Having a few poolside Cheerios

Sunday we got a babysitter for Sofie and Chris and I hit the slopes.  The conditions were perfect, it was snowing lightly all day, and nothing but powder!