Happy New Year!

 

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PC200928
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

December 17… Pre-white Christmas

  Today we woke up in this winter wonderland… A week to early for Christmas but the kids were sledding to school this morning! TToday is the day of the most and longest traffic jams in 2009 so I decided (and was able to) work from home, a lot more relaxed. The boys celebrate Christmas at school today. This morning they all go to church, later today they have Christmas dinner at school!

 

 

 

Here you can see how they go to school:

Onze pietjes...

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Afgelopen zaterdag waren onze Pietjes ook bij de intocht!

Weekend no kids…

 

This weekend we had tickets for the Ilse deLange in concert so the kids stayed over at their grandparents! Of course we first had to see the arrival of St. Nicholas in Cothen… he arrived here yesterday morning. When we woke up it rained… when we drove to the village of the grandparents it was still cloudy but by the time we had our coffee the sky had turned blue and it was a beautiful morning to see St. Nicholas! We walked passed the local mill to the main street, had a chat at the butcher and bakery and by then the time had come, the first signs of St. Nicholas to arrive were here… the musical parade, the zwarte pieten… and then St. Nich!

After the parade we headed for the Community center and saw the show where MegaPiet (as a variation of MegaMindy) showed up to solve all the small problems! Mauro and Milan were small ‘Zwarte Pieten’ themselves, like many other kids.

Volledig album bekijken

We had nice soup for lunch and then headed home…leaving the 2 kids there, they would go to the theatre later with Grandma to see a play about St. Nicholas.

First we headed to The Wall, the new Utrecht shopping area to buy our new Nespresso machine. I sold our Senseo Latte on Marktplaats because I wasn’t really fond on the coffee it made. We were ready to buy it at BCC because they always drop the price if you have proof of the lower price at a different store. But they didn’t have any left in stock so we moved up 3 stores to Saturn and bought our new Fire Engine Red coffee machine!! The improvement of our coffee is soooo good!! There’s even a milk steamer on the side for the Lattes and Cappuccinos’!

The guy who bought my Senseo Latte picked it up later in the afternoon and after a small dinner we headed for the Big Red Box, the nickname of our new theatre Vredenburg. We had tickets for the Ilse deLange concert. It was great but we had noticed that it looked as if she was in a hurry, did the repertoire but not really took the time to enjoy herself… this morning I saw on Twitter that she had another gig in Amsterdam later on… So our gig ended at 10.00 pm and we were home 20 mins later!!

 

Volledig album bekijken

Peter Paddestoel....

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Moest ik gelijk aan denken.... (uit K3 show)...of is 't toch t huisje van Plop??

Heerlijke Herfst

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Heerlijk he, zo in het zonnetje... was in de herfstvakantie!

A letter from Bo the bear

Yes we are back from our week in Belgium. To our surprise we had company during this trip… Bo is the class bear (mentioned on this blog before, probably about a year ago). The kids usually take the bear home in turns to take care of him. Since we were going to Belgium the teacher asked us if it would be ok if Bo joined us… of course…the more the merrier. I just wrote this for Bo’s schooldiary (sorry it is in Dutch):

Bo de Beer op vakantie!

Milan kwam afgelopen vrijdag niet alleen naar huis dus er moest nog een extra plekje vrijgemaakt worden in de auto! We gingen namelijk op vakantie naar de Hengelhoef en de auto zat al vol met spulletjes!! Gelukkig was er nog wel een plekje vrij voor Bo en zijn koffertje kon er ook nog wel bij dus we konden snel op weg. In de auto aten we lekker broodjes op zodat we snel op weg konden.

De Hengelhoef ligt in een ander land, in België. Na ongeveer 2 uurtjes in de auto waren we er, de opa en oma van Milan waren er ook al. We hadden twee stacaravans naast elkaar en Milan mocht af en toe ook in de caravan van oma logeren en Bo dus ook. Dit is Bo in de caravan:

Het was erg gezellig op de Hengelhoef en Milan en Bo hebben een hele leuke vakantie daar gehad. Bo ging niet met alles mee en bleef soms ook in de caravan. Dan bleef hij lekker slapen zodat hij ’s avonds nog naar de disco kon.

Milan heeft een heleboel dingen gedaan, hij ging midgetgolfen en daarbij heeft hij van papa gewonnen. Ook ging hij twee keer naar het grote zwembad en daar durft hij van alle glijbanen. Bo bleef lekker bij opa, daar wordt je tenminste niet nat!

Af en toe vonden Bo en Milan het ook leuk om samen een filmpje op DVD te kijken en zo lekker een beetje uit te rusten van alle activiteiten.

Op woensdag ging Milan naar Plopsa Indoor om te spelen. Bo bleef lekker opa gezelschap houden, die ging niet mee.

In Plopsa Indoor heb je allerlei leuke attracties, vooral de MegaMindy verkeerstuin vind Milan leuk maar ook de hoge glijbaan, de springende kikkers, de botsauto’s en de draaimolen. Het allerleukste was de show van Bumba, die wilde Milan zelfs wel twee keer zien.

De camping van de Hengelhoef ligt in een groot bos en daar zijn ook hertjes. Die kun je voeren met de eikeltjes uit het bos, die vinden ze net zo lekker als snoepjes. Voordat we naar de hertjes konden moesten we dus altijd eerst heel veel eikeltjes zoeken in het bos en daarna gingen de hertjes ze zo uit Milans hand eten.

Vrijdag was de vakantie alweer voorbij en gingen we weer terug naar huis.

Onderweg stopten we nog even in Roermond bij een heleboel winkels, een speeltuin en een McDonalds. Daar gingen we nog wat eten en daarna gingen we écht naar huis. Zaterdag thuis regende het de hele dag en zijn we lekker binnen gebleven en hebben we een show van Piet Piraat en het geheim van Lorre gekeken. Ook zaterdagavond kruipt Bo weer lekker gezellig bij Milan in z’n bedje alleen nu natuurlijk niet meer in de caravan. Zondag nog één dagje samen … en dan gaan Bo en Milan maandag weer samen terug naar school zodat de juf jullie de avonturen van Bo voor kan lezen. Bo vond het erg leuk om een keertje op vakantie te gaan en Milan vond het heel gezellig dat Bo er ook bij was!

Liefs van Bo en Milan.

Joseph en Roodkapje

Het was superleuk afgelopen zondag… het culturele rondje Utrecht. Met een kind dat helemaal opgaat in alles wat met theater, toneel, circus (en goochelen) te maken heeft is het ook een inkoppertje natuurlijk. En dat terwijl hij tegelijkertijd ook een soort ‘theatervrees’ heeft want er waren jaren dat hij met een handdoek over z’n hoofd in Gert zijn pretpark naar Plop zat te kijken. Nu hij zeven is lijken deze tijden steeds meer achter ons en gaat hij er meer van genieten.

Dit was ‘mini’ van alles dus dat was mooi, een klein beetje Woezel&Pip, Roodkapje, Hans & Grietje en dan natuurlijk Joseph. Mama en oma waren er in april al geweest dus hij was er wel nieuwsgierig naar. Het leuke was dat het Beatrixtheater (we kregen een rondleiding van meneer de directeur himself) alles in een kinder(kleuren)jas had gegoten dus ook Joseph. Het kinderkoor was er en Joseph #3 (Matthijs) om 2 liedjes te zingen. Lang genoeg om de aandacht vast te houden… mam, ik zou eigenlijk de hele musical wel willen zien. Daar denken we nog even over na…

   Woezel en Pip, wel jammer dat er geen ‘preview’ van hun show was!

Mattijs (Joseph III) en het kinderkoor. 

En als je vijf bent ga je je soms ook vervelen en moet je je even uitleven!

Joseph!!

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool

Today we visited the Beatrix Theater in town, it was open to the public and we had a look behind the scenes! Also there were parts of musicals and since I have already seen Joseph the musical I loved this!!

Over 3 years of blogging…

Today I have the house all to myself… woohoo! There’s only half an hour left of it and don’t ask my why but I decided to write my blog in this last half hour. I looked back at the posts I wrote earlier and I realized I started this blog in April 2006! What I love about it most that it is really a timeline… how the boys have grown!! They both go back to school next week but I remember so well when I first took the oldest to school, after the summer in 2006! Now he’s going to 4th grade! And my little baby will start in 2nd grade next week!

These are 2 of my fav pictures of the summer of 2009… Last month we were on the island on Crete and both of the pictures were taken in the Star Beach waterpark. The boys love the waterpark (the kids part :) and it is not very far from where we usually stay… I say usually because that’s what it looks like now, it was already our 3rd stay in Malia (and my 4th)!

From next week everything will be back to ‘normal’ again… school, swimmingclasses, work… we will look forward to our next trips (Belgium and of course Florida!), to Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Year… We will not so much look forward to fall and wintertime! But every season has it’s charm so we will get there in the end!

Back from Greece… our new ‘baby’…

Yes we are back in town…! We have had 11 wonderful days on the island of Crete, in Malia.

Even though we always preferred to travel to different places each year I visited this village for the 4th time! Ten years ago I first visited Malia in the fall with my friend Petrina, where we had a blast with the ex-Orange soccer players. We met them there because they had to play  against the former Greek national team back then. Later when Mauro was just under one we returned to Malia and then last year when we also had a blog about our trip.

This year we didn’t have a lot planned for the summer… we already had our superb trip to Florida (blog here) and we already booked to go back to Floriday in May 2010. So we had no plans to spend a lot on an expensive vacation abroad but when we saw the offer on Lastminute and we still had the discount of the flight tax from our last trip… we booked Meropi again, just like last year! We left Schiphol Airport on July 23rd at 5.00 am sharp with the Transavia airplane. Here’s a photo impression of our trip!

Now we have been back almost a week and still had time off work and school but from tomorrow I will be back to work … the boys still have 2 weeks of their summer break left.

Speaking about work… my new ‘baby’ is here! I picked up our new (company) car last Friday morning and I LOVE it….

 

Although the QQ is quite common on the streets here, I rarely spotted the QQ+2 (7 seater)… It’s so comfortable to drive that I can’t wait to get some miles on these wheels!!

That’s all for now, have a great week!!

Karen

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Birthday boy and guess what… new layout!

We had lots of things to celebrate so that’s what we did most of June… PARTY! First of all the kids were really happy that their grandparents are camping again on the campsite half an hour driving from here… They love to spend the weekends there (mostly in turns to keep it ‘nice’). The weather has been quite good too but if not, the pool is where they spend most of their time anyway! And there’s the first ‘bridge’ to one of the things to celebrate…one day before our oldest turned 7 he got his “B-diploma”. 

 

This is the second swimming certificate. There is a C too but perhaps he will get that later, we don’t think he would be strong enough now.

 

 

And then there was his 7th birthday, we postponed all the parties for this because swimming exam and birthday don’t go well together … but last weekend it was party time. On Friday we took him and 5 of his friends from school and had lunch in our backyard. We had small cakes (tompouce ) and he unwrapped all the gifts.

 

Then we went to the bowling center to do some real Jungle Bowling! I was amazed by some of the talent :)

 

On Saturday we had the big family party for his birthday and we celebrated again with family and friends in our backyard, the weather has been beautiful so around 5.00 pm we got the BBQ out and cooked dinner for everyone! The birthday boy himself was invited back to the campsite with his grandparents so we filled his bag again, of course with some of the favorite gifts and off he went! We picked him up on Sunday afternoon and he had been in the different pools (indoor and outdoor) almost all day with his little friends Gaby and Corrie.

And now the last week of school has begun! Only 3 more days of REAL school until a 6 week Summer Break! The boys will get their school reports tomorrow but they are both going to the next grade.

Finally… I did something today that I hadn’t done in months… tonight I scrapped!!! Here’s the result!

You can find the credits in the gallery at DST (image is clickable).

That’s all for now!

Karen

We did it again... Orlando here we come!

It shouldn't remind me of this Britney Spears Song (Oops I did it again) but in a way it does... we did it again! We booked the flights to Orlando, this time with Martinair because they will be flying nonstop to Orlando next year again! To our surprise the grandparents will come along too!

So we will be in Orlando again from May 1 until May 15 next year and I am trying to find a good house for us... I have already made a shortlist of communities this house should be on (Bella Vida, Terra Verde, Windsor Hills or Windsor Palms). This time not a townhome but a 'real' villa with a 'real' pool and no splashpool. We would love to rent from Storytime again but it's a little (little?) over our budget to rent a villa from them... if not we would definitely rent from them again! Who wouldn't love this house:





Oh well, we will find something we like, it will be so great to be back!

Twitter

I put my twitter updates on my blog… Not that I am an addictive Twitterer but I like the news on there every now and then and I wish more of my friends would be more active on Twitter. It would be fun to see what they are doing on an average day (is any day in life ‘average’?).

Anyway… I can’t believe we have been home for almost a month! Florida is still on my mind a lot and I can’t seem to shake off this Florida Virus. It doesn’t help me that I check the Florida-Forum on a very frequent (I would say daily but it is  more than that) basis. I read the blogs of people who are there now (like Teleton, he’s a great writer, too bad for most of you it is in Dutch). I was VERY annoyed by the fact that his laptop was stolen (amongst other things) from the condo they were staying at in Florida. Things like this shouldn’t happen, especially NOT on a vacation. Anyway, I think you get the point, we want to go back next year (sooner, but that’s not in our cards)… and I am busy looking at villas and checking flights! Great thing is that the May break for the kids next year is longer so we will have more days, yeah!!

For now I just have to get back to the real life here, the bankholidays are now all over, Whitsunday was the last until Christmas! I have to focus on my oldest 7th birthday party (end of this month) and we got him this bike:

He knows he will get it (he’s really getting to small for it).

But you know what he would really like?? A chinese juggling plate!

Of course I will try to order it somewhere from the internet, these things are only a few bucks… Yesterday he practiced again at the local playground and he became pretty good at it…it’s so much fun to see him practice!

Then there is the kids party to be organized. My son wishes to go bowling so we will go to the bowling center with a couple of his friends. First we started with the tradition that he can pick as many friends as his new age is but I think it’s not going to work this time as our car isn’t big enough. Then today I heard we might have our new company car in time for the party! Our Nissan Qashqai+2 might be here at the end of this month! It’s a 7-seater!

Well this is all the news I have now… have a great day!

Karen