Lisette, Tom, Laurens and Vera and swimming with the family

Saturday our friends Lisette and Tom came over to visit us. Their eldest son Milan couldn't be here because he had a party to got to. But anyway, Lisette and Tom had Laurens with them but als Vera who had grown so much in the mean time. Nils and Laurens played together and Wende tried to keep up with the two boys. Did not always worked out well but overall they behaved very well. Vera made these lovely noises as she is still in her first year. Ingmar liked her immediately and carefully stroked her hair and shared toys with Vera. Tom read a Rupert story in English and Laurens translated it for Nils and Wende. It was great seeing them again, looking forward to the next time which will maybe at the end of April when The New Cool Collective will play near their place. Sunday morning we had to get used to the change of time for the clock was set 1 hour ahead. After breakfast we went to the swimmingpool with the whole family. Ingmar loved the slide and could not get enough of it. That meant that mom or dad had to go with him everytime. Nils practised his diving skills and that went very well! Wende showed mom how well she can jump from the swingboard.

Nils's first real hockey training

Today was Nils's real first training at the Drunense mixed hockeyclub. Ofcourse the paperazzi were there too!

Land van Jan KLaassen and Grandpa 65!

Saturday we went to see Leonie, Marc and Danne again. They had this great idea to rendezvous at a kids playground called "Land van Jan Klaassen". The playground was quite big with lots of swings and stuff to do. There was also an indoor playground but the weather was so nice that we stayed outside. The only time we went inside was to check out the puppet theater. Nils was so excited he jumped up and down his seat and Wende was shouting along with the other kids, they loved it. Ingmar was simply stunned.. In the mean time we had the chance to talk to Marc and Leonie again (it has been a long time since we've seen each other). Afterwards we went to have dinner at my brother's reataurant "bij kobus" which was close by. We had a great dinner and the kids had a pancake in the shape of a bear's face. We also had the chance to see Nikki who gave birth recently to Ryan. It is a great little guy with lot's of black hair.

Sunday was (at first) spent in the swimming pool and after that we went to De Lier to celebrate grandpa's 65 birthday. We (lisette, Martin etc) bought him a high tech sun dail and grandpa himself bought himself a nice electronic weather station. It was nice weather again so we spent most of the time in the garden enjoying the sun. The kids ran around the house and made sure that it didn't get too quite..

Schnitzel center of europe and carnaval in Hulst

Dad had to go to Würzburg for a training in industrial safety and saw many many schnitzels.. But luckily the Italian cuisine has also infiltrated there.. Saturday we went to the library in Den Bosch and along the way we saw many strange looking creatures as this weekend the carnaval started. Nils and Wende suddenly saw a bunch of bananas running from the railway station chased by a gorilla! We went to see my dad this sunday and there was carnaval as well so we went to the center to see the wagons pass by. Afterwards we bought some food to prepare for dinner and the kids tried the piano, who knows, Nils likes to play self made up tunes..

Nils and his first swimming diploma

Finally Nils was allowed to do an exam for his first swimming diploma A Grandpa from Hulst couldn't make due to a bad cold but grandpa and grandma from De Lier were there. Dad filmed the event so granddad from Hulst can have a look how things went. NIls did his best but he was so very nervous this morning. He was up at 7 so we were as well.. Anyway, he was the first to jump in the water and he did it, so now he finally is officially allowed to swim without bouyancy aids. Great, Wende is next.

Self made train, shovel saturday and 3D sunday

The three stooges Nils's self made train including the track

Nils still trying to finish his pop corn from the movies Mom finishing the chocolate cake

The wizard Ingmar putting a spell of fruit hail on his sandwich Nils, Valentine ready

When I arrived at Nils and Wende's school last friday afternoon to pick them up I could not find Nils. Turned out that he was cleaning the class room (voluntarily) with a friend. His teacher was also there and she informed me of what Nils had told her about me and Lisette.. Mom is always getting angry when dinner is ready and dad is still sitting behind the laptop... thank you Nils..

Nils made a nice train at school with the rail road track as well. This week Nils and Wende didn't have to take sandwiches to school because that was taken care of by the school and Nils and Wende took advantage of that according to the mom's who help out during lunchtime..

Last week also Valentine's day passed by and Nils was invited to a private party at one of his girlfriends up the street. So dad bought him a red rose and he made a nice drawing for her and armed with the Valentaine's gift's, dad delivered him at her house. Dad saw a candle on the table in the kitchen and there were two donuts on the table as well.. At 7.30 pm dad picked up Nils again and he had a great time.. Probably next year girls will be awfull.. Ah well.. Wende had a rose as well from dad just as mom. Even dad had a Valentine's present (thanks dear) a nice box filled with chocolate and a nice card. Friday afternoon dad started with dugging a trench in the front garden to widen the drive way a bit and to put slabs of concrete in to mark the border between the gravel and the lawn. Hard work with lot's of clay. So not suprisingly dad suffered of muscle aches the next day but also then, the work had to continue. And it's still not ready.. Got the small generator to work as well, dirty petrol was the cause of it not wanting to start. Sunday we went to the cinema with Nils and Wende, mom stayed at home with Ingmar who is suffering from a major cold. The movie was in 3D and about Yogi bear and they loved it, Wende especially loved the pop corn wich gave Nils a belly ache in the end..

Spruitjes, lache