Teddy Bear Hospital

Yesterday we went to Teddy Bear Hospital. It was organised by UZA (Local hopsital) and their medical students, so kids could learn how things go in a hopsital. They could bring their stuffed animal and tell the doctors what was wrong and then appropriate action was taken. son #2´s bear had a ski accident and after taking X-rays, it turned out to be a broken leg. SO it needed surgical attention and here is my son looking at the X-rays before surgery.
I think it was a very nice idea and well organised, chapeau for the students! And I hope this becomes an annual event.

So here is bear recoverying from surgery on our couch with his own little quilt. I can say they he is doing well, thanks to son#2 and the doctors of UZA.

I have been away form the computer for a long time, it has been a bit busy at work and when I can finally sit down, I like to crochet a bit and go to bed... I know, borring.
I both this cake stand for myself Saturday, so I neede to put something in there and luckily, my mum made wafels, so... here they are, well, were because the kids, and offcourse DH and I had our go at them. They were delicious.

And this bunch was waiting for me when I came home last night and wanted to sit on the couch... All the stuffed animals of the three boys. As you may know or not, son #3 has a crocodile, but we lost the one we took to Spain, so we were in Spain with no crocodile, so we went to a store and placed son #3 for the stuffed animals and he grabbed the green bunny, so since then, next to the crocodile is a green bunny.

Last day at home

As you can see, I have been doing some crochet while I was at home. Today is my last day, tomorrow I will go back to work. I have been resting a lot so everything should be OK. Today the boys went to their day care mum and played outside because it is a gorgeous day today, really warm, cormparing to the last couple of weeks. It was so nice that we stopped for icecream on our way back home.

And as you can see, the weather was so nice that the first laundry was dried outside.

Back from hospital

Well, I am back from hospital after having minor surgery (even then under complete anaestectic, is this correctly spelled?) yesterday. It was completely by surprise, because I went to have a bump checked out on monday and they said they would operate the next morning, so, not much time to think about it. It turned out the be a blocked glan, so the drained it and made a new exit and everythig is back to normal, ouff...
So I am back home on the couch and doing some crochet, and watching reruns of ER.

Early Easter Brunch

This morning we had an early Easter Brunch from DH´s work. This time not in the office but at a restaurant. Great food, the kids were taken care off because there wereindoor games, so a nice brunch. This is the lood they brought home, so enough chocolate for a few weeks...
And offcourse the egg hunt, but son #1 gave some of his to a smaller boy, luckily, how many hard boiled eggs can you eat?
This cake I made yesterday for my FIL who also had his birthday, a very nice pineapple cake, yummy.

Son #2 = 4!

This is us, 4 years ago. Wow, I can´t believe they grow up so fast. There he was happy with his pacifier, now he is sitting in the couch with his new NDS, playing mario or something.
And this is son #2 yesterday, we asked to celebrate his birthday on friday since that is a relaxed day. He also wanted cupcakes for the class, so...

And as I am typing this I am waiting for the oven, where there are more cupcakes... For his party later this morning. Happy Birthday from us!

PS I know it says friday in the header, but for us it is already Saturday morning March 27th.

Keeping busy

It was a very busy week with training, work and other stuff, so I enjoined a bit of free time with only son #3 and my quilting project. I can´t show you too much since it is a babyquilt for my BIL and his wife, and it is a surprise. My SIL chose the colors and now I am almost finished with quilting. This morning son #3 and I went on a quest for red fabric while the two other boys were in school.
After that a little surprise for my dad since it is father´s day here in Antwerp. So we bought some of his favourite chocolates.
I also tried something new, a beef stew pie, and it was very nice. It smelled terrific and it tasted very yummy, so this is a recipy I should keep.

Birthday son #1

This is son #1 six years ago... We arrived home at 2.30 in the morning. Nic was born at 12.10 and around 2 o´clock in the morning we were released from hospital and on our way home with our first son... Little did we know.

And this is him now. He asked for cupcakes for his class so I made a whole bunch of them and they were all gone, so I think everybody liked them.

I think he had a wonderful day yesterday, he asked for french fries and chicken nuggets for diner. Afterwards, we had strawberry cake, and the best part... The nintendo he got for his birthday. :-)

Today I followed a course how to make an Old American square and a little matching flower. I can crochet in circles but I am not good in reading patterns, so I followed this course and I must say, now the symbols make sense...
I finished two blocks, one with and one without the flower and it is quite easy and fun to make, so I am glad I took the course.

In the afternoon I rushed home, because son #1 has his birthday tomorrow, so the kids party was today. 12 children in total and they ate a lot of cupcakes and poffertjes (a dutch small pancake), so after an afternoon full of play and party, the boysare off to bed with all the presents.

Wait until he sees what we bought him...

Finished my WIP

I finally finished my WIP. I wanted to make this before we went on our skiholiday...But I finally finished it, so now I have to incorporate it into a red/white quilt I want to make for our future skiholidays.
Finally the sun shines in the weekend as well. The sun is shining bright, so we went to the park with the kids and had a cup of cacao in the park at the playgarden. Real nice to finally to be able to go outdoors without getting wet.

New japanse stash

Today my friend Eevelyn and I went to Gent to pick up some japanse stash we ordered from this webstore Japanese Zakka

We know the owner of the store, so instead of having it send, we picked it up at her place.

We miscalculated the time it would take to get there, so by the time we arrived we just had to time to get a sandwich at Subway´s and a cup of coffee at her place.

As you can see, I am very happy with the stuff I got. The little purse I bought, because it is a nice size for my crochet hooks. And off course some reading material for myself.

Back in Belgium

Well, we are back home and an experience richer. The funeral was very nice, if you can say that of a funeral. The somgs that were sung, the flowers, everything and especially the presence of so many people that liked uncle Jan and travelled very far to come to his funeral.

Afterwards, we, this is a custom in Ghana, went to the bar next to the chapel and had a drink with all the funeral attendants in honor of Jan. As you can see, if you own a car, there are always persons that want to catch a ride, no problem, this is Africa. Yesterday we passed a school and some kids asked for a ride, before we knew it, there were 21 kids in the back of the pickup...

And DH birthday was on the same day of the funeral, so we also had a beer for his birthday, nothing fancy, but still, it was good to see old friends that travelled from Accra to Sogakope for the funeral. When DH saw the Lamborghini, he wanted a picture with it for his birthday.

Yesterday we also visited some friends at their home, which is just lovely and a wonderful garden, as you can see there was quite a bit of wind, but it was very nice to sit in the BBQ house near the river.

And yesterday when we drove to Kotoka Int. airport, we saw this truck with engine problems... It is loaded with plastic eating bags, the kind in which they put burgers, but in Ghana, the serve chicken and rice in them.

We enjoyed the privilege to go to Sogakope to attend uncle Jan´s funeral and we enjoyed the company of all our old friends over there.

Message from Africa

Just a short note to let you know that we arrived in Ghana, and are making all the arrangments for the funeral of DH´s uncle here in Sogakope.
It is 9.30 and it is 35 degrees Celsius, so a bit warm, since we left on thursday with -5 degrees Celsius.
I will try to upload some pictures when I can, but I am amazed that we managed to get an internet connection up since we are in the middel of nowhere.

Birthday party

Yesterday DH and I had our birthday party, we invited some friends to come over and celebrate. I must admit that I was spoiled and received all nice baking stuff. Two books with cakes and cupcakes recepices, a Pip bag, an oven glove from Blond, a voucher for lunch and a very nice quilting book. So I know what to do today, DH started the wood burner and I will make waffles this afternoon and since it started snowing again, we will stay indoors and make it comfortable.
I will start a cross stitch project calle Haiku, a small bird on a branch, since we will leave for Ghana coming thursday and cross stitch is something I can do in the plane.

Happy Birthday to me...

Yes, today is my birthday, again, a year older.


This morning I was suprised with some lovely drawing from the boys and a waffle maker, with a box of remix for waffles, so I could make waffles tonight after work. Because they wanted to taste some freshly made waffles.


DH also has a gift for me, but that is still a surprise and this is what I bought myself on etsy, I think it is gorgeous and that I will make better cookies with it, what do you think?

Black and white quilt

I have been working on my black and white babyquilt for our futher nephew. He is due in April, so I had to start working on it, especially since in the coming week I will be at a course abroad, so I won´t be able to do much crafting overthere.
I will put some white fabric around the blocks and some more black and white blocks as a border. I think it is a bit dark for a baby, but my SIL wanted black and white, so I am thinking of putting some red in there.
Carnaval is also on its way, so they boys have to fancy dress on wednesday and they decided to go as darth Vader, so I have to check in the movy what he exactly looks like... I already bought the mask and cape.

Another week gone...

As I said in my last post, I have been stitching on my Milka cow. Not much has been going on, working and trying to get all the laundry ironed and into the cupboards.
DH got some allergic reaction on thursday morning but didn´t feel it necessary to go to the doctor, until he woke me on Fridaynight and it turned out that his eyes were swollen shut and his whole body was covered in hives...
So Friday morning he went to the doctor and got some pills, but he fell lousy all weekend.
We also went to Rijnsburg because we sold our CJ7 jeep and we wanted to make sure it looked OK to get picked up by the buyer. The jeep is stored at friends of ours, so we had diner with them before we drove back home through the snow... DH wasn´t allowed to drive so I drove but the closer we got to home, the worse the snow got, so by the time we entered back into Belgium, you could only do 80 km/h.
We passed by two accidents, both with BMW´s... but we made it home safe and this morning we took the kids to the zoo in Antwerp. Only there were almost no animals, duuuu, due to the cold. But we had a nice walk.

Getting back into the routine

We have been back for a week and it has been very busy with work, the activities of the kids, etc.. We also had some sad news for an uncle of DH who passed away in Africa, so it has been a hectic week.
I have been busy trying to finish the Milka cow cross stitch and I started to crochet a hat for son #3. Will try to get some pictures of these as soon as possible.

Last day in Austria

Yesterday we went rodeln on the Wildkogel. It is the longest rodeln track in Europe (14 km) and it is great fun. The first 2 corners are a bit tricky and perhabs a bit dangerous (because you are on a red skislope) but after that it is great fun. The boys and both of us loved it, we didi it for the second time and it is just fantastic.

But to all good things come an end and today is our last day here in Austria. Tomorrow we will be driving back, so the boys are skiing with their dad and son #3 is playing in the snow. It has been a fantastic week with snow and losts of sun, so that was great. The boys both got in first at the contests so they are more than happy with their gold medalls. So everybody had a wonderful vacation. We can´t wait to go on our next skiholiday.

Super G

Today the Super G was skied by both of the boys. Nic had a real slalom contest on the mountain, as you can see.

Peter also had a contest but it was less demanding on the little ones. They had to ski between little flags. And he did great.
And this was the result:

Son #1 came in first and son #2 came in second place. So they did both fantastic, since they are 5 and 3 and had to compete against older children. They boys both can be very proud. I know I am, but offcourse, I am their mum... :-)