Wende's birthday and more

It has been a while since our last update but that is because November and December are busy months for us. Not only Wende, but also Lisette has her birthday in November and I have my birthday in December in between christmas and new year.. And don't forget our Sinterklaas, good for some suspense for the kids.. We've also been to the Efteling and the intention was to go there with my dad who gave us the tickets and my sister with husband and daughters. Unfortunately my dad fell ill a couple of days before we were to go and he was still not in good shape on the day we had tickets for. So we had to go without him but we will make sure that there will be another time to go with my dad and the children. Last saturday we spent time at Lisette's parents to celebrate Sinterklaas with them and Lisette's brother with wife and children. Sunday morning I went swimming with Nils Wende and a friend of Nils, Wendy. In the afternonn my sister arrived with Jaap and Maartje and Guusje and we celebrated Sinterklaas. Our neighbour Joost assisted with the knocking on the window as if the Sint himself was there.. Two bags filled with presents were the only thing that was to be seen in front of the door and the unpacking could start..

Wende's first swimming lesson, Hockey and.. Sinterklaas!

He's here again, Saturday the Sintg arrived not only in Dordrecht (officially) but also in Woerden like last year. (and the years before). But let me beging with Wende's first swimming lesson. Friday afternoon 13.15 Wende was ready and anxious. She jumped in the water and it was quite clear for the teachers.. she's not afraid of water.. She showed them she already can float on her belly and jumps from the side into the water so next time, the teacher said, she can start with the next group. The all start at "kikkertje 1", and now she's allowed to continue on to "kikkertje 1,5". One proud dad here.. smiling from ear to ear.. Saturday morning Nils had to play a game of hockey and unfortunately, they lost again but hey, they had to play against a team higher.. Nevetheless Nils did his best (and so did all the others) and he scored 6 goals! So again, one proud dad here.. The only minor issue is that he is not very well in playing the game as a team.. We'll have to work on that.. But his technique is already very good, I'm amazed how quickly he picked it up. So, after hockey it was quickly home, eat a sandwich and off to Woerden. Dad mounted the bikes on the back of the car because trying to park there during Sinterklaas is a real nightmare. It was a long wait but eventually we saw him arriving and during his tour through the centre, Wende shook his hand. That must mean good luck for 5 december! Ingmar wasn't too much impressed but facing a "piet" ye to eye was a different matter. Ingmar stayed calm and accepted the goodies presented to him by this strange looking figure. Afterwards Maaike and Jaap treated us to french fries and "kroketten" and soon after we went home again. At home the kids were allowed to put their shoe at the fireplace and sing a couple of Sinterklaas songs. The even put a couple of carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas's horse and after that we put the kids to bed and crashed down on the sofa.. Sunday morning Nils and Wende found the carrots missing but instead there were chocolate letters in their shoes. It must have been a practicle joke "piet"because the letters were in the wrong shoes.. Each of them were allowed to eat a little piece from the chocolate but we soon lost sight of Ingmar and when we founf him again, the chocolate was gone.. Then we had breakfast and we went to the swimming pool, Dad, Nils and Wende that is.. Although dad wasn't feeling too well, the swimming helpt a bit. In the swimming pool there were a couple of children Nils and Wende knew from school so dad was only there for the guidance and took it easy this time. One highlight of the swimming was that Nils tried the somersaults dad sometimes does from the diving board and he did it! Nils can now officially do a somersault from the diving board.. How proud as a dad can you get? After swimming we had lunch and Nils invited Wendy to come over to play in the pole shed. which they did and the day was finished with watching the "Tin Tin" movie again.

Lost again, pully, swimming, grandparents and Maasbracht Locks

Unfortunately we lost again last match against Tilburg. They simply were better but we stood more firm since last game so progress is being made! The movies of that match are uploaded to youtube and with this link you can see them all. Unfortunately in the wrong order but who cares, the result is still the same.. lost... The rest of the saturday was spent doing things around the house and making a pully on the rope that was extended from the pole shed to another pole in the garden. Now the kids can slide down the rope and the have great fun by doing so. I only had to promise Lisette that I will remove the rope crossing our garden when summer comes again.. Sunday morning was spent having breakfast while listening to jazz music from radio 6 and after breakfast we went to the swimming pool and we took Nils's girlfriend Wendy along as well. Wende gave me a hart attack almost by jumoing in at the deep end without her swimming aid's. And she wasn't scared or anything because she did it again, but this time I was more prepared and jumped after her in an instant.. Coming friday she will have her first swiming lesson, I think she might well be a quick learner.. After swimming we dropped off Wendy and collected Lisette and Ingmar and drove to De Lier to see grandpa and grandma. Grandpa had a new videocamera, which he showed us proudly. We had lunch and went for a stroll in the park with a playground so the kids had even more fun. Ingmar has a bad cold and couch's a lot but it seems to get better by the day.. poor guy.. Today dad went to a meeting about a series of locks he designed the hydraulic control system for. Here is a link with videos..

Visiting Jack, Emma, Arthur and Lisa and Euro Disney

It has been 2 weeks since we updated the weblog but the last weeks has been so busy and we went away for a week. The week before we went to check out a car for Lisette as she is going to change jobs and the new position doesn't have a company car included. Lisette made a test drive at a hyundai dealer somewhere near Amersfoort and afterwards we found that looking at cars made us hungry and we went for the first lunch opportunity we found. Turned out to be a pancake house!! Behind it was a big forest so to ease our stomachs we went for a stroll through the woods. And then we went for a long drive in the direction of France, Nils and Wende did not know what the destination was and Nils didn't find out until we were waiting for the shuttle bus service outside the hotel we just checked in.. Dad was standing underneath the sign of the bus's destination and Nils finally tried to read it aloud:"D-I-S-N-E-Y-L... heeeeyy, Disneyland Paris!!". What followed was 3 days of getting up early and spending the most of the day at Disney land, waiting in cues and enjoying rides and the good weather. The kids loved it and after our stay there we drove to Arthur and Lisa to stay with them for 2 days. It has been a while since we've seen them and Jack and Emma. We had a great time, it is a pitty that we cannot see them more often.. Maybe with Christmas.. We'll see. Nils helped out rthur in the garden while Jack and Emma were at school. Jack and Emma have the autumm holiday a week later. So friday morning we packed up everything and we set out to drive home but first we had to drive to Horst in the netherlands to have a look at a small car Lisette found on the internet. There Ingmar Nils and Wende were jumoing on a trampoline of the car's owner while Lisette was driving around in the car to be. Ingamr jumped off following his brother and sister but it was too high and he hurt his foot. The following morning dad took him to hospital were we spent 3 hours with no result.. The cannot find anything wrong but he still doesn't want to use that foot.. We have to wait and see what happens the following days..

What a weather!

What a weather, sun, no clouds, only a fresh breeze of wind, it was great to have this weather so late in the year. Friday dad picked up the kids from daycare and while Ingmar slept, Nils and Wende played in the garden and inside with their toys. Dad cleaned his car because he is going to try and sell it. We can now drive granddad's car and that is a much better reliable one then dad owns.. The Alfa is not bad.. it's just that.. it's italian and there's not much room in it for stuff and kids.. Saturday Nils had to play a home game against another team of Drunen and he scored 3 goals! (Click here to see the videos) At the end the score was 18-19 so they almost won!! Couldn't belive my ears when they told me the end result.. After the game we picked up more wood for the pole shed and dad did some work on it before we decided the weather was too good and we took off to swim at our local beach. We did the same on sunday, went to the beach here but we took the canou along. We sailed to the other side of the river where we had lunch. After a couple of hours we went back to our local beach where there were many friends of Nils and Wende with their parents. In the end all the kids climbed into the canou having a great time.

A busy but great weekend (although we lost again..)

Last week dad had the opportunity to visit a major factory of lorries and was asked to improve the safety of some of their machinery. Huge presses with huge hydraulic systems, great stuff for someone like me! On friday dad took a day off to continue the pole shed and he also had to bring his car to the garage for maintenance. The grass had to be cut and some other small things had to be done.. So friday started busy and saturday was not different (busy wise..) Nils had to play in Tilburg and therefor we had to be up at 6.30! Click here for the playlist of last saturdays match. The good part is that since I have to rise early for Nils's hockey matches, I don't suffer from migraines anymore.. Well, at least not for three weeks and that's a long time.. I always thougth is was because of sleeping late (8 o'clock and later) and not because of coffee or so. But I am not planning to start with coffee again. Anyway, we all assembled in Drunen and drove of to meet our competitors in Tilburg. This time we lost again 12-5 and I could see by Nils's face that he does not like losing.. He is, however taking it well, not crying or bursting into a rage. Let's just hope they figure out how to win a game, they play well but small mistakes are used by the opponents to score goals.. In the afternoon we went to see my dad in Hulst and we stayed the night togehter with Maaike, Jaap and their daughters Maartje and Guusje who joined us later in the evening for dinner in a restaurant near dad's place. The food was very good but the service sometimes forgot we had ordered something. Since we are used to that a bit, we didn't take it too hard and just enjoyed the evening together. Sunday, in the beginning of the fternoon we went to Naaldwijk to attend the birthday party of the youngest son of Lisette's Niece. We also got to see Lisette's aunt who had been ill a month ago but recovered almost fully. This time dad did not make too many photographs because, well, he just forgot I guess.. I'll try next time..