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..