Chilly jam

Tonight I made some chilly jam to go with the christmas turkey.

The recepy comes for the Nigella Christmas cook book and is sooooooo yummy. Just love it with turkey or chicken.

Sinterklaas

Yesterday Sinterklaas visited DH´s work. All the kids gathered at the cantine and sang Sinterklaas songs and ate of all the goodies that were lying there, speculaas, pepernoten, banketstaaf, etc.
After Sinterklaas had met every child in person and spoke to them, they all got their presents and opened them all together. Great to see all the kids opening their presents at the same time.
Great afternoon, great Sinterklaas feest. Thanks to all the people that make it possible every year.

Viking hats

As you can see, I am still chrocheting hexagons for my pink and blue African flower afghan. But since it is for myself, it doesn´t matter that it takes this long... LOL

Last week I have been crocheting some viking hats for DH and the boys. We will all go on ski holiday with a viking hat... I bought the pattern from Mamachee on etsy. They look grat, I also made another one is August, so that will be mine and the boys will have a darker grey one. So now that the hats are finsihed I have to make four pairs of horns...

Busy crafting

As you remember, Jules stayed with us last week. I didn´t show a picture of Jules new outfit and his new blanket. I made him a uniform out of an old uniform form the boys. And offcourse a scarf and hat as it is getting colder.

I also made some crochet mustaches for the boys. I found the pattern on the blog of Easy makes me Happy. Great tutorial and it the boys love them.

Yesterday we had diner at De Troubadour in Antwerp. If you ever are in Antwerp and you manage to get reservations, go there. The food and services is great and we have never been dissapointed by them. It got pretty late, so this morning we picked up the boys and now we are having a lazy day indoors.

Thomas The musical

Since son #3 is a big fan of Thomas the engine, I booked tickets to go to the musical when I saw they were coming to Holland. For some reason they don´t perform in Belgium.
Today was the big day. And offcourse Jules tagged along.

The loved the musical and especially son #3 was mesmerised by the whole show, he bsolutely loved it and at the end they had the opportunity to meet the actors.

In the car they were still singing the songs...

Trip to the Beach

Today we went to the beach as the weather here is even better than last summer. It is still warm and you don´t need a jacket on the beach... and this in November !

Jules joined us and he was very naughty because he swam in the sea and now his clothes are all wet... Too bad we were to late to take a picture of Jules swimming in the sea.

Happy Halloween

Bobbejaanland

Yesterday we were invited to spent the day in Bobbejaanland. But because I had a splitting migraine attack, the boys had to go without me. Luckily our au pair didn´t mind joining them, and as you can see by the pictures, the had a wonderful time. Thanks Jelle, you made Halloween come alive for my boy, they just loved the day at Bobbejaanland.

Grandparents day at school

Every day we have grandparents day at school. The kids can show their classrooms to their grandparents and they can see what the kids do all day at school.
Our au pair and I vollunteered to serve coffee and cake to all the 400 grandparents that paid a visit. Fun day, they did great.
And if you wonder who the little funny guy is in the first picture, that is Jules, he is teh mascotte of son #3´ class and he is staying with us for the autumn holiday. Each child has him over to sleep and can tell about the adventures they had with Jules when they go back to school. So this was his first adventure, secretly going to grandparents day, because only grandparents are allowed to come...

I promised some more pictures of the finished quilt after I presented it to its new owner. The quilt was made for my FIL who needs to undergo cancer treatment. The quilt has a pirate theme, guess who´s choice it was?
I used pictures of all the grandsons, there are no girls, just to make sure :-). I also used pieces of their shirts and shirts of their fathers, so all sons and grandsons participated and I also had them draw some pirate ships. Since grandson #4 is too small, his mum tooks his handprints. I for one liked the finished result.

Finished quilt

Yesterday I finished this charm quilt. It is made from pieces of clothing, drawings and pictures and it is for someone very special but I am not spoiling the surprise. So when we have given it to this person, I will post some mre pictures of the quilt itself.

jiu jitsu - Update

The boys got their new colors as you can see, they did their best and now they can show it... They were both very proud as are we.


The boys had jiu jitsu today. Son #1 went for his 5th Kyu 1st half and son #2 6th Kyu 2nd half. They did their best so we will wait for their result next week...

Exams

Yep! they are. Today I had two exams.


We already know the results of one, and I passed, the other one, we get the result in about one and a half week...
But now, I have time to craft again. So I immediately got on the couch with my quilt.

Antwerp Zoo

This morning we paid a visit to the Antwerp Zoo with our au pair. But unfortunately, we were not alone... Normally the zoo is not so popular on Sunday morning but now it was swamped... So we only paid it a short visit.
The lions have their new enclosure so it was nice to see that they have much , more space now. But we learned that the lions mate and his daugther fight him, so he was alone today. Poor guy, intimidated by two females...

Although it seems that he likes being on his own.

Son #3 was a bit tired, since he had to walk quite a distance yesterday, so we cut the walk short and went back home. And as you can see, he was really tired...

jiu jitsu

Yesterday we had a walk through the forest wit the jiu jitsu, you had to do tasks on the way. When we arrived back at base camp the boys could do some games and afterwards we had a BBQ. Great idea, fun afternoon.
And some planking on the way...

Pink

This is a combination I would wear. Love the pinks and especially the bag.

stitch itch

I was checking out Pinterest, (yes, I know, I spent way too much time there) when I saw this gorgeous stitched piece. The pattern is available from ThisTinyExistence. I can´t imagine how many hours of embroidery went into this exquised piece.
Wish my craft place would look like this...

Crochet

I saw this afghan on Pinterest. And it has a link to the pattern. I just love it, I would make it with a red background to take to our cabin when we go skiing. Oh, who am I kidding, I still have so many UFO´s that it will take me at least a year to finfih everything, but then...
A specially since I am studing for my exams...

Autumn

Yesterday I noticed some squirrels in the back of the garden. As I followed them running through the yard, I saw that we already have some shrooms in the yard, but they are already damaged because some animals fed on them, probably the squirrels. And as it has been raining all weekend, autumn is definitelt here.

Yesterday morning we made a quick trip to the market in Antwerp, where I bought these... a cross between strawberries and raspberries... they tasted like the small wood strawberries, but they are much bigger, really nice and they didn´t last the trip back, as we ate them in the car.
Have been quilting a bit, but since I have exams in two weeks, I have been reading in my books a bit... I think it is getting time to do this...

Happy camper

Today my new sewing machine arrived! I am a happy camper. Couldn´t wait until the kids were to bed and I could unpack it and try it...
Oh, and what a difference it is with my old machine. No comparison...
When DH saw my trying some different stitches, he wondered when I would shorten his trousers... as if this machine is made for domestic work, no this machine is made for quilting.