February... spring break

Hi all!

It is Spring Break for the boys! They have a week off from school but we both have to work, ok not all week we have Friday off, woohoo!! So they go to the extracurricular activities today and tomorrow and I have my regular day off on Wednesday and Andy on Thursday...

On Friday we leave to go to down south for the weekend, we have booked 2 cottages on the park Weerterbergen:

We have been here 2 time before and it is great for the children, they love the indoor playground, the swimming paradise and the dances and crafts with Koos Konijn. The boys know exactly who Koos is because he's the mascotte of more vacations parks we have visited....

He even has his own fun website! Of course it is all in Dutch but perhaps you manage to get something out of it anyway. So we will be with Koos for the weekend, until Sunday night because we have to get back to work and school on Monday. When we are there we have time to celebrate my mom's 64th birthday, she actually has her birthday on Thursday but I have to work on that day, so we postpone it.. Unfortunately she won't be able to enjoy the cake she will buy for us because she will have her galbladder removed soon, since it has gone bad, full of gallstones...yuck! I hope she will feel better soon and can eat anything she likes soon!

Anything else? I haven't scrapped a lot lately but I did this one page with photos you saw in my previous post, let me find it... ok right here!

Oops when I look into my gallery I see that I did 2 more... wanna see those too?? One is my friend Kitty and I at the Indian restaurant in Brum, and the other is the AAM I did for the new Weeds and Wildflowers forum.

All images of layouts are clickable for credits.

Ok, I am off to shop now, I have to get the girls from daycare a farewell gift. Milan is now in school and tomorrow is his last day in daycare... I already bought some treats (food) for the kids but the girls also need a big Thank you for all the four years they have taken care of my little boy!

Have a great day!
Karen

A little spring... a better mood!

So hello again!

I hope you have been checking my blog and noticed I wasn't here for a few days... No I wasn't away... it can't be party time every day, now can it?? I was busy doing other things than blogging but I didn't forget about you all so I did do my homework and made some layouts!

Weather

Can you believe it's the beginning of February and the temperatures climbed up to 15 degrees Celsius last weekend!! We were so lucky! On Saturday we celebrated Milan's fourth birthday and many people came over to visit us including Petra. She brought Milan a watch... such a great gift for him! I hope he'll start to tell time soon and wear the watch so that he knows 6.15 am is NOT the right time to get out of bed, lol!

On Sunday we had tickets for Harderwijk. I just recently got us a Girafpas, it's an annual pass for 18 euro per family (2 adults and up to 6 kids). With this pass we get 4 times a year free entrance to a zoo on specific dates. This time it was Dolfinarium weekend. We had never taken the little boys there (we took Mitchell once but at 16 you don't like the zoo anymore) so it was a great opportunity. We also took our nephew, niece and their dad!

The weather was sooo great on that day that we had a great day out. We loved the shows and to see the animals (sea lions, dolphins) but the small beach and playgrounds were just as good for all the kids! Here are a few photos:

Layouts

A few of my recent layouts... there was enough to scrap, Milans first schoolday,

Carnival... one of the trip to the forest on Christmas day and an older picture, when Mauro was little... but oh so cute!! All images are clickable!!

Well this is all for now, one day left of this week and then there is a weekend full of NOTHING... Nowadays I love these weekends most... no obligations, no birthdayparties... nothing :)

See you soon!

Karen

Happy 4th birthday little boy!

All day I am thinking about this day exactly 4 years ago, I had to be at the hospital at 6.30 am for a c-section... Milan was born around 9.00 am (an hour late because there was NO doctor to perform the surgery, she was still at home, in bed!)... But today is my youngest son's 4th birthday!!


He started school yesterday and next Saturday will be the big party for family and friends. He got presents from us this morning, the biggest gifts were a V-smile Pocket and My first dr. Bibber. His grandparents are picking him up from school in 15 minutes and we are all having dinner together later tonight...

Have a great day!
Karen'

Birmingham... great to see my friends again!

DSCF4768
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Last weekend I left one boy with grandma and the other with dad... so had the chance to go to England for the weekend with my (higschool)friend Kitty.

We chose Birmingham for the time zone (extra hour to shop), the shops (GAP, M&S) and perhaps there would be a chance to see my friends from Wolverhampton/Cannock/Stoke-on-trent....wherever they live in the area.

After a bumpy landing we were in time and all ready... so we shopped until we dropped... had the nicest meals and on Sundaymorning we met Carol, Danni and Gary. It was a great weekend, my head was all empty and that's a good sign....

We have to plan more weekends like this one!!

Karen

January.... january

Hi!

I don't like January after the first week... The first week makes me happy, it gives me sort of 'clean' feeling, like there's an empty page in front of me and I get to write on it... Usually I have the first week of the year off so that makes me feel even happier... and then real life starts again... Short days when you take the kids to school in the dark, drive to the office in the dark and only see daylight if (if!) I get the chance to peep out of the office for lunch... I finished work at 5.30 pm tonight, got home at 6..... DARK! Oooh I know I must be glad I don't live in the Scandinavian region but I want DAYLIGHT!

Ok so I better think of other things... I start looking for holiday destinations...when and where can we go this summer... I have worked at a travel agency for a while and I was a rep in Switzerland and Spain so I know where to find it and I know at what price... NOT! I search the web from here to Tokyo and back (not that I want to go to Tokyo)... Everyone says NOW it's the time to go to the States and hey, I have a long long GAP (and other stores) shopping list here so why not? Gladly I can give my shopping list to Petra because when I see high season ticket prices... it's NOT so funny anymore and we may have a strong Euro compared to $$$ but double the fares because the children have summer break? I vote for a president who makes fares lower when children have time to travel!! Hillary change your plans! Still don't know where we will be heading but well... at least I have spent hours in front of pictures of tropical beaches, hey!

A few layouts??

All credits can be found here

Ok I am off to get some WEEKEND... a little daylight perhaps on Saturday and Sunday...lol... ow and some groceries...vitamins...feel like I have a cold and earinfection but I am not complaining...no work for 3 days!!

Have a great weekend!

Karen

Digiscrap Hyves!

Hi!

If you're Dutch you have probably heard about Hyve...it's kind of Facebook with friends and groups and so you create your own internet community....

About 2 years ago I started a hyves group about Digital Scrapbooking.... we now have over 100 members. To celebrate Melissa Bennett was so sweet to give away a $15 coupon for her store at SBB . Miranda from Rotterdam won the coupon and she already picked some great items from the store....woohooo... I hope we'll have 200 members soon and I am sure we can think of another give away!! Take a look here and become a member:

Karen

Happy New Year!!

So here we are in 2008!!

I hope you all get the sort of year you are hoping for! I still have to make my mind up what kind of year 2007 was... If I count all ups and downs it ends up in being a good one... I found my half sister again, I think I haven't seen her in 20 years... internet makes the contact a lot easier so that's how we got back in touch! Jana, you're the best!!

I just finished 2 layouts, images are clickable....






Let me know what you think of these!!

Karen

Merry Christmas

For some of you a bit late but here we have a 2nd Christmasday. Last night we had dinner with the 3 of us, with our 3 year old. Our oldest stayed at Grandma's and we will all have dinner here tonight.

Here's our picture from last night:




I hope you're all having (or had) a Merry Christmas!

Karen

Winter Wonderland

Hello from Winterwonderland!!
Last year we only had to de-ice our carscreens once or twice and look here today! We have a wonderful winterwonderland, it snowed a little last night... ok not much but Dutch kids are really happy with this!




The kids are now in school and kindergarten and I have been packing, we're leaving this afternoon for a weekend in Germany (Cochem) and I am looking forward to a small vacation together. We are all off school and work for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Year! But I needed a little time to share the winter scene with you....

I have done some layouts too and I have to tell you about some great new alpha's that Melissa Bennett created.... ok, let me share the alphas with you! This is "Little Light Alpha no. 5" (image is clickable)... and she has 4 others to check out too....!




Gotta run now, have a great weekend!

Karen

Merry Christmas from us, the Elfs!

OMG I had such a laugh today... I hope you will too:

Best wishes from all of us....
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you who read my blog!

Hi!!

We're back... landed last night at 8.50 pm and got home around 10.15... Prague was wonderful, I have to pick up the kids but just wanted to show you a quick photo impression!!




Have a great day!

St. Nicholas, CT news and Prague!

Hi all!

A bad start
This morning didn't start of so good to say the least.... I felt powerless when my youngest didn't want me to put his clothes on, he's just so into "NO!" at the moment! He's turning four next Feb. so you would say he's getting over it but no way! When I took them to daycare and school by car I couldn't find a space to park in front so I had to drive to the next block to park my car there. Around 8.00 am it's always extremely busy and when I put my car in reverse to get into the parking space I noticed the car behind me had put his car so close to me so that I couldn't go backwards to park into that space. He went a little backwards in the end and then turned down his passenger seat window and started yelling at me that I couldn't drive, couldn't park and HE had to go to work! Huh?? Hmmm... what was I doing here?? Just dropping off the kids so I could turn into my cosy little bed again?? No way SIR! These accusations always hit me really hard, don't know why... and I also don't understand why I always stay 'too' polite! GRRRRRRR!!!
I dropped off the kids - the teachers were singing christmas carols with christmas hats on in the front of the school, this makes me teary again - and back to the car, off to work. On the way I get some sort of rock on my front window screen... At the office (a little later than most of my co workers) I find out someone disconnected the internet hub from my desk ... GRRRR again... Glad to hear more people think it is not so nice of this colleague! I know he did this to get one of the classes started but well, it was just too much for me! OK I found another spot to work (but if I'd known all this before I really would have stayed in the house today!)

St.Nicholas
Ok, I have to think of the nicer things this week so I'll make myself feel better. Actually the week was pretty good until today... and will probably be good from tomorrow! St. Nicholas day was GREAT! Piet knocked really hard on our backyard window last Wednesday and there were 4 large sacks with gifts in the backyard! The kids loved it! We celebrated it with their grandparents and us all here so it was a nice evening. I had great presents but my most fantastic one was my new TRACY JOY camera bag... yes I now own a real Tracy Joy! Can't tell you how happy I am with it and will post pics later! I also got new mugs and teaglasses and a watercooker.

CT news!!
Actually I have great news!! I applied to Simonetta Rossi (aka Scorpiosue)'s CT and I got in!! She sells her designs at Sophia Sarducci's website. I think this will be a good fit for me! And then I also got a PM from Deanna Tafoya, if I would like to be a guest on her CT?? I had a look at her products and yes, I would love to be your guest Deanna... we'll start that off in the month of January!

And then this morning... another surprise! I have been on Melissa Bennett's CT for a while and I am still so happy to be on her team... she surprised us this morning! She sent us 2 coupons, one for Heather Manning's store and one for Jill-D Zines! WOW!! Thank you so much Melissa, you're the sweetest!

And now I am doing some more work here in the office and then I am off to go home and PACK... Yes, yes, yes... in all the misery of this morning I forget that we're going to Prague tomorrow....tonight we drop off the kids at their grandparent's house and tomorrow morning at 6.30 am we're going to Schiphol to get the 8.30 plan to Prague!! It will be rainy but I don't mind...it'll be fun anyway!

Have a great weekend!
Karen

He's finally here!

Hi all!

Is it Thursday already? On Sunday we headed for Edam to see if St. Nicholas was really coming into town... We got a great spot right at the bridge (that had to open later because St. Nicholas'ship had to sail through) and my boys enjoyed every minute of the arrival! First there were Pieten in canoes (they had wrapped their candies, pepernoten, in small plastic bags, how clever :)).... After a lot of canoe Pieten we saw a large ship with a lot of little flags coming closer! On the boat... Sinterklaas and a LOT of Pieten!! I always go back to my own childhood when I see this!
Many people were watching the arrival but it was not too busy so after Sinterklaas got ashore we all went to the Townhall where the mayor welcomed Sinterklaas. I made a lot of pictures and I put a couple on the website of a local newspaper Noord-Hollands Dagblad. You can view these pics here (mine are the ones from Karen).

I also did 2 layouts with the new Sinterklaas kit from Digitaal Scrappen, I am on their CT now as a guest so a little promotion can't hurt right??






Two more weeks for Pakjesavond or Giftnight, on Dec. 5th.... The following day it is our 10th anniversary (we're not married so we celebrate the day we met) and the day after that we're flying to Prague to celebrate! No kids, just the 2 of us!!

Have a great day!

Karen

St. Nicholas is here!

Around noon we were all watching television, I guess it was what most families with small children in this country did... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland today! With his steamship, his black peters and his horse Amerigo! Even if you don't understand the language it is fun to get the vibes ... so you can watch it here!

I did this layout this evening (it's a photo from last year but today we unpacked the box with our St. Nicholas stuff and my boy wore this suit all day!)



Click for credits here... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland so from now on you can find him anywhere... tomorrow we will go to Edam to see his arrival in this little Cheesetown! So more photos after tomorrow!

Have a good weekend!

Karen

Coughing, cold, layouts and 3 more nights!

Hi,

I have a cold, coughing my lungs out so I am at home... don't know if it's flu', it looks like it... Hopefully I will feel better at the end of the day because 3 days in a row is just too long for me... But at least I have time to post my 2 latest layouts. My youngest is at daycare and my mom is here to clean a little and to take care of Mauro, he has a day off school because all the teachers have their study-day...they're taking classes themselves today.

Layouts

Credits can be found here


Credits can be found here

I did another St. Nicholas layout but I have it on my computer upstairs and I am on the laptop now so it'll have to wait!

So hopefully tommorrow I am back in the office, and Friday I work at home because school is closed AGAIN. One goes to daycare but the other one is invited to his friend's Max house to celebrate his 6th birthday. During the weekend we'll have our 'very' oldest over because Mitch will turn 16!! We're throwing him a small party here on Saturday after we have watched the arrival of St. Nicholas on TV! That is the biggest thing of the year for a 3 and a 5 year old so we can't miss that! On Sunday we are going to watch the arrival of St. Nicholas in the town of Edam, that is going to be soooo exciting!

Have a great day!

Karen

Out for dinner tonight

We're out for dinner with 6 of our friends tonight... One of the friends chose a great restaurant and their boy is staying at our home with our 2 boys and our babysitter tonight... Well can I call her babysitter?? It's my scrapfriend, blogfriend... Petra aka Milo82. I promise we won't be home too late Peet!

The winner is....

HI,

My own little SUAS winner... is my week 4 layout... It's the one you can see in the previous post and it is called 'Beautiful Greece'.

Last night I made some more layouts with Melissa's new Christmas kits. She has another one in store today and I love them all! The newest one is Homespun Holiday and will be available at Elemental Scraps soon!
My creations with the other kits, Mistletoe and Jingle Jangle can be found here and here

Off to work!

Karen

SUAS Revea and some Christmas enaBLINGl!

Hi all!

Ok... the results have been published and I am not a winner although one of my Layouts got 11 points... Can you tell me which one scored points?? I will tell you in my next post! These are my layouts and I am proud of every single one!

I had no illusions I would win so it's not a dissapointment, I am glad that I did all six assigments and stretched myself. Some of the layouts would not be here without the SUAS!

Did you see the collab fall Autumn Splendor kit by Melissa Bennett and Cori Gammon?

I did this layout with it:

Melissa also has some wonderful new Christmas kit in store.... Have a look:

This one is called Jingle-Jangle and is available at Scrapbook-Bytes from TODAY!!

And the other one is Mistle Toe:

You can also have a look in her shop at Scrapbook-Bytes for her Christmas Magic Brushes 1 and 2 and her quickpages.... they are awesome!

That's all for now!!

Karen

Back in town!

Hi all!

Ok so we've been back for a week... the week off was great! The place in Belgium is wonderful for us (forest and beautiful nature) and for the kids (pool, indoor playground etc.)... we didn't even have time to do all the things the park offers... that's a good sign, right? Our littlest one had a great time with one of his best friends as a neighbour (we rented two chalets), when they would up they could wave at eachother through the chalet windows. :)

This week we were all really busy here and I had to cancel a dinner with a friend because my eyes couldn't stand my contacts.... my eyes felt a bit weird... still have my glasses on... Another dinner with (ex)co workers was cancelled because some people couldn't make it and it wouldn't be fun without them... so in the end there was even some time to scrap!

But last night, we did go out! We went to the Gelredome Stadium for a new Symponica in Rosso concert. Last year we bought tickets because we both like Marco Borsato's music and this year because we liked last year so much! The Symphonica is performed by a different artist each year and needs 3 components, Red, Italian and Music. This year's performer is Paul de Leeuw. Let me tell you, 5 concerts are sold out and each night 30.000 people have a blast.

The fun thing was that before and after the gig I heard that many people were going or have gone to the Stadium but I didn't see anyone I knew! Marco ... Ines... better luck next time!

Here are some impressions, photo & video:

Next time more about scrapping! I can reveal one BIG little secret:

I am a guest CT for Digitaal Scrappen!!! Woohooo!!!

Karen

A week off.

See you next week... we are off to Belgium for our Fall Break!

Karen