Today it was pooring with rain and the day that Nils had his first training at a hockey club in Drunen. It was to see if he also likes the sport his dad did when he was young.. Well, he liked it very much and back home he wanted to tell his nieces about it so dad dialed the number and he did all the talking.. I guess he likes it.. let's hope it stayes that way. Unfortunately, Ingmar and Wende did not have a great time..
Saturday morning we went to Waalwijk to get a toy for Nils. He earned a new toy with his empty plate note. That's a note where we note a stripe everytime he finished a plate at dinner. A total of 25 is worth a toy for a maximum amount of 10 euro's. Wende was still 5 stripes short of a toy and she only needs a total of 20 because she is a bit younger. In addition we needed a present for Joffrey. Tamara and Marius's new born. After the toyshop we went to Naaldwijk and had a bite to eat first at the HEMA. Unfortunately dad choose pey soup and by the time the young lady had it ready, Lisette and the kids finished their sandwiches. Finally when dad finished we went to see Lisette's grandparents, the great grandparents of Nils Wende and Ingmar. They live an a semi indenpendent home and still in reasonable good health. It was very pleasant to see them again and the kids behaved relatively well... After that we went to see Tamara, Marius and Desmond because they had a new born.. Joffrey! Although they had a bit of a unfortunate time directly after birth but they are all happily at home right now. Finally it was time to head home again. Sunday we went to see granddad in Hulst. While the kids watched tv, Lisette and I went to get dinner at the local supermarket. Along the way we saw aunt Henny and asked her to join us for dinner and she did. Together with my dad we sorted old movies my dad took years ago and it was nice to see my mom still in good health together with my dad enjoying their holidays together..
Thanks to my mom and dad we still had free tickets for the Efteling and to prevent the mass flood of "let's go to the efteling at the very last moment crowd", we went this saturday as they promised a nice sunny day.
Sorry, we are a bit late with the last post.. we just did not have the time to update the weblog last weekend.. We went to a party Lisette's friend (who is also named Lisette) who threw a party for her daughter Vera who was born in July. We were invited to join them at a playground in Leiden. There were lots of toys to play with and a pool with blurry water. .. You can imagine what could have happenend.. yes, Nils fell into it.. Luckily the weather was fine and a warm sun dried his clothes while he continued in his underwear. Wende went to her first Ballet lesson last wednesday and she loved it.. Unfortunately something went wrong while trying to tape it but we do have some pictures. Wende is the youngest one there but they all loved her immediately. She told mom that she would never take off her ballet clothes again but at night she did had to have a bath as she had a little accident during her performance.. And dad finally found the photo album with a family tree my father's mother started. It dates back to around 1624 which Harman Leusden started to sort out. It also contained very old baptise certificates..
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.
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.
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.
