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.

Party

Yesterday evening, we had a party of DH´s company at the Pandoer. They had different locations with different buffets so there was something for everyone. They also had entertainment with a guy that made drawings and a photographer that took pictures. So, we decided to have our picture taken, and you can see one of the results above... no seriously, they took a couple of really good ones, this one we were laughing because of all the postures she put us in.
Not much to tell, work, school and the kids are keeping me busy. I am still crocheting hexagons for the blanket I am making.

Early birthday present

Today I visited a friend of mine and was happily surpirsed with an (very) early birthday present.
The mug will go with me to work and the plate will go in the kitchen. ALso love the cupcake passport holder, which will be very helpful since I have a couple of trips ahead of me.
Thank you soooo much.

You´re damn right

This year:

- I turn 40
- I am married 10 years
- I will give a big B-party
- I will make a trip to NY/Paris
- I will go on more dates with DH
- ...

Auf Wiedersehen

Yesterday we left for home. When we were driving toward Kitzbüdel, this was the sight, wow... We didn´t know then that it would be a day off ´stau´, snow and rain and a lot of traffic chaos. Our friends took the road Munchen - Frankfurt and only had problems. As I forgot my ski jacket in the hotel in Augsburg and we went to pick it up, we only had one traffic jam due to road works.

Our last breakfast together...

And this is how our boys travel...

We made it back home safe and sound, so we can start dreaming about our next ski holiday.

Last day

This was the sight we met this morning when we woke up, the path to the door was completely snowed in. So we started shoffling this morning at 6.30 to make sure that the baker could reach us for our bread.

Next was our car... Yes, there is a car underneath that pile of snow.

Then, there was time to play, so we all went out to engage in snowball fights, and an occasional nosedive in the snow.

The guy that cleanes our path now and then left his snow machine before our door, it turned out that a belt broke and he had to repair it.

As you can see, snow fun all day until it got dark. At the moment the kids are in bed and
everything is packed in the car, so we are ready to leave in the morning.

So, this is our last family picture. We had a great time, a wonderfull and relaxed holiday. And yes, I crocheted all those vikings hats.

Day of the big race

So today was the day of the big races. Anne was up first, so we had a look at her race. The two small ones were more interested in the abyss they were facing.

Anne did great in her slalom race, as she and only a few others were allowed to do slalom and the smaller ones did only a ´downhill´ race.

After lunch the two boys were up, but the wind picked up and a small snow storm started, so it was quite cold to stand there but the boys enjoyed every minute of it.

Son #2 had a bit of difficulty on the lift as the boy next to him fell of it and he could barely hang on, but he managed until the place were they were supposed to leave.

Son #2 starting his slalom, he did great as he was the second smallest and the youngest of the group. He was the only one that didn´t need a skipass as he is only 5.

Son #1 did very good, he skied very well. Again, he was one of the youngest of the group.

Son #2 became 4th, a very good job, very well done.

Son #1 turned 3rd. Again, a very good performance. We are very proud of all 3 kids, they did very well under very hard conditions.

Day 5

Today was a day full of snow. It startes snowing this morning and it only got worse. The kids had trouble skiing, but they managed although they were frozen when we picked them up at the lesson.

In the afternoon it stopped snowing, and since we had to go to the store (we were out of toliet paper :-) ), the men cleared/dug out the car... and went to the store to get the necessities as the locals expect only more snow, around 70 cm. So we will see what the weather bring us.

So DH did the groceries and cooked... (we went out to eat).

Great meal, great service and a playroom for the kids = happy parents.

Day 4

Our Home away from home... Chalet Gerlinde.

Cousins...

Two of my 4 champions. DH now knows he has to work on his condition to keep up with son #1. I was just commented by Robert 2 out of 4 champions? So here is my 5th...

Some action pictures... you can see that the weather is great.