bye bye

Today our au pair left our family to endeavour new projects in her life. She was a major addition to our family. The boys and us will miss her. The boys made drawings on fabric and I also printed a picture of them and made a quilt out off all the material. I think she really liked it.
The boys were spoiled with gifts and for us she made a great photobook of all the things she did with the boys, really appreciate that, it is a great memory, also for the boys later.
Yesterday evening she invited us and our parents for a German BBQ, which was yummy, all sorts of German goodies. We all had a wonderful diner. And this afternoon lunch since we had so much left :-).
By the time I write this I think is will be home with stories of us to tell to her family. How time flies...

Son #2 = 6

Son #2 had is birthday today and he was all happy about it. He wanted a blue and a green cake, so yesterday evening I made them both, but the green cake did not come out of the bund and it was desytroyed, it tasted great, but it really looked awful. So I made a vanilla cake as well. Turns out, all the kids perferred the blue one...

As you can see, a blue cake. The inside looks really like a Smurf. In the meanwhile Joop is doing great.

Train

Yesterday, son #1 and I travelled by train to Holland to meet with my PIL s, since it was my DILs birthday.
DH and the two other boys went a day earlierbecause DH went skiing with his friends and he left from Schiphol airport.
The train voyage was pleasant and to my big surprise they sold...

Yes... Starbucks coffee on board. So Katleen, you should take the train to Holland...

Son#3 in action

When I was in Germany, I got a text message that son #3 fell out of bed and was hurt, but that everything was OK. So when I arrived home, he was vast asleep so I couldnt look at it.
This morning however, I had a sneeking suspicion that this was a broken colorbone (think that is what it is called).
So I went to the ER and they confirmed it, so now son #3 is walking around with some sort of harnass to keep his shoulders streight. Poor little man. But he doesnt seem to mind, and is still doing dangerous games, so... to be continued.

ICE

Today I travelled by ICE to Mannheim in Germany for work. I took it in Brussels and you transfer in Köln, which is the station in the picture. When you are sitting in the train waiting for it to leave, you can see the Kölner dom, a big cathedrale. Really nice view.

New roommate

Son #2 wanted a hamster for his birthday, so when I looked on internet it turned out that there was someone in our town who had a litter and wanted new homes for the babies. So I called her and it turned out that she is living about 500 m from us...
So here is son #2 new roommate: Joop. He is a month old and son #2 picked him out of two babies left.
So welcome Joop.

I have been quilting while the boys were at the cinema, they went to see Puss in boots and they loved it. So we had a quite weekend, it was nice after a couple of weekends filled with social events.
And on another note, I passed my exam! Joepie! I cracked open a bottle of champagne when I found out.

Belgium in shock

This morning when I heard the news of the bus crash in Switzerland, I couldnt grasp the news, it seeped in slowly once I was at work and heard more details. We are all in shock.
My thoughts are going to all the victims and their families, and also to those who have helped the kids in their time of need.
I heard someone say that when good people die, the weather is great, it was a beautiful day today...

Exams are over

Exams are over. I took mine this morning and I have to admit, I am glad it is over. And no, we didn t do it like the picture below.

It was all on our own. Ouf, tonight I am going to relax with some crocheting...

Son #1 birthday

Saturday, we had son#1´s birthday party in pirateneiland, an indoor playground in Antwerp. he invited some friends to celebrate with him and they had a great time.
yesterday we went to visit a cousin of mine who lives in Limburg, where they celebrate Halfvasten, so we visited the corso. The kids came back with bags full of candy, cookies and evensome toys...

Yes, that yellow bag was filled with goodies at the end of the afternoon.

And since son #1 doesn´t like fancy cakes, we made him an improvised donut cake with candles.

Then, this morning it was time to celebrate his birthday at school and as you can see,he enjoyed every minute of it. I made a regular cake and a rainbow one, but I forgot to take pics.

Again, one year older and hopefully wiser. Enjoy!

Birthdayparty

The boys went to a birthdayparty of a friend and she held her party at a pettingfarm. The boys loved it and played almost two hours in the rain outside with the animals.

The also made candles, which smell yummy.

The boys liked the Shetland pony because they run very hard.

The loved the horsebackriding and even the cleaning afterwards.

Fun afternoon, even with the rain.

Farmer market

Yesterday morning we went to the farmer market in Herentals. And this cute little fellow was sitting next to an elderly man that sold rabbits. As we promised our au pair a rabbit at the end of her term with our family, this was a nice moment to buy her a nice female rabbit.

We had a delicious breakfast at the market at a Marrokan stand, as you can see. Bought some yummy things for the afternoon.

Then we had coffee in an old public bus, that was transformed into a café, great place, nice service, yummy chococcino...

Then... up to Lier where the Zimmertoren is, it is a tower built more than a hunderd years ago with a big clock that runs almost as accurate at the atomic clock. It is a very nicely decorated clock, only not now... it is closed for renovation, so there was nothing to see. So only a pic at a small statue of the tower.

And finally, here she is... DAS Konijn, as we baptised her. Officially she has another name, but we like. DAS Konijn.

Experiment: I tried a new recepy with red cabbage, but unfortunately it didn´t work as the jar cracked and air entered the yar, so the cabbage started to ferment...
So I will have to look for a better quality jars.

Weekend

Yesterday we went to visit Leiden. It is an old university city between The Hague and Amsterdam. We were having diner in noordwijk with friends so we spent the day in Leiden. And to my surprise they had dressed the trees with knitting.

A lot of trees were dressed, so it looked nice in the cold.

At night we went to diner at Latour. The food was divine and the service great. A real experience and we had a lovely diner with friends. One for the books... This is something to repeat.

This morning we went to Naturalis, it is a museum for natural history. Great museum, especially for kids. Very interesting, everthing on their level. The kids thought it was very interesting, especially the weird stuff...

And yes, the dog is stuffed, but it looked very lifelike.

Here we go!

The boys celebrated Carnaval at school this morning and this is what son #2 and #3 were dressed up as.
When we saw the costumes in the store, we had to buy them, they were to cute...

Happy Valentine´s day !

Such a box would be better than chocolates, not? Wow! Hope you all have a nice Valentine´s day.

Family pic

We had new pictures taken as a family by DH´s cousin. Check out her website here.
She made great pics of us as a family but also individually. But this was a spontaneous picture when we were already finished. I think it shows us as we are.

This is it...

Yep, today´s the day. I haven´t noticed much about my birthday... No breakfast, I have to go to work early... we´ll see.

Life begins at 40!

Cold part 2

Yes, I know that this the third entree about the weather, but I have never known it to be so cold since we live in Belgium. This morning when we got into the car, it showed -17°C and as you can see it was 8.34 in the morning... An absolute record.

And this was the view when we were driving... A lot of mist and bad weather conditions, but we managed to get to Holland to visit the PIL´s.

Snow!!!

Who would have thought that it would snow? But yes, winter started, after the cold, now we have snow... The kids just love it.

Cold

The last couple of days it has ebeen very cold, today it was -9 degrees Celsius when I was waiting for the bus to go to school. But because of the wind, it felt much colder. But the cold also has nice side effects, I made these pictures at work yesterday.

Tomorrow they are expecting snow, so we will see, it would be nice for the kids. As they have school in -9 degrees Celsius as they go to an ´open air´ school. Chapeau for the kids and the teachers.