Carnaval in Oeteldonk

We have a friend of Nils stayi ng over for a night and a day.. tomorrow Fort loevestijn, see what's inside the bookcase of Hugo!

Carnaval is here.. Den Bosch is now officially called "Oeteldonk " for a couple of days.. Together with teh name change, the peoples dresses change as well..

Who let the smurrf out? Ingmar knows the dance too!

Skating, swimming, railroads and skating

That somehow sums up our weekend.. We went to De Lier on saturday to visit Lisette's parents and to enjoy the ice skating on the stretch of ice Lisette used to skate on when she was much younger. Nils thought it was a huge ice track they made and we had to convince him that in fact it was a frozen canal we were skating on.. The ice was not too good when we went further into town so we finally went back to the stretch Lisette's parents were still waiting for us. Lisette's dad had picked up a chair from home for Wende to hang on to. Ingmar still has a lot of problems standing upright on his small skates and he spent the major part of the afternoon sitting on the sled. Back home we enjoyed a cheese fondue with a glass of wine (and water for the kids ofcourse) Sunday morning Nils rather stayed at home playing with dad's old miniature train while Wende wanted to go swimming. There were some other kids Wende knew from school and Wende and dad had a really great dad-daughter swimming morning, really quality time as they say.. In the afternoon while Nils continued playing with the train set, dad took Wende ice skating at our local skating range for a last time because thaw is nearing fast.. There were other friends of Wende and people dad knew from Wende's friends. A busy but satisfying weekend..

Snow and a tribute to mom

Friday started out sunny and dry but the start of the afternoon turned our world white. Our little village turned completely white and slippery because our community is so small that the local government does not see the need of de-icing our roads..

A couple of farmers nearby take initiative and de-ice the roads with their gear.

The kids love the snow and the garden looks really nice.

Lisette tried to make a snowman but unfortunately, the snow did not cling together enough...

Ingmar spends more time outside than inside with a major running nose..

Saturday we went to the ice track nearby and had a great afternoon in the sun skating. Click here for the videos's.

In the afternoon we were to go to pay mom a visit at her grave but my dad cancelled it because the snow and sun make it very difficult to see properly and he was to travel with the bus all the way to Utrecht.. That's at least about 3 hours travelling!

Let's hope next week is better so we can still bring mom her flowers for what should have been her 75th birthday the 4th of february..

I think a lot of what my mom would have thought of our kids to see them grow up and I think she would have loved to see it all happen.. Last week a colleague past away suddenly.. He was diagnosed leukemia just after christmas, only 38 years old and leaves two small children.. That was so sad and so unfair..

Bridge finally finished

Finally, we picked up the cabinet

This saturday we went to Hulst to stay a night at my dad's and after app. 14 years of planning we finally picked up the cabinet mom and dad had saved for us. The cabinet stayed all that time in their garage. When we arrived saturday afternoon we first did some groceries with my dad and afterwards we had a simple but nice dinner. The following morning dad went to the swimming pool with Nils and Wende. Wende was not allowed to swim at the deep end even with swimming aids on her arms unfortunately.. She felt cold as well and she stayed sitting on a bench with her towel most of the time.. Lisette in the mean while, gave Ingmar a good bath and aftwerwards she went to the city center to buy some shoes for Ingmar and Wende. When we arrived back at grandpa's again, dad loaded the cabinet on the trailer which proved not so difficult, the weight of the cabinet did most of the work. It only needed some shifting and pushing around.. Underneath we stuffed more things my dad did not need anymore. Grandpa had a present for Nils, a small but beautiful chess board, ofcourse, a match was played immediately but I don't recall anyone winning this game. My dad told me he also had a nice marble chess board with pieces somewhere but the pieces could not be found yet... I also re-arranged some shelves so my dad can sort things out and put them on shelves. In the afternoon we went home again so we still had time to unload the cabinet. It took a little bit of swearing and clever thinking by Lisette but we made it. The cabinet is inside but probably needs to be shifted again because the cabinet is now taking quite some room..

Party in the west and Loonse dunes

Friday afternoon I finished the new floor in the attick and moved a couple of boxes from the "old" attick to the new part. It is still not completely finished because I still have to make some elektricity for lighting and wall sockets. Eventually this attick is to be transformed into a room for one of the kids.. Nils now has homework tot do for his chess lessons and he has the disadvantage that the rest of the class is already a half year ahead of him. But nevertheless, he is picking up the pace and is already gaining up on the rest of the class. I am really surprised that he learns so quickly.. Saturday morning we went to De Lier to have lunch with grandpa and grandma and aftwerwards we went to Honselersdijk to visit Mellanie and Peter at their sons birthday party. They rented a kindergarten facility and that was a great idea.. The kids enjoyed themselves with the toys and things to do and the parents had the oportunity to speak to one another without having their kids around them too much. We went home again at app. 17:30 and we had dinner at home (cheese fondue..) Sunday we had our usual breakfast with croissoints and boiled eggs. Aftwerwards we went to the dunes near Waalwijk to have a stroll through the woods. They only took down lots of trees there for a reason I don't know and we had to walk quite a bit to get to the woods eventually.. Got a little lost but luckily we had Lisette with us who knew the way back.. In the afternoon one of Nils's girlfriends came over to play and she invited herself to have dinner with us....

Happy New Year

2012 has arrived and we are facing more and more cuts in child support allowances for day care etc.. It doesn't look too good but we still seem to manage, we'll probably have to cut our spending a bit. We spent the old and new year celebration at home this time. Nils and Wende were woken up by us half an hour before midnight and Nils had a bit trouble waking up at first but when fireworks were mentioned he veered up and quickly changed into his clothes. Last month we went to the circus which was a gift from Lisette's parents for their wedding anniversary. It was a very long performance but not too long.. Nils and Wende and even Ingmar loved it. Ingmar was constantly talking about this clown that spilled water and Nils was so enthousiastic that he jumped up and down his seat. Wende loved the horses bit ofcourse... At christmas day we went to Lisette's parents and afterwards to my dad who cooked a couple of Indonesian dishes. My dad did a great job there, it tasted fantastic!
Here are some movies of the circus.: Click here
And here are a couple of movies of this year's christmas celebration: click here
We also went ice skating at our friends from Duiven Leonie, Marc and Danne; click here
So now is january first and I've been working already, laying a new floor in the attick. Had a few problems there for the ends do not match up nicely (cheap IKea floor). Cut myself slightly with a knife and it is still far from finished.. I've even discovered that there are 5 or 6 planks that have the groove the other way around?? Never seen that before..