Guess what Mickey here we come (twice!)

Ok so we already had plans to go to Disneyland Paris in October... but then we had this great opportunity!






Can you believe it.... I am sooooo excited :) More details later!

Have a great day!

Back from the Ardennes!

OK, in between a hospital visit (nothing serious).... running errands and taking my oldest to swimming class.... here are the pictures of our trip to the Ardennes!

Hope you like them!

So I am trying to keep my blog up to date...

Hi!

Can't you tell that I am really trying in keeping my blog up to date?

Just a few mins left behind my puter before I have to pack the last stuff to go to the Ardennes, pick up the kids from school and put everything in the car.

We're going to Stavelot:

This is a beautiful part of Belgium, I just hope the weather will not be just rain like the forecast says... we will see!

Ok and then there is one more layout to show you before I leave, I just finished this one!

Image is clickable for credits of course.

Probably a lot more pictures when we get back on Monday night!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello!!

The kids are still in school, it's Wednesday so only until noon, this afternoon Mauro has his swimming lessons...

I recovered from the short nights during the game I organized and in fact there are only 2 more working days (or better, just 1,5) until our little break in the Ardennes. I am really looking forward to go to Belgium, I just hope the weather will be good. Just dry weather will be fine...please??

For the first time in a long period I did a scrap that took me longer than just one night! I finished it this morning and here it is!

Credits can be found in my gallery when you click on the image!

It is from this great Lil Grad kit by Melissa Bennett who is now selling at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I have been on her CT for quite a while now and I can hardly keep up with all her great designs. This is lil Grad....
Isn't it cute??? I love all the little grad figures in it!

About two weeks ago my boys had their school pics taken. Usually this is done every year but this time it was the first Elementary school picture for both of them. We were in Greece last year when the pictures were taken en well, Milan only just started school... Don't you like the little rascals??

Well, I have to run some errands before I can pick them up from school... see you soon!

Work... and play!

I am back!

Still very tired... I organized two simulation games for our students who work at the public governments and they were both last week and this week and I was there for 2,5 days each...almost nonstop work (ok, I admit ... at the bar at night too). Last night I came home and I was soooo tired and my back hurt from that hotelbed! Even though I had only been in that bed for about 5 hours (from 1.45 until 7.00 am). We have a great group of co-workers, students and trainers so it was tempting to stay at the bar until it closed.

The next morning when the simulation game continued I had a lot of coffee and a 45 min. walk in the beautiful forest of Lunteren. The weather was great, not as humid as it is now. We finished the simulation game around 4.00 pm, cleaned up, had another last drink together and went home. I got home by 6.20 pm which was good.. the kids were still up of course it was nice to be able to spend another hour with them. Now they are in school until noon only so I have to get some groceries done this morning and clean the house a little.


Just before I left I did one layout, this time not for any CT, just for myself (image is cllickable for credits):

Last night when I read my e-mail I saw that I couldn't access the Simonetta Rossi forum any longer, the CT forum I mean. This morning I read her personal email to the CT that she's going to disband the CT... I was so sorry to hear this. I am a fan of her designs and lightroom presets! I hope all goes well for you in the future Sue!

As I said today's weather in Holland is humid... and it's probably going to be hot later today (it's 9.31. am now).... Here are some of my fav pics of Milan last week when the weather was good too....

Two more days at work and school and on Saturday we're going to the Ouwehand Zoo...Perfect location for some more photos! Then only one more week until schoolbreak here. The kids have a week off and so have I! We're going to the Ardennes, Belgium, a beautiful region with hills. Of course we are also visiting Plopsaland there since we still have our annual pass.

Have a great day!

Queensday market in Baarn

DSCF4904
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

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone... hope you found all of the eggs today :)

Will come back soon for a real update ....

Karen

Busy girl

Hi all,

Oh no I don't feel sorry for myself, it's just that I sometimes feel that I am a busy girl. Like last Monday... I wanted to list what I did but I didn't have time to blog it....

7.00 am got up (kids woke us up, very reasonable time :), get us all dressed (not dh, he's off to work already, lol) and fed.

8.05 am all in the car, drop both the kids off at school in their different classes (8.20-8.30) and off to work.

9.00 am my first cup of coffee in the office and I stay there until 2.00 pm.

2.00 pm I run some errands and drive to school

2.45 pm school gets out and I pick up the kids in pouring rain (I hate that!)

3.00 pm home, give the boys a drink and a little snack

3.15 pm I start doing some of my chores, this time it's an hour of ironing (kids are playing)

4.00 pm The youngest is watching a dvd and falls asleep, I can peel some potatoes for dinner

4.30 pm dh gets home

5.00 pm early dinner because I have to be at a workshop at 7.00 pm

6.15 pm I leave the house and dh takes care of the kids from now on, bath, bed etc.

7.00 pm I meet my old co-worker Marije who has just opened this great meeting center (http://www.ruimteutrecht.nl/), I introduce myself to the other people there and the workshop starts

10.30 pm I say goodbye to Marije and thank her for the nice evening... my drive home is 20 mins.

11.00 pm I sit on the couch and feel tired.. so off to bed...

Ok... so not every day is this long...and today I am off work, like every Wednesday. Of course other things are waiting for me today, the kids are off school at noon already and the oldest has to be at his swimminglessons at 3.30 pm. I still have to run some errands and clean the house... scrapping, reading a book? Hmmm, I think it's time for a day off, and I mean OFF... When will that be do you think? When they're 18?? LOL...

Ok I think I did make a couple of layouts last week to show you, let me see....

Ok that's all for today, I hope you don't have the stormy weather that we're having right here... I want Spring!!!

Have a great day!
Karen

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