The Wiz with (wicked) Lisette

Today sunday we all went to see lisette performing the last time in "De Leest" in Waalwijk. All except Ingmar who we left to the attention of our great neighbour Monique. Anyway, dad wanted to record some of the performance but at the beginning the speaker (Lisette's singing teacher) announced that it was not allowed to take any pictures or record video.. And especially the one sitting in row 6 with the green shirt... that was me.. So no pictures during the show this time.. During the break I took a few and at the end when Lisette showed up briefly with lots of make up.. The show was great Lisette was the first to sing and it was so clear and beautiful! I should be used to it but every time it brings tears to my eyes because I'm so proud of her. Nils was jumping up and down his seat all the time and Wende loved the wicked witch her shoes... After the show Lisette had to clean up a bit and Jaap and Maaike brought my dad to the bus station in Breda. They followed us to the pancake house in Heusden a beautiful old village near to us. Ofcourse we picked up Ingmar first and we had a quick pancake.

boat, caravan, grandma's and grandpa's

Saturday morning dad went to the boat shop to get some parts to mount the modifiied fueltank and Wende went with me. It turned out to be quite difficult to get a piece of hose to fit the fuel lid and connects the reservoir.. In the end we left with a piece that might fit and some fiberglass with resin to glue the reservoir back to the hull. In the mean time Lisette got more groceries with Nils and Ingmar. In the afternoon we went to Woudenberg to visit Lisette's parents who stayed on a large camp site with their caravan. The weather was nice so we enjoyed the sun oustside and there was a large playing area for the kids to enjoy. Sunday Lisette had to practise again for the musical she is going to perform in next weekend. See also this link: http://www.deleest.nl/detail/145/muziektheater-langstraat

So the rest of us decided to go to see Granddad Leusden in Hulst. Togehter with granddad we had lunch and after lunch we walked to the city center of Hulst to see what we could have for dinner. Because we had pizza and fries for the last two days we decided to eat carrots for dinner. The sun was shining again so the kids played outside and dad finally fixed the bench in the garden that granddad and grandma took home from Germany long ago. It was something my mom asked me long ago to do and I never got to finish it. Now dad can enjoy the sun sitting on the bench.

Nils's birthday party for his friends

Saturday Nils had his birthday party for his friends and luckily we had great weather. Friday was nasty and now (sunday) the weather is again bad.. Anyway, Nils had been counting the days until his birthday party and yesterday was finally the day.. At 1.30 pm everyone was present and although Lindsey at first fell ill, she turned up eventually to join them. We went by car to Boxtel where there is a museum about the ancient times. So lots of Dinasaurs!! We planned to do a search with questions about the things that were displayed but that turned out to be impossible with 7 screaming and running kids.. So we just let them. Luckily there were not many people about to annoy. They found a playground with a fossil in it covered by sand and with brushes for each of them and they immediately established who was boss, second and even third boss and got to business. When we came back home, they played in the garden while we prepared dinner (pancakes). Dad backed a lot of pancakes expecting the worst. In the end we were stuck with a pile of pancakes, you just never know what or how much they eat. The party ended with icecream and a free ride back to their homes. The party was a succes according to Nils and by the reactions from his friends they seemed to have a great time. Dad had promised Nils to get the train from the attick down when the weather was too bad to play outside

so, the rain was set up and played together with Wende. But before that we went to the swimming pool to have some fun with the geat waterslide.

Tractor pulling a trip to Almere and cycling around Andel

This weekend we went to the yearly Festiv days of the council Almkerk. Every year they organise a big event with tractor pulling, horses and other smelly animals that normally canbe found on farms nearby. We saw Wende's friend from the day care there as well with his dad. Unfortunately we were there in the morning and there were not as much spectacular tractors we wished. These were scheduld for the afternoon..

We also went to see our friends Lisette (also) and Tom with their kids Milan, Laurens and... Vera! Vera was born on the 4th of July at 15.44. Her start was not too great but she has recovered well and is now keeping them up at nights (which is normal..) It has been some time (almost a year I guess) since we saw Lisette and Tom and during that time they also moved to a different house from Leiden to Almere. It is quite a nice house in a sort of American style with a balcony on the first floor. The house was designed by Jan des Bouvrie who has designed lots of popular furtiture and houses. Las time I heared about him was because he was in jail on suspician of some sort of financial criminal act.. Anyway we had some cake and went to Hans and Grietje. I had Hans on a plate.. The restaurant is quite nice and big with a big playground for the kids. There was live music as well. Maartje and Kine performed as "grietjes". The perfomance amazed me a bit because it was so nice and sounded so professional. More proffessional than you would expect at a Pancake house.. It turned out that they are in a competition to win a prize at the Groninger student cabaret festival. They are starting a tour through Holland and I would recommend to see them some time if you get the chance.

Sunday was spent at home because Lisette had to go practise for a musical performance in Oktober. When she got back we took our bikes and cycled to a tearoom near Almkerk. Ik did not take any pictures there because it was not worth it.. Happens sometimes..