Present

Our last au pair gave son #3 this water slide as a birthday present, so today it was 30°C and the perfect moment to get the slide out. The boys had a blast, as you can see.

And a last glimps of our hedgehog, it turns out it is a male. We picked the ticks as much as we could, gave it more food and then we set it free. We walked to a small forest close by and we let it go in the bushes with some more food.

Have a good life, little fellow!

Unexpected visitor

Tonight, while we were sitting outside, this little fellow walked through our garden. I picked it up to show to the boys, but saw it was infested with ticks. As we rescued a baby hedgehog before, we still have the tick removers that I bought from the vet I brought it to.

As you can see, removing ticks from a hedgehog is not an easy task. We removed I guess 20 or so, but there are still a couple I want to remove before setting him free again. I cleared his back and his face, but there are still some on his ears and on his feed. But as he was getting fed up, I stopped, but him in a box with hay, water and some cat food.

As you can see, he was all exhausted after the treatment... But I guess he is now resting and eating and tomorrow we will let him go again.

Day at the beach

Today they forcasted a beautiful day, 22°C but no wind, so DH said we would go to the beach, we packed up the kids this morning and left for Zeeland in The Netherlands, it is just an hour and a half, so not that far. We were one of the first at the beach and found a nice spot.

The boys played in the sand and I had time to crochet a bit.

The boys were busy all day, running in the dunes and jumping off them, playing in the water, building sand castles...

This was their bucket with seagoodies. they caught shrimps, little crabs, one really big one, that pinched me as I caught it by hand, and couldnt get it right the first time, some fish, oysters and other clamps.

And as you can see, even a tiny starfish...

The oysters we ate and they were tasty... A day well spent, even if we got sunburned... It was the first sun this summer.

Granny square

Yesterday I found some cheap cotton, so I bought some and I was wondering what to make. So I tried this granny square, and I like it, so I will male some more and see what happens, a pillow or a afghan...
Today was the first day we had some descend weather. We had to pick up our car near the beach and the weather was so good that we decided to go again tomorrow with the boys. Hopefully we have a nice quiet sunny day. I already packed the picknick stuff.

Gifts from Berlin

My parents visited our previous au pair in Berlin and it looks like they had a good time. M and S also look good and happy.
 They gave my parents the grand tour and I am thankful for that.

My parents brought a present from them with them from son #3. He really likes it and I hope he can use it soon as it is a water slide. The water slide will work as it rains and rains, but I guess that is not what it is intended for...

We also got some goodies, as you can see, thank you very much M and S.We will enjoy all of it.

Baby chicks

Son #1 has been asking for months now to get some baby chicks, but for some reason we couldnt find any. Not even with easter, when here in belgium it is somewhat of a tradition that children get baby chicks.
But this morning when we visited the farmers market in Herentals, we saw some chicks, so we both two, the with one, will turn into an ordinary brown chicken I guess and the black one is a Mechelse Koekoek.

So now we are sitting in the happy ckuck ckuck of the two baby chicks... To be continued.

cleaning up

Yesterday, DH was cleaning up the office, so I decided to clean up my craft stash... I started with my crochet yarn. They were all over the place and now they are all in one cupboard. It struck me how many grey s I have...
Then the fabrics, I also divided them in colors, so now when I need blues, I can find them... So I guess a day well spent.

Finished!

I finished my crocheted handbag. I made it to use up all my left over yarn from my hexagon afghan. Made a rose to decorate and I am not sure if I should make some more and add them?
I hope we will get a bit better weather over here, because until now it has been terrible, cold, rain, it feels like autumn...

Son #3 turns 4

Son #3 will turn 4 on Monday, so we celebrated his birthday today. Our regular baker was on holiday so we tried another one, but we must admit, he made a wonderful birthday cake.

He is wearing his helmet because he got a Thomas the engine scooter for his birthday. He loved all the attention and the presents offcourse.

And he wanted Thomas face ...

Boys and their toys

 As the summerholiday started, son #1 and #3 went to my PIL to spent a week at their sailboat. And as you can see, no worries that they are bored. We say a lot of crabs and my FIL got some special crab fishing devices, so the boys are gaving a great time.

As far as I can see, son #3 caught some jellyfish instead of crabs, but hey... in some countrie sthat is considered a delicasse.

Last day of school

Last night we found this machine in our garden, and no, it does not belong to us... The gardener already placed it there so he could start early in the morning. Guess what happened when the boys found it?

and as you can see, there are all ready for their last day of school. They did their best, as they are all going to the next level next year, well done boys!

I made some flower broches for their teachers, so they took them with them this morning. They also had a card saying, thank you for helping me grow.

Birthday at school

 As son #3 has his birthday in July, the teacher asked if all childeren (that have their birthdays during summer holiday) would join in one party. So every parent was assigned a job, we were in charge of the drinks

 As you can she, they had a great time, since there as 6 children joined in organizing the party.

I started to make a granny bag in pinks. I got teh idea at Tangled Happy. I really liked the bag, but only have pink leftovers from my hex afghan, so...
I have also been making some crochet collars, they look so cute, will make a pic of them.
Updating the blog is a lot easier and comfortable now, as we got wifi now and I am now internetting on the couch. Why didnt we take this sooner?

Today we  visited the farm festivities in Kalmthout. Around noon, it was not very crowded so after visited all the farm animals, we had some panecakes for lunch.

 As you can see, there were a lot of tractors, all oldtimers, there were also lunber sports sponsored by Stihl...

And as you can see, son #2 was ready to protect his pancake... He got this done at a cousins birthdayparty and he looked great.

Then we went to the comic fair, which was just 100 meters further down the street. We were looking for some comics for a friends birthday, and while we were looking for comics, we say that the cartoonist from Suske and Wiske, I guess they are called Bob and Bobette in English, were signing comics, so we qued for some time... about 1,5 hours but then we were able to get our comics signed. Son #1 asked for a Bob drawing in his, and I... that is a surprise for the friends birthday, she will see it on her birthdayparty, I really hope she will like it, but I guess she will.

 It was a great experience, to see the cartoonist draw one of his cartoons so quickly, son #1 was also very impressed. Nice day.

Dubai day 3

 This morning brunch at Burj al Arab stood on the agenda. Since I turned forty I thought it was a good idea to celebrate my birthday at this 7 star hotel.

To my surprise, I received this lovely cake as a birthday present from the hotel. They nicely wrapped it for me to take back to the hotel, as they had a wonderful dessert buffet and suggested to take some cakes of the buffet.

 The view from the 27th floor is stunning, especially as you can see the palm island.

 In the afternoon: Dubai Mall, with the Dubai Aquarium, it is amazing to see such a big aquarium in a shopping mall.

Then we went outside to watch the Dubai Fountain. Great show, spectacular view of the Burj Kalifah.

 It was a busy day, later a night we paid a visit to the gold souk and then back to the hotel where we had a piece of the delicious cake, yumm.

Dubai day 2

 Dubai this morning, the temperature is way higher than yesterday and as you can see, there is much mores and in the air. By midday, the temperature is really high and we just stopped the training I am giving for a quick lunch.

 Tonight, a quick stop at Mall of the Emirates to get a quick bit to eat, some Arab food, delicious, don´t know the name, but it was very nice. Then there is the ski Dubai... they even have living pinguins inside as you can see...

Dubai

So this is the view from outside my window from my hotelroom in Dubai. It is an amazing city and the heat is real, luckily it is not very humit, so it is OK.

Tonight after work, I took the metro and paid a visit to the Mall of the Emirates...OK girls, I like a good shopping like the next girl, but this is mind boggling... I mean, how big can a mall be? It turns out very big. It is so big that I didný know where to start, so I had something to eat and went back to the hotel.

Schoolfeest

The annual school fest was today. The weather started OK, it was clouded, but it didnt rain, but after a while it started drizzeling and a bit later, it stopped raining softly, but it poored. No fun, but hopefully the school got some funds for coming year.

 The boys did great, they all did their best, so a fun day altogether.

Sneak preview

Today, we had our picture taken for our invitations for the big party. I know it is still more than two months, but we need to get the invitations ready, so we needed pictures.
More pictures will be published in due time.