Queensday market in Baarn

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool

Here's a short video impression of our Queensday in Baarn. We are selling brocante/antiques at my mom's stand!

40 and Happy Queensday!

Two parties in two days ... and it was fun!

Ok so I did not really throw a party for my 40th birthday (I mean, what's to celebrate, lol)... but I did have a good day. First the boys gave me my gifts around 7.00 am.... I had the a beach bag from Riviera Maison , one of my fav stores! I also had a Dirty Dancing dvd (special edition), a picture of my 2 little ones and a lot of self-made crafts with happy birthday on it! After that I had an appointment at the hairdresser... and then I found a Wii at the MediaMarkt!! I had tried to order the Wii at different stores but all sold out.. and there they were 8 of them at that store! And it is fun! Yesterday we tried some bowling, tennis and boxing from the Sports Pack and today we did the games of Mario's Carnival!

Anyway, so I stayed in the citycenter of Utrecht for a while to do some shopping. I bought the new book by Sophie Kinsella because I loved the Shopaholic series... Now I bought Remember me. I bought some clothes, a nice brown jersey dress, a poloshirt and an orange t-shirt... which you will see on the pictures later on. I ran some errands at Albert Heijn because we have two holidays ahead of us... Queensday and Ascensionday. Around 4.30 pm we pick up the kids from their day activity center (they are off school this week) and drive to IKEA... It's my birthday so I can decide what we will have for dinner tonight and I love to treat the boys to a meal at the yellow letters (as they call it because they can't read yet, although Mauro has thought himself a little). One boy picks the Swedish meatballs, the other the chicken nuggets and Andy has a kid's meal too (because there's an ice cream with the meal, lol). I get the salmon which is ok as a birthday meal...lol! When we got home and put the boys to bed the phone rang constantly... so nice to hear people remember my birthday! Arond 9.30 another phonecall... It was Mick my friend from Wellington, New Zealand!! She's Dutch, we took the same course years ago (that's how we met) and she moved to Wellington 5 years ago with her husband and 2 kids. It was so great to be chatting away for an hour (!!) on the phone...like she had never left Holland! I would love to see for real how they live but tickets (for 4!) are expensive! Anyway, thank you Mick for calling...it was a great ending of the day!

And today it was Queensday....

We left the house at 7.00 am for the first flea market. It's a special fleamarkt because children sell their spare toys mostly.... also adults sell second hand stuff.... We went early to get the best deals and the best things! Came home around 8.00 am, had breakfast and the boys played with the toys they bought on the market... Then we left again to go to Baarn... here's an impression:

Me at 40... lol! Wearing my Queensday shirt!

Our stand

Royal mugs... all with the royal family on them (for sale!)

The boys sorting out grandma's silver teaspoons (all for salem except for the boys!)...

That was all for now.... tomorrow is Ascension day so another bankholiday...it fact I have off work until Tuesday... woohooo!!!

Final countdown

Hi,

It's the final countdown... that song keeps going through my head... :)... 5 more days until the big four o... A friend of ours gave us these '40' decorations since her husband turned 40 on April 11th (happy belated birthday Peter!)... These decorations are already up in our house since Andy turned 40 last Monday and we couldn't be bothered to remove them, after all what's 8 days ... or should we have taken them down and put them up again a week later. Perhaps our neighbour will now miss the fact that it will be my birthday too and just think I am too lazy to remove the decorations, LOL...

One more schoolday and the kids have a week off... It will be Queensday on Wednesday and we might visit a themepark on Friday or Saturday, all depending on the weather... lucky us that it is a very long bankholiday Wednesday until Sunday! Schools are also closed on liberation day (Monday May 5th) and since I don't have anywhere to put the boys on that day I took that day off too... Long long weekend!

I didn't do a lot of scrapping lately ... just no inspiration I guess. I like this one I did:

image is clickable for credits

Did you see the latest by Natali Designs? I bought this yesterday:


I have been buying a lot of Natali's stuff lately..so please can you send over some scrapping inspiration?

Have a great Thursday, Friday or whatever day it is in your part of the world!

Just a fresh look

Since I am at home with the flu' for a week now (I hope to get back to the office tomorrow) I decided to give my blog a fresh look... Might make me feel better too... let me know what you think... Do you like the new 'me' or did you like the old one better? People say they get weird close to 40... my birthday is less than 2 weeks away so 'they' may be right!!

Have a great day

Easter to April....

Hi all!

White Easter.

Sorry, it has been a while... no excuse really! I have been on a 2-day training (Practical Coaching) and work has been busy since Easter! But today my oldest boy is on the couch with fever and I think he's taking a little nap right now...so I have time to update my blog. In an hour I have to pick up the youngest from school too. Meanwhile I will try to get you updated about the past weeks... So there was this Easter that people were joking about...people wished eachother Merry Christmas because the weather forecast said it would be a White Easter! Well here's proof of what happened:

It was more difficult to find the Easter eggs this year...lol... Can you find it?

Just a little bit of snow on the branches!

Our Almond Tree in Bloom!

The snow didn't last long that day so we got up and were playing in the snow by 8.30 am. Later that morning we drove to Hapri (short for Half Price), it's a fahion outlet store where I love to go a couple of times a year. They had marked down all the children's items to 5 euro a piece. I bought some things for the boys and 2 items for myself. On the way back didn't take the highway but the smaller roads and the ferry across the river Rhine. Especially the boys love these routes! Near Veenendaal we stopped for lunch at McDonalds.

Drums

This looks great huh? My oldest boy (who is now on the couch with fever) loves music and last year he took some general music classes. He thought (even though he was only 4!) they were boring because he didn't get to play a lot of the instruments. He had this toy drumset but it broke quite fast and now we got him a new set! I bought it on Marktplaats and he is sooo over the moon with this (and it wasn't even his birthday!).

Just after Easter our friend Debby gave birth to her new babyboy Max! We visited him when he was 3 days old but unfortunately I had brought a camera without a memory card! Stupid me! I can tell you it's a really sweet boy! My co-worker had delivered the week before and she has a baby girl named Sophie. I hope to see them soon!

And then there was last weekend... they boys stayed at their grandparents in Cothen. It was sort of last minute decision to let they stay over... we thought of taking them there in the morning so grandma could babysit them. But an extra night off is very welcome and they love to stay over at gran's so we were all happy! We took them there and when we left we drove to Zeist to see a new movie called 'Zomerhitte'. This movie is directed by Monique van de Ven. She's also a famous actress in our country. Anyway, I already loved the themesong of this movie:

When summer ends by VanVelzen:

On Sunday we went to the Sample Sale at the Amsterdam Fashion Square and I did some great shopping there... bought 3 skirts, a blouse and 2 shirts and a knitted sweater! All items were 10-20 euro a piece so I thought I had a good deal!

Today is Monday and I have taken the day off because of the sick little boy... tomorrow I have to work and my mom will probably look after him... I don't see him going to school tomorrow after such a fever!

Well have a good day you all...next time I will show you some more digistuff... I hardly scrapped the past weeks!

Karen