Heavy bookcase, garden, beach and birthday

That's what sums up our weekend starting on friday with the very very heavy bookcase we had disassembled and moved to the attick. Now the new floor is in place, it was time to move it back down again and get it back together.. 3rd time in its history.. Saturday was garden day and we spent most of the time mowing and clipping all sorts of plants and grass.. Not much exiting but it's always nice to work in the garden. In the afternoon dad went with Nils (on his own bike) and Wende to the drugstore to get some painkillers against headache (which happened to dad on sunday afternoon..) Nils never was so far from home on his own bicycle and he found it very exiting! Wende always likes riding on the bicycle with mom and dad.. but yes, maybe it is time Wende learnes to ride wihtout extra wheels.. who knows.. She's a quick learner. Sunday we went to the beach where dad always went when he was young(er). The beach in 's-Gravenzande has changed little, just a bit more sand and that was even done recently. We had some good old beach fun but we had to go to Vlaardingen to celebrate Matthijs's first birthday. Grandparents and uncles and aunts, everyone was there. We sat on the roofterras Martin had made and it was very nice. A slight breeze to cool us down and the kids had fun with the small dog Martin and Judtih had as a sleep over..

Ingmar

Ingmar is such a cheerfull boy, everytime we look at him and he looks at us, he starts laughing. We just melt.. Look at this face.

Roos

Yesterday our next door neighbours had a small issue with a rental company for car roof rails.. They ordered a set but the supplier could not deliver in time and he didn't tell until it was almost too late.. So we helped them with trying to find a solution and ended up babysitting. At first Roos was a bit overwhelmed but in the end she ate her dinner and desert..

6 euro's in Gambia

Our next door neighbours came back from a holiday in Gambia and were moved by what they experienced there. Now, they told us, Maja is going back to Gambia to work there as a nurse helping woman at the end of their pregnancy.. Although our neighbour herself is troubled by a small problem with her health, she goes anyway. Now, the 6 euro's can save a baby's life there and from what she told me, the 6 euro's I really reach the aidworkers there because she will personally make sure of that. If you like us would like to contribute then please let me know and send an email to w_leusden@hotmail.com and I will reply with all the necessary details. Ofcourse it's not only money that can help, baby clothes and unused medical supplies are most welcome.

Castle "De Haar"

Saturday was spent painting the woodwork in the downstairs living room because the flooring company will start with the new floor on monday.. So not much news from that day. The kids spent the day playing outside when it was dry and inside wen it rained... Sunday however, we planned to go to see a real castle and have the special tour for the kids. Nils dressed up as a real knight with sword and Wende put on her special princess dress and onroute we went. Unfortunately there was a fair for garden plants and tools (up to small barges and it beats me what that has to do with a garden, maybe a very very large pond?) The result was that we had to pay (dearly) fo the exhibition and more worse, there was no special children tour that day! Nils and Wende were disappointed ofcourse but a small boat trip along the castle canal made it all bareable. Today, monday we were not allowed to walk ont he floor downstairs because the flooring men put some sort of glue on the floor so we went to Ikea in Breda to have dinner and, ofcourse, buy more stuff.. When we inspected the glue on the floor we found that they glued an old ten cents to the floor, for good luck maybe? Let's hope they know what they are doing and not relay on good luck..

Smile!!! and make my day

Today Ingmar laughed out loud for the first time and he didn't stop after that, see and hear what we caught on camera!!

Busy weekend

But first thursday, Thijmen's birthday party. Thijmen is Martin's and Judith's son and martin is Lisette's younger brother. Thijmen became 4 years old and that means that he is going to school just like Nils. Nils is now enjoying his vacation time and next year he will be going to the second year of school. His report wasvery good and we're very proud of him. Saturday we went to see Guusje (Maaike and Jaap's daughter who celebrated her 8th birthday. (We also had to return the carroof box we borrowed from them for the holiday, thanks a lot again!!) After that we raced to Delft were we visited Lisette's dad who was in hospital after a earlier test gave him some complications.. We first went to the wrong building but found him after all and he looked good. Let's hope he will be home soon. After Delft hospital we went to De Lier where we had dinner with Lisette's mom. Sunday we went to Duiven to visit Leonie, Marc and Danne who we met on our holiday in France and since Nils is going to marry Danne... At least that is what he told us. Leonie and Danne were pleasantly suprised and we had a great afternoon there (despite the rain). Nils and Danne had a great afternoon and we also enjoyed seeing Leonie and Marc again. Next time in Andel?

We're back!

From our two weeks holiday in France. We rented a caravan this time at L'eau Vive . There we met with Leonie, Marc and Danne. Danne is Marc and Leonie's daughter and they already spent some time on another camp site but the weather was not so good so they moved to "our" camp site. Nils and Danne "clicked" and they played together so nicely and if Danne did not show up at our caravan in the morning, Nils would wait outside Danne's caravan until she came out. Later on, Arthur, Lisa, Jack and Emma came to stay at our camp site for the second week and we had such good fun. It was great to see them again and all of us together went outto dinner as a goodbye to Danne and her parents for they had to go back home again. Thanks arthur lisa jack emma Marc, leonie and danne for the great holiday we had this year, hope to see you all soon again!

having dinner in Forcalquier