Happy Birthday son #2

Son #2 turned 7 today, he got out of bed real happy, because he wanted the Wii game Skylanders and was convinced that we got it for him. Offcourse, softies as we are. So the fighting started immediately this morning because son # 3 wanted to play, his big brother thought that he stinks at the game, pushes him... must I say more. So I loaded the whole bunch into the car and drove the to school, and this afternoon they are DHs problem... :-)
But still... Happy birthday and I hope you enjoy your "Blood" cake

Snow...

 Yes, last week, it looked like it would be spring, this morning we woke up with snow... Snow in a country like belgium means traffic jams, accidents, etc... I always wondered how people go about in countries where it snows more, but OK. This is us.
So this morning it took me more that 2 hours to drive the 24 km to work... Let´s keep our fingers crossed for the commute tonight.

Happy Birthday

Son #1 turned 9 today, so we celebrated last weekend and today he had cake with him to take to school. Happy Birthday son!

More presents

We visited friends yesterday for diner, we visited them, but we brought the food and prepared it, they did the dishes... good deal. I got some more wonderful presents, this doormat... do I need to be offended? :-)
Got some great craft books, so I need to start crafting again, since the exams are over, and I will have more free time at night.;
Had a quiet weekend, the boys went to budo stage, two days of martial arts classes, so they are done for the weekend, diner, shower and bed.

Passed my exams

Today I received an email from university that stated that I have passed all my exams and that I can start in the second block of university! What a relief... this needs to be celebrated.

Weekend

We had a relaxed weekend, we celebrated our birthdays with friends, got great presents, so thank you guys...
This morning we woke up with snow, again... and it was quite slippery on the road when I got bread this morning. But it is nice and quiet...
So lets enjoy this nice sunday.

Law exam

Today I had my Law exam, that is why I have haven t been blogging lately. To admit I have been busy with work and school for a couple of weeks now, and I am glad today was the last exam. So tonight no more books, I am just gonna relax.

Happy Valentine Day

How true...
Not much from this part of the world, as I am in the middle of my exames for Uni, so that and work is keeping me more than busy.

Diner with friends

Yesterday evening we had diner with a bunch of friends at I famosi, an italian restaurant in Antwerp, and known as the best Italian restaurant in Antwerp. I must admit, the food was delicious.
I had:
Sweetbreads (sorry, dont remember the Italian name)
Scaloppine di vitello ai funghi porcini e crema di tartufo
Profiterolles misto
It all was a tasty as the next dish, so great food, great friends, great conversation, what more can a person want?
My friend An got me a french press as a birthday present, so I already used it this morning, now I also have great coffee for breakfast. My friend even arranged that my dessert was brought in by a clown with fireworks... Thanks An.

Birthday

 

Yep, today I am officialy 40 something...

Will buy myself a large chocolate cake and start learning for my upcoming exames at Uni. I got a very cool red e-reader, as DH was tired of my borrowing his e-reader. So now I can look for a nice cover for it. Any ideas?

Labour pains - funny

I saw this video this morning and I tink it is hilarious. These are two dutch television hosts that undergo  artificial induced labour pains. Having gone through it myself 4 times, I think this is what every man should do before saying anything about labour pains :-), this is too funny. Watch it.

White collar

Oh you girls in the States are so lucky. Yesterday season 4 of White collar continued, but with the time difference it would be too late here in Belgium to watch it live, so I had to wait until today to watch it on the internet.

DH was late from a business trip to France, so I put the kids to bed, poured myself a glass of absinth and enjoyed watching this new episode of White Collar on my couch, all alone.

Paper due

Yes, I have a paper due for university and for some reason I can get started. So when I saw this one... Yep, this is me right now. So tonight I have to start writing, no more excuses.

In the mean time, there is still snow overhere, it has been cold, not too cold and so the snow stayed this time. So everything is still white and shiny overhere and we are enjoying our true winter overhere.

Winter arrived

This was our driveway this morning... Finally winter arrived, and as always, it can never be moderate, so it snowed... for Belgian understanding, a fair amount.

So,w e told the boys to get dressed and to clean up the driveway...

And this was the road when I drove away... So as you can understand, it took awhile to get to work.

And tonight when I arrived home, the au pair was playing outside with the kids, so at 19.00 I called them in, as they were all cold and wet. But with roosy cheeks, they were later sitting on the couch under a quilt and they had a great time.

Vanille Kipferl

 

As it started freezing again ovehere, and we had a brisk walk in the park with the boys, I made hot choco and some vanille kipferl. They are these german small cookies and I have a special baking tin for them. I bought it once on a ski holiday and today was the first time I took them out.

They tasted nice and everybody liked them, so here is a recepy:

- 150 g flour

- 75 g crushed nuts

- 50 g sugar

- 1 bag vanille sugar

- pinch of salt

- 100 g cold butter

 

you make some dough out of the ingredients and then let it cool again for about an hour. If you dont have a tin, make a role out of the dough and cut them in equal pieces, shaped like the pic and bake those at 160°C for just a few minutes. When you get them on a plate, but sugar on top of them.

 

Aquagym...

OK, I know, this is not me at all, but yesterday evening I went to aquagym...
I know, this is against everything I believe in, but after staying in an appartement where you had to climb 3 ffights of stairs, and arriving upstairs out of breaths, although it was just a few minutes and I was carrying groceries, I thiought it was time to do something, so aquagym it is.
And I must admit, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, especially as I like to swim and you can swim before and after the gyp-part, so that was OK.

The drive home

 

This morning when we got up around 5, it snowed! and a lot... but as soon as we came under 1400 meters it changed into rain...

 

 

As they say, travelling is tiering...

 

And off course... wieder stau

 

 

But we maded it home safe and sound and that is the most important thing.

Last day

So today was the last day of our skiholiday 2012-2013... The weather was very poor, as it started to rain around noon... Not something you want on your skiholiday, especially if you are staying in a village around 1700 meters...

Robbie LaBomba at his best...

The two youngest took the mountain, they did very good, we were all surprised that they could go up this soon. Good work, kids.

And ooffcourse our traditional picture of the stuffed animals to accompanied us.

And last but not least...
Our traditional group picture with my handmade hats, this year they were aviator helmets. I bought the pattern from Ravelry. Last year I made the viking hats, check them out here.

Skirennen

 

Today was the day of the ski rennen, as always we were present with camera s, cow bell, etc. to encourage the kids. They all did very well, and all received a well deserved medal. And as you can see, they are all proud of them...

The day before the contests

 

This morning when we got up, the weather was clouded and it snowed, so it was not so nice as the last couple of days, but that is why we are here, not? So all kids were brought to their lessons and the adults went skiing. And I had a wonderful day alone in the appartement.

 

Cousine #2 and son #3 had their first lesson on the slope, no longer on the kiddie slope, but on the real slope and they had a blast...

Over the edge

Today, the kids had no skilessons, so we decided to do some rodeling at the smaragdbahn in Bramberg.

The weather was beautiful and the slope was perfect, so we had a funfilled afternoon. This course is the longest rodelbahn in Europe with its 14 km.

As you can see, great fun.

At one point I was overtaking my two eldest boys, when I saw them go over the edge. My eldest made a steering error and woop, they were gone, luckily there were no trees and it was not to steep, so DH and I could get them out without to much trouble. Son #2 was upset, so I took him with me to the middle station and we had someting to drink. But they are both OK.

Happy New Year

Happy 2013 from Königsleiten