Happy New Year

Whishing you and your families a Happy, Healthy and Safe 2011!

Christmas day

Yesterday we had christmas diner with my side of the family and today we are with my in-laws, who live near the sea, so we went for a quick walk in the dunes and did some sleding.
So did grandpa...
And now we are ready for christmas diner #2.

Wishing you all...

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Is this how it starts?

It has been snowing all day and it is still snowing, so when it stopped for a moment, the boys went outside with their skies.
And when I see them experimenting, I wonder, is this how the guys from Jackass started?

I hope not...

Handmade ornaments

These are some handmade ornaments I have on display in my home. The wreaths are made by my mum this year and are haning on our doors as I type this. The other ornaments are handmade gifts from friends and I cherish them, they get special splaces in our trees or home every year.
I love these handmade gifts, they are some much more precious than store bought, but that is maybe because I know how much hard work goes in one of these little items.
As you can see ladies, all your gifts are still decorating my house every year. thanks.

Ginger bread house

Son #2 wanted to make a ginger bread house, so we started baking. I was please with the result until we started the icing, for some reason, the icing always runs. Any ideas?
But son #2 is veryproud of his ginger bread house, so he is taking it to school. I hope it will arrive in one piece...
And we will practise some more to make the perfect little ginger bread house.

How big should a christmas tree be?

OK, we are a bit spoiled, I admit that. Since our living room has a high ceiling we are used to big christmasn trees.
Our biggest christmas tree was 6 meters and we had to remove 1 meter, before we could get it in, but it was hugh and we loved it. It was so big that we could hardly enter the room, but that was OK. We also had to buy all the red christmas decorations the local store had to fill it, but hey... that is a small price for the fun we had with that tree.
So last friday, they boys and I went in seach for a perfect tree. The first store had ridiculous prices. The second and third store didn´t have trees and the forth had trees bu they were already packed in a net, so you could not see what was inside... They boys and I choose a tree and went home.
When we freed it from its net, a small beautiful tree emerged. See the tree on the left in the picture. It was a nice wonderful tree, but it is small (1.80 m). And we have a lot, and I mean a lot of christmas decorations left from the big tree year.
So we asked my parents to look for another tree so that it wasn´t loney :-). This afternoon they brought us the tree on the left. It is skinny, but large. So now we have two trees. The long skinny one, that reminds me of a dr. Seuss drawing, in the living room and the small one in the dining room.
Bring on Christmas!

Weekend well spent

OK, let´s start with what I got from Sinterklaas: A DVD from La Linea, who does remember this angry little man drawn out off one line? I loved him as a kids and now you can buy all his adventures on DVD. I also got a quilt needle protector and a book to make jewellery out of candy. And all these goodies were packed in this wonderful mushroom.

Yesterday Sinterklaas visited the house of my PIL´s, so all the gandchilden gathered and also a cousin of DH with his family, she is the little girls, as our fa,mily only produced boys until now.

The kids loved his visit and were very impressed with SInterklaas´knowledge about things that happened recently. So last night they spent playing with all their toys.

That is why this morning we went out for a walk on the beach in Katwijk. Where there was still a bit of snow on the beach.

But as you can see, warm is something different, it was very cold, so after half an hour everybody was ready to go back inside.

So with Sinterklaas going back to Spain after tonight we can start preparing for Christmas. Time flies when you are having fun...

More snow

This is what we saw last night... son #3 fallen asleep at the top of the staircase...

I can´t believe that anyone can sleep in this position, but this is the proof...

This morning when we woke up, there was more snow, so I brought the boys to school on sled as you can see. Luckily they are already wearing their winter uniform, so it should be OK for them.

And this was the condition driving to work. The roads were so so, but since the car has wintertyres, driving is OK, but still, I was later at work than normal.

First snow

We had our first snow this year, a bit early, but OK, it is almost december, so nothing strange there.
Traffic was hel this morning, since a lot of people don´t have winter tires and were driving very slow. But for the kids it was big fun, since they took their sledges with them to school and had a great time playing with them.
They are forecasting much more snow on thursday and -14 degrees Celsius? We´ll see.

Happy birthday

My dad turned 70 today. 70... an age I never imagined my dad to be. Grandparents are 70, not your parents, althougth offcourse, they are grandparents... The picture is how I remembered my dad as a kid. He was always in his atelier making things out of wood, staircases, toys, etc..
Yesterday we had a nice lunch with family and friends at the Troubadour in Antwerp for his birthday. Lunch was great and a nice atmosphere, the kids behaved, wonderful day.
So dad, happy birthday and we hope to celebrate lots more.

Today we had a walk with the kids at the Kalmthoutse Heide. OK, it was cold, it was the first real cold day and the walk was a bit long, so we went to friends of ours, to have a nice lunch and some hot coffee.
The boys climbed in every tree they could as you can see. Even the small one...

And yes, I am used as branch carrier... All the ranches they want and don´t want to lift themselves... yes, that is why we have mum.

Tablecloth

I was inspired by the book above and this is a part of the result aka as far as I am at the moment:

I am making a tablecloth that resembles my kids at the breakfast table, so fristy, milk with strawberry flavour, a stuffed animal, etc. So this is the result as far as I got before the needle of my sewing machine broke...

I think it is cool, so I will add some stuff on the tablecloth to resemble more like our breakfast table.

Sinterklaas at DH´ s work

Sinterklaas visited DH´s work, so offcourse were invited. But as you can see, son #3 was not sure what to think of Zwarte Piet being so close to him.

Son #2 was not shy at all and wanted a picture of himself with Sinterklaas, so Sinterklaas gave his full coorporation.

The kids were very happy with their presents, so we has a fun afternoon. Son #3 evently walked out with Sinterklaas, so luckily we saw that he ´escaped´ with the Zwarte Pieten. The older boys were worried that Sinterklaas was taking their little brother back to Spain (that is what happens to nauthy children), so luckily this was not the case and I could get son #3 back in the parking lot.

I have been crafting, I am making a table cloth with some decorations. I will make some pictures and show you all, later this week.

Scrappy Hoop swap

I received my hoop today from Vanessa from Portugal. She made this lovely scene. When we went to pick it up from the postoffice, son #3 didn´t want to let it go, so I hanged it in his room.

Thank you very much Vanessa, I really like your hoop.

And fro the record. I have sent my hoop also to my swap partner, so hopefully, she receives it soon.

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas has finally arrived! We went to meet him in Rijnsburg, so the kids were all anxious as you cna see on the pic.

He didn´t come on his horse Amerigo, but that was better because of the amount of children waiting to meet him. So he came in a carriage. After a short speech, it was time to do some games with the ´zwarte pieten´.

So the shoes can be placed in front of the fireplace tonight, and hopefully everybody has been good.

Finished

This is the hoop I made for the scrappy hoops swap. I hope my swap partner likes it. She didn´t want pinky and girly so I tried to choose colors she will like.
So swap partner, I will mail this out tomorrow when I am in Holland, as mail rates are way cheaper than here in Belgium.

Sint Hubertus

Today we celebrated St. Hubertus in Brasschaat. It is the ´official´ opening of the annual hunting season. Although there is almost no game here, only small animals, like ducks and hare. It is a tradition to christen the dogs and horses. As you can see in the background of the picture, there is a priest that christens the animals. So everybody with a horse or dog comes and a lot of people come to watch the scene and be amused, by the people that have not enough control of their animal. We say two horsemen fall of their horse, because the animal was nervous, so always fun to watch. Some animals are beautifull decorated and some are working animals as you can see on the next picture. This horse is the mascot of the Brasschaat Fire department and she pulls a fire engine from the beginning of 1900. Every year she is there and she is the first horse, so she opens the whole spectacle. I think we have pictures of all our kids as babies on her back.

Am I ready?

So I received my Nigella Christmas cooking book. I received my order for christmas cakes and gingerbread, including a baking mold for a gingerbread house...

So I think we are reading for Christmas. But offcourse here in Belgian and especially the Netherlands, we first celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th. I think the madness will start in two weeks, when he arrives in Holland and Belgium by boat from Spain. Son #1 already tried to place his shoe in front of the fire place, decorated with a list of toys he wants and a carrot for Amerigo (the horse of Sinterklaas). But helas, no presents, since Sinterklaas is not yet in the country...
So we will have all sorts of treats special to the celebrating of Sinterklaas, before we can start with the christmas stuff.
I heard our children are invited to meet Sinterklaas at the end of November, so I will try to make pics and post them.

keeping busy

As you can see, I have been keeping busy. It has been a calm weekend. The boys got their next bands in jiu jitsu last friday and on saturday son #1 got his diploma A in swimming and son #2 got a sticker to go to the next swimming class, so they did well and can enjoy their autumn break.

This is us

So here are a few results of the pics we had taken by Marline. She is the talent behind Rokki. I really like this picture of the boys.

We offcourse also had pics taken of all of us, with this as a result. I think they are great, the spontaneous pictures.

Early christmas preparations

Yesterday I vivisted a friend of mine that was already making great progress in her christmas crafting. She already made a ton of wonderful decorations and it looked like she was planning on making much more.
So that made me think of our christmas, since this year the christams holiday starts at the 24th, we will have to do the preparations up front since we are all working until the last day...
So I asked my cousin to join us, and my parents, offcourse our au pair, so it will be a fun group.
I talked to my cousin what we would prepare and neither of us could make a suggestion, I orderd this book, I ordered it in dutch, since that will be easier on the recepices, I think.

When I occasionally watch her show, it all lokks so wonderful, so hopefully the book is a good substitute.

Autumn walk

We had a walk this morning in the forest in Halle. And as real boys they discovered a small bridge where they were looking for all sorts of stuff in the water...
Afterwards we wanted to get some wafels with cream. We have a special address for suchs treats, but it turned out that they were still selling icecream. Next week they switch over to wafels and pancakes for winter. SO the boys had an icecream... as if it is not cold enough outside, but OK...

Afterwards, we visited the ladies that are at the source of the icecream. As you can see, she is as curious as son #3.

The farm makes their own products, icecream, butter, cream, yoghurt, etc. Ad you are welcome to visit the cows and their calves in the stables.

Elephant

So I promised my SIL to make her an elephant on wheels. I followed the instructions on the crochet pattern that I bought, but this is the result...
He is not FAT enough, never guessed I would say that, but he is just not fat enough. The head is OK, I like the shape, but the legs and the body are too slim for an elephant. Anyone any ideas?

Help needed... Star Wars Cookie cutters

Oh, aren´t these fantastic? I just love them and I bet my boys would love them to. Too bad that none of the Williams Sonoma items get sold here and that you can´t buy them from their website, if you live outside the US.

If anybody is willing to help me obtain these cookiecutters, I would be very grateful. We would work something out, I am sure.