Christmas Dinner

Like I said, it was Tobias’ Christmas Dinner tonight at school. Here he is getting ready. What they do is, they walk into town with a lantern (the big blue thing attached to the red/green/yellow stick which contains two batteries and a little light), sing songs by the big Christmas tree in the town square, head back to school and have dinner there. Dinner consists of all kinds of homemade things. Everyone brings something (Tobias brought Christmas cookies) and they share.

As you can see he also made a Christmas “piece” (Kerststukje). He was quite proud of it too. They did not get to light the candle, but is was on display for everyone, including the parents. They had little electric lights the shape of a candle instead :-).

Tobias told us he had a nice time at the dinner!

Christmas Cookies

I had quite an eventful daddy day today… This morning was business as usual, taking Tobias to school and then relaxing with Lorelei. But after we picked Tobias up we had quite some things to do. The intention was to go into town to have some lunch and then ice-skate. Well, we did have some lunch in town, but the ice-skating rink was occupied by school children, so we skipped ahead to making Christmas Cookies for Tobias’ Christmas dinner at school. We had prepared the dough last night, so all we needed to do was to make the cookies. We had quite some dough and quite some cookies. Of course, as with everything, Lorelei had to do exactly what Tobias was doing. She wanted to help so bad… Tobias was a really good sport about it, as you can see in this picture… They did it together :-). We just got back from the dinner a little while ago and all the cookies were gone, so I guess we did a good job…!

Kaarsjesavond

It’s that time of year again… Christmas. About two weeks before Christmas on a Tuesday night it is Kaarsjesavond (Candle-night) in Gouda. That means that they turn off all the (street)lights around the market square and light 5 candles in each window. It is quite an amazing sight, but you have to be there to really appreciate it. I tried to capture it with my camera (DMC-FZ18), but that does not work too well… The city hall is beautiful and most places around the square join in and put 5 candles in each window too. There are Christmas choirs, the Christmas story is read and then, as the grand finale of the evening, the huge Christmas tree is lit.

I have been there a few times with Lisa, my parents, some friends and such, but Tobias had not been there (at least not consciously…). So, I thought it’d be nice to take him there. So, we walked into town and went out to dinner first. We went to an Italian place and much to my amazement Tobias wanted to order a pizza! (he usually only eat spaghetti on such occasions…). And even more amazing: he ate (some of) it too…! We had a nice time hanging out together and talking about school, friends, books, Mario Galaxy 2 and such… I put up the picture of Tobias eating a pizza because:
a: that is not a common thing for him to eat
b: the pictures on the market square in the dark did not turn out so well…

Anyway, after dinner we went outside and joined the crowd. It was not nearly as crowded as I had seen it before, but there was still quite a crowd out there. We stood around being really cold for quite a while, kind of singing, hopping, clapping, anything really, to stay warm. Then the mayor had his speech and he went on about how there were all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds and all kinds of religions there, so, Tobias asked me: “Papa, what is a religion?”. So I answer: “Well, that’s when you believe in something, like God or something.”. So Tobias ponders this for a while and then he says: “Papa, I don’t believe in God…, but I do believe in Christmas.”.

That’s my boy!

New Look

Some great new blog templates came out recently. I thought I'd try something new: the dynamic layout. I particularly like the FlipCard view, but I decided on the Magazine view as a default. I also used this template for Lorelei's blog. Let me know what you think... (for example by posting a comment to this message).

Update: I missed the link to my other blog and the history overview too much, so, I reverted back to a more classic (yet different) layout...

Letter from Sinterklaas (again…)

Tobias got a letter from Sinterklaas, again. The content was not unlike last year’s, but this time he was able to read it himself, impressing both his parents and his Opa and Oma (and Sinterklaas I am sure ). Sinterklaas evening is, obviously, a very exciting time for kids. Tobias was quite excited as well. He was very serious about reading his letter and exhilarated when he opened his presents… Sinterklaas had remembered his wish list very well! His favorite present was probably Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii, but he was also quite excited about Lego Ninjago and Battleship (the game). We celebrated on Saturday so that he could enjoy his presents on Sunday (instead of having a school day the next day). We did play a lot… Nice!

Kruidnootjes…

Sinterklaas has come and gone. Sinterklaas-time is a time of presents, but also of treats. About two weeks ago Tobias came home from school with some of them. They had made kruidnootjes and got the recipe for it to take home. So, about a week ago we did a trial run making them at home, and last Saturday, the day we celebrated Sinterklaas, we made them again. I was the measurer and Tobias the kneader. He did a great job and the Kruidnootjes turned out to be very nice. We’ll have to do that again sometime .

(Kruidnootjes are best described as tiny gingerbread balls, I think….)

Swimming Diploma!

Tobias passed his swimming test and got his Diploma A this past weekend and as you can see he was quite proud of it. Rightfully so, after nearly two years of swimming lessons. And then to think that it is almost two years ago that he was able to keep his head up without floatation devices, and that last year during the summer vacation he did nothing but swim… Of course that was more playing than swimming… I guess he needed a proper technique and stuff. And then there were some things that he needed to be able to do, like swimming underwater a certain distance, swimming with his clothes on and some different strokes. We haven’t been worried about him in the water for way over a year, but now it is official, he has his Diploma A!

Next up: Diploma B, and then I think we’ll call it quits…

Of course we’re proud of our little boy too!

Oh, did I mention that Sinterklaas handed Tobias his Diploma? Well, he did...

Sinterklaas

Yes, Sinterklaas is in town again and you know what that means… Shoes by the fire-place… So, that’s what we did and guess what, he actually stopped by and put something in their shoes . Oh, and that something was on Tobias’ list too. The whole process of making the list was sooooo cute this year. He can write now (much better than last year anyway) so every once in a while he would say something like: “Oh wait papa, I’ll be right back…”. He’d run upstairs and write something in his black notebook (that I had given him) on his “list”. The first thing he wrote was a nintendo DS followed by Bey Blade. When he first started talking about it he wasn’t very clear as to what it was. He called it “bley bley”, which is I guess how his friends who do have one call them. It is a rather advanced spinning top which can “battle” other Bey Blades. It is also what Tobias got . Lorelei got some Pooh-bear Duplo (Legos). She was quite happy with it but was way more interested in the candy in her boot .

Music Show

Tobias joined a trial-music-class, much in the same way he once joined a trial-soccer-training. Such things are done through a program called “brede school” (literally: “wide school”). Most schools in Gouda are part of this program and what it does is, it enables children (and parents) to try things without having to become a member right away. So, this time it was music. It was a series of three lessons during which they sang, did rhythm and melody. Last Friday was the third and last time and parents (and grandparents, my dad came too) were allowed in for the last ten minutes of the session to see the performance or “The Show” as Tobias called it.
They performed a little piece of music with all the components (voice, rhythm and melody) they had studied. Tobias’ part was very minimal… It was a song about strange noises and Tobias had to rub his hand around this drum to make the sound of the wind. I enjoyed it just the same! The kids had the opportunity to register for a whole year of classes like these, but Tobias declined. He wants to take guitar lessons… (I am providing these now and he is actually making progress quite rapidly, but we’ll be looking for a real guitar teacher soon if he keeps this level of enthusiasm about it…)

School Picture

Like Lorelei, Tobias had his school picture taken too. I am not quite as satisfied with his than I am with hers, but hey, it’s the school picture, so I will put it on my blog for you… We even have two shots of Tobias, but neither of them are as cute or spontaneous as Lorelei’s. I guess when it comes to photographing kids it is not just about photography skills, it is mostly about kid-skills…

Big Helpful Brother

We gave Lorelei a CD Player for her birthday. Tobias has had one for a while now so he knows exactly how it works. This picture was taken on the morning of her birthday. We all went up into her room, sang Happy Birthday and gave our gifts. Tobias gave her CDs and we gave her the CD player. Needless to say she wanted to try it right away… Well, as you can see Tobias helped her out. In this picture he is teaching her how the CD player works. And… he is a very good teacher (or Lorelei a very good student ) because this lesson was all it took for Lorelei to be able to do it herself!

Thank you very much buddy-buster!

Our Jack-O-Lantern…

Designed and co-carved by Tobias Quinn de Pee .

Trik R Trit

Like I said, we had a Halloween party on Saturday. We did not go outside to go trick or treating. We did have lots of treats of course. Today was the real Halloween, so we did some additional Halloween stuff tonight. Tobias came up with the idea to go trick or treating (“like we did the year before last year” he added). So, we put his costume on and went outside. We pretended to go around the block, but the turned back to ring the doorbell. I had to hide while he waited for the door to open. It was so sweet!

After that we went inside and did another Halloween thing: we watched a Halloween movie (“Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space”) while enjoying the treats .

Before he went to bed he did not want to read, but draw on his white board. We do that sometime, we take turns drawing a picture and then the other person has to guess what it is. The first picture Tobias drew was of trick or treating. He drew himself and Lisa, each with a speech bubble. Tobias’ said: “Trik R Trit”…

As you know he is learning how to write, in Dutch. He is doing really well with reading and also with writing in Dutch. He is starting to be able to distinguish between Dutch and English reading-wise. As you can see from this example he uses the Dutch sounds to spell an English word. Very interesting development… oh, and kind of sweet too, right?

Vampire…

Halloween, always exciting. Tobias had his idea for a costume long before Halloween this year: he wanted to be a Vampire. Good thing they have good costume stores in the US. Aunt Shelli did some serious Halloween shopping and got him this Vampire suit. I did not put the best picture of the suit on though, but I did put the coolest picture on. I love this picture.

We had a party on Saturday and this picture was taken just before that party. Tobias and Lorelei we both so excited and Tobias was waiting to open the door to our first guests and scare them good! They were kind of running through the house and I was just kind of taking some pictures… And then I took this one.

I love it! I hope you do too .

PS: The costume came with make-up. Tobias had that on, of course, but the next day his face was all red… some sort of allergic reaction… That was a bit unfortunate…

Artwork…

Tobias does quite some artwork for us. He calls them surprises… Most of the times it is a picture with some form of fighting going on. He draws super heroes, dragons, monsters, pirates, knights etc. It started out as some of these creatures doing something that needed explaining. So, the pictures would come with a story.
Soon, the picture not only came with a story, they included graphics to tell the story, like arrows and “shadow” pictures, or, in other words, the result of one of the arrows. For example: one pirate shoots the other, one arrow would indicate the bullet flying from one pirate to the other, the other arrow would indicate the other pirate falling in the water…. The other pirate would be captured on two pictures: one on the ship, one in the water.

In this picture you can see an example of that style of drawing in the top picture. You can see a boxing match. You can see the one who wins with four arms and some arrows indicating punches to the other. The other is depicted standing up and fighting and then of course lying down. As you can see some text goes with it stating the boxer lying down being KO.

So, after receiving one of these works of art, the top one to be exact, I suggested that maybe Tobias could depict the course of events in more than one picture, like the comic in a kids magazine that he subscribed to. Sure enough, that night I receive one of his surprises… the bottom part of the picture, depicting the same story in more than one picture… comic style .

I hope to receive many of these surprises in the future. I love them!

Sunday Morning…

No picture in this post, just a story. Why? Well, the story will tell you. We are quite lucky with both our kids. They sleep pretty well. We used to have a pretty decent guesstimate as to when each of them would get up. Well, we gave Tobias an alarm clock, and now we know exactly when he gets up… I have a feeling he waits until it goes off…

Anyway, on the weekend this alarm clock it set for 8:00 am. So, he is in our bed by 8:02 . For quite a while he would come down and ask if he could watch boomerang, but not this past Sunday. This past Sunday he wanted to just cuddle. Lorelei had already come down and was in bed with us, also cuddling. Tobias asked if he could feed the cats. So, he went downstairs and Lorelei went after him. We heard some playing going on and some silly stuff. They were downstairs, but then followed the cats upstairs, so they were just kind of playing together while we were snoozing. Then, at one point from the room next to our bedroom we hear Tobias go: “Wait Lorelei, I’ll be right back.”. He goes up to his room and comes back down. We hear him say: “Ok Lorelei, I got a book, do you want to hear it?”. And then he starts reading to her… SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!

So, he reads for a while and then he goes: “Hold on Lorelei, I’ll be right back.”. He comes into our room and asks for a bookmark… Apparently Lorelei did not want to read anymore, but play something else instead… But, she listened to quite a big part of the book…

I think watching, or in this case hearing, your kids play together and do things for each other, like reading, is just one of the most wonderful things… ever!

Making Perfume

Tobias is in Group 3 now and once a week they watch a TV show made for school. We even call it SchoolTV here… The show is called “Huisje, Boompje, Beestje” (House, Tree, Animal) and addresses various topics that kids his age might be dealing with. One recent one has been allowance, but another one was flowers. In the flower one they talked about how flowers grow, why they have colors, why they smell etc. During that episode they made perfume from flower petals and Tobias was fascinated by that! So, he wanted to try that for himself. He had been talking about it for like two weeks now and today we finally did it.

After school we went into to town and got the necessities: Coffee filters and flowers (roses, as you can see). Tobias also brought a friend (Dico) home with him, but that did not deviate him from his plan… Dico was allowed to join the fun . So, here they are cutting rose petals into small pieces to put in the  coffee filters… Then you trickle warm (not hot) water over it and squeeze the filter. What comes out is the perfume. We put it in a bottle and saved it as a surprise for when Lisa came home . It was quite cute, actually…

Camping

This past weekend Tobias and I went out together on a camping trip, or, a biking vacation as Tobias called it. We strapped everything on our bikes… well… technically we strapped everything but a sleeping bag and a pair of shoes on my bike… and took off for a campsite near Oudewater, about 12 km from Gouda. Not a long ride, well, not for me anyway, but a ride all the same. We even stopped to have lunch on the way there, a pancake, just before we got there . It took us about an hour and a half including lunch to get there.

I had been wanting to do this for quite a while but we haven’t had quite the summer or the time to do it so far. Well, this past weekend was really nice so I took the opportunity! And I am so unbelievably glad I did. Tobias was sooooooo excited about the whole thing, everything about it really…

Of course, when we got there, we first put up the tent. We have a small tent, kind of igloo shaped, which is relatively easy to set up. Tobias helped of course, so we took our sweet time doing that. Then we had to put our stuff in the tent, including a large airbed. We brought a pump and much to my surprise Tobias pumped pretty much the whole thing… By the time we were done we sat outside our tent and rested a while.

Our next job was the groceries. We biked into Oudewater to get our stuff. I wanted to get an instant barbecue and we did find that. So, some meat, some bread, and some veggies, drinks and some snacks and we were set! Before we returned to the campsite it was spoiling time, eh, I mean ice-cream time .

Back at the tent we played some soccer and some games before we lit up the cue and started our dinner. We took our sweet time with that too, we basically took our sweet time doing everything… While we were taking our sweet time having dinner Tobias got up and started running around in circles, and jumping saying: “Oh papa, I love this biking vacation, this is my favorite hobby!”. That gives you an idea about the level of his excitement… .

By the time we were all done it was getting dark, the moon came out, the fields (because that’s where we were, in the fields…) were getting hazy, and the hares were coming out. So, we watched the hares, the moon, the stars and everything before it got too dark and too cold to stay outside. We went inside.

Of course being in the tent was very exciting as well. We played some games, talked, read some books, and cuddled. Tobias repeated his excitement statements like “favorite hobby”, “love this biking vacation” many times throughout the evening. We were both asleep at around 21:30 (I was really tired too, apparently, I didn’t even read…). It was not my greatest night of sleep, but I did get a reasonable amount of sleep in the end…

We woke up around 8:00. We stayed in the tent for quite a while before we got up. We talked and read some more and played some games again. Oh, and we had breakfast in the tent (we had gotten some rolls the day before…). After getting ready we biked into Oudewater again to get some drinks. We went back to the tent an played some soccer and some more games before we took the tent down again, strapped everything on the bikes again and headed for home, much to Tobias’ disappointment… He would have loved to stay a bit longer, and so would I…

We agreed to go again next year, and then stay out for two nights. But, even though it was only one night and very brief it was very nice, wonderful actually! I guess this is what they call “quality time”…

Make Your Own Discoveries

Tobias likes a PBS Kids show called “Dinosaur Train”. To my knowledge there are about 40 episodes containing two stories each about a species of dinosaurs. After each story Dr. Scott the Paleontologists comes on. He tells you about the dinosaur in the story and he always waves goodbye saying: “So remember, go outside, get into nature, and make your own discoveries!”. Tobias loves that and this past vacation in Crete we were out walking to a ruin when Tobias said: “We did good listening to Dr. Scott, Papa, we are making our own discoveries!”. Yes, Tobias is a real explorer .

Why am I telling you this? Well, because yesterday we did just that… It was a nice day so, we went outside, got into nature, and made our own discoveries… We discovered several kinds of trees, nuts, bushed, and mushrooms, like the one in this picture…

Besides all these discoveries, Tobias’ favorite thing in the forest is playing baseball with a stick and some acorns or pine cones… It amazes me how well he can hit those things.

Well, in short: we had a very nice afternoon yesterday!

Computer Talking

This is really a post for my Dutch readers... Tobias has always been a language boy. He is improving soooo fast in reading. Some of the teaching materials are on the computer. He does not seem to like that so much which surprises me, because at home he wants to play on the computer all the time. The teacher thought it might be because of two reasons:

1. He has to use a computer in another classroom

2. He has a hard time finding all the letters on the keyboard

I am sure that the first one is the primary reason, but just to be sure I thought I'd try to address the second reason too. So, tonight, I we talked without using our mouths :-). We chatted on the computer... and he LOVED it! Tobias was upstairs in the office, I was downstairs on the couch. He typed very slow but he did quite an interesting and an extremely cute job spelling though :-). I most definitely want to save that so I thought I'd put it on my blog...

He loved it so much that before we went to bed he told me he wants to do it again tomorrow :-).

Here is our chat:

7:03 PM

me: hallo tobias

7:04 PM

hallo tobias

7:05 PM

Tobias: hallo papa

7:06 PM

me: goed zo! vind je dit leuk?

Tobias: ja

7:07 PM

me: okee. kun je het goed lezen?

7:08 PM

Tobias: ja

me: hoe heet jij?

7:09 PM

Tobias: tobias

me: ik heet Tobias

Tobias: oo

me: wat vind jij leuk op school?

7:10 PM

Tobias: taal

me: oo, en wat nog meer?

7:11 PM

Tobias: rekenen

me: hoeveel is drie plus twee?

Tobias: 5

7:12 PM

me: goed gedaan.

Hoe heet jouw juf?

Tobias: eva

me: wie staat er achter jou?

7:13 PM

Tobias: mama

me: dat dacht ik al.

Ze helpt je toch niet?

Tobias: wel

7:14 PM

me: Dat is gemeen!

Vind je tiepen leuk?

Tobias: ja

me: je kunt het al goed hoor!

7:15 PM

Wat is je favoriete dier?

7:16 PM

Tobias: ch

me: wat is een ch?

7:20 PM

Tobias: wat ben je tog vor een oen papa

me: Een oen?

waarom?

6 minutes

7:26 PM

Tobias: ik wou sieta schrijven

me: dat is goed.

7:27 PM

In het echt schrijf je: cheetah

Het is eigenlijk een engels woord

Ik weet een raadsel

Wil je het horen?

7:28 PM

Tobias: ja papa

me: het is groen en het heeft een mes.

7:29 PM

Tobias: ik weet het niet

me: een snijboon

7:32 PM

Tobias: dad bustaat tog heelumaal niet

7:33 PM

me: Ja hoor. Echt wel. Ik weet er nog een. Wil je die ook horen?

Tobias: ja

me: Het is geel en het staat.

7:35 PM

Tobias: vaanieu vlaa

me: Nee, nog een keer...

7:37 PM

Tobias: dan weet ik het wir niet

me: Een stanaan

7:39 PM

Tobias: dad bustaat tog niet

me: Nee, dat bestaat niet.

Nog een?

7:41 PM

Tobias: ja maar niet zoo moelek

me: okee. de laatste. deze weet je denk ik.

het is bruin en het stinkt.

7:42 PM

Tobias: poep

me: Nee

wel bijna

7:44 PM

Tobias: een stnk sok

me: nee.... een DROL!!!

7:45 PM

Mag ik jou straks op bed leggen?

7:50 PM

Tobias: ja maar ik wil nog eeven dor praate mag dad?

me: ja dat mag. wil je straks nog wel een boekje lezen?

Tobias: ja

me: welk boek?

7:52 PM

Tobias: suup er dofje

me: oo leuk. dat doen we!

7:53 PM

die huisje boompje beestje met raaf en zijn geld, was die heel leuk?

Tobias: okee

7:54 PM

me: wil je samen naar een huisje boompje beestje kijken?

Tobias: ja

me: die van dat geld?

7:55 PM

of een andere?

7:56 PM

klik maar op de blauwe letters: http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=13128402

7:57 PM

Tobias: ik snap er niks van

me: ik kom eraan.

For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Carnival

Every year, not long after the start of the new school year, the Carnival is in town. It started yesterday. Lisa went after school yesterday, and today it was my turn. I am not a big fan of carnivals, the noise, the people, the food, the junk stuff you can “win”, or anything like that. I am a big fan of my kids though, especially with the joy in their eyes and the smiles on their faces. Basically all the carnival stuff is rather worthless, but those lovely babies are priceless!!! (and makes it all worth it).

It is funny to see what they like. Apparently Lorelei is kind of a thrill seeker going on a rollercoaster-type-thing and wanting to go again where Tobias didn’t even want to go at all. I did not go on that rollercoaster-type-thing today. I think I wrote about this last year, but two years ago I took Tobias on a ride he was too young for at the time, and I have a feeling he might be traumatized for life…

What was absolutely adorable though, was the two of them in a car on the car-merry-go-round. I would expect Tobias to have outgrown it by now, but apparently not, because they went on there twice… I have often written about the fact that I (desperately?) want to hold on to that kind of cuteness, so, I am not complaining, just enjoying!

Swimming Lessons

Tobias has always been kind of a fish. But swimming for real is a whole different matter. He has been taking lessons for quite a while now. They are always on mondays right after school. That’s when Lisa’s “on duty”. I have been once or twice after work, but never took my camera. During the vacation they were on a different schedule. I got to take him one wednesday. This time I did take my camera and took some nice pictures and movie clips. Here is one of them. Right after the vacation he was bumped up one group, to the group right before you can get your diploma.

I hope that he will get that sometime really soon. Not that I worry about him not being able to stay afloat or anything, but well, I guess it feels even safer when he stays afloat with his diploma or something like that…

First Day of Group 3

I have said this many times and I am sure I am gonna say it many times to come….: I can’t believe how fast my little boy is growing. Although he is still a little boy in many many ways, he is also becoming a big boy in many many ways… He is no longer a “kleuter”, he is now a schoolboy… in Group 3…

He is so enthusiastic about it, and that is such a joy to see. He comes home every day telling us about the new word he can read or the new letter he can write. Today the word was “lip”. I often try to remember how that went with me, but it is hard to remember that and compare it to your own kid. Even my parents have a hard time remembering, or at least comparing. All I can say is that it is FAST! We already had some books that he would read, very slowly, but the speed is picking up and the help required is decreasing rapidly. Soon, I am sure, he will read a bed-time story to me rather than the other way around.

Another very interesting thing is all the stuff he wants to do on top of that. All of a sudden he can tie his shoe-laces… all it took was showing him once, helping him twice, and now he can do it. Of course we went out and got him laced, rather than Velcro shoes…

Another thing it telling time. He has had a watch, but the battery was dead. Well, we went out to have it replaced, but it still didn’t work. He was much upset at that, so we got him a new watch. He is wearing it proudly and trying hard to tell time. He was already able to tell whole hours, but now he is able to tell half hours as well, and sometimes quarters.

Finally, every summer, right after the vacation, there is a summer party at school. Everyone is invited, the adults get to drink beer and the kids get to play games and eat, among other things, pancakes. We made some pancakes (which I had to buy back for a euro a pop at the party ) and while I was doing that Tobias said: “Papa, if I want a pancake I am just going to ask for it, because I am not shy anymore because I am in Group 3 now.”. I was quite stunned and not quite convinced, but it was true. Before he had to have one of us accompany him to games or in getting food or drinks. Not this time… He did that all by himself.

Proud? Yes!

Sad? Well, a little I guess, but in a happy kind of way (does that make any sense?).

Proud…

I believe Tobias is quite proud of many things. He loves his bike and biking and I think he is quite proud at how well he does. He likes arts and crafts and I am sure he is quite proud of most of his work. He is proud when he makes money, for example by mowing the lawn. And rightfully so. I am proud of my boy to. One of those futile things he is proud of is the fact that he can blow up balloons by himself.

He has been able to do that for a while, but today as I was taking some pictures, he was playing with a balloon that he had gotten at Floor’s birthday party earlier today and while we were doing that he asked: “Papa, can you take a picture of me blowing up this balloon?”. So, I did .

Just one of those things; you don’t even think about it, but apparently it is a big deal somehow…

Golf

Well, we did have a little bit of decent weather… We used it to play golf. I am not exactly sure why, but I believe it was Valentine who came up with the idea. Tobias had already played a couple of times in the Netherlands with my dad, so he was definitely up for it… We ended up going twice, once with just Tobias and Valentine, the second time with all of us. Lorelei was not quite there yet (an neither was Tristan for that matter, but hey, how can you deny him a try…), but Valentine and Tobias got quite some shots in…

Working…

We went to La Celle Saint Cloud (near Paris) a little over a week ago. We left on friday afternoon (like we usually do) and came back on monday night (like we usually do). Usually we go for Easter, but this time it was Pentecost.

Anyway, the weather was not great so quite some time was spent indoors, playing but also working, like here. I am not sure what they are working on, but it looks like both Tobias and Valentine are very much into it, doesn’t it?

Photographer

Tobias and Lorelei had their pictures taken a while back. I like to decide for myself when, where and how I have them printed so I ordered the digital versions. That took a while because of some payment issues, but they arrived today. For one thing I can put them on my blogs now . Check Lorelei’s blog too, I will put her on there as well…

The Beach

We have been having some nice weather in the past couple of weeks. Last Wednesday I took advantage of that and took the kids to the beach! That was a good decision because we all had a great time. Tobias wanted to build a fort so that’s what we did and here they are sitting in it . We topped off the afternoon with a family dinner because Lisa came to the beach too, right out of work, and some ice-cream. How can an afternoon on a daddy-day be more perfect than that?

Queen’s Day on the Market Square

An then there was Queen’s Day… In the morning there was music on the market square, marching bands and such. There was quite a crowd and there were games for the kids. Oh, and the kids got to let balloons fly. I wonder if we ever see the tag back…

Another Castle

Like I said, we visited more than one castle. For some reason we have lots of pictures of the kids, but not so many of Nonny and the kids. That’s why I like this picture, because here are the kids and Nonny (oh yeah, and me…) in one picture . This was actually a really nice castle: Hoensbroek Castle. We, adults included, had a very nice time there!