Emma's birthday and more

Emma's birthday invitations using her own art work

On Wednesday, Emma had her kids birthday party. It was our first Dutch kids birthday party and it was a big success. I think I was more nervous about it then Emma was, but fortunately I had my sister and mom to assist me. First, Emma handed out birthday treats in school. Usually, those treats are packaged in some fun or decorative way. So that's what I did. It took me a bit longer then I anticipated, but the result (especially Emma's face when she saw it the next morning) was worth it.
Tree of treats (takes about 4 hours to complete)

Detail of Emma's birthday treat

After school, we took all six invitees home for a pancake lunch (thanks Pieter!), some creative activity and some games. That afternoon, I experienced something all mothers (apparently) experience when organizing a kids birthday party; despite all your careful preparations, things never go the way you planned them. For me, it was a surprise how quickly the kids went through the planned activities and games! Lunch was over after about twenty minutes (iso 45 min), the DIY photo frames took only half an hour (iso 1 hour) to finish etc. Fortunately, they were okay just playing with our toys in between the organized parts ... Unwrapping the gifts and eating the cake provided the much needed quiet moments of the afternoon. I was quite happy to see the mothers come at 3.30 pm sharp to pick them all up :-) But, hearing Emma say that this was her BEST birthday EVER, definitely made up for all the hard work.
Birthday girl and her guests

On Thursday, Emma and Janne had an early Christmas dinner at school. Each classroom was festively decorated and from 5 until 6.30 pm, the kids were having (tomato) soup and sausage rolls. You could tell that some teachers really put a lot of effort in preparing and decorating their classroom. Janne's classroom for example looked really nice and special.
A very festive Christmas table in Janne's classroom

Janne with one of her teachers

Both Emma and Janne really enjoyed having this 'formal' Christmas dinner without their parents. Pieter and me used this free time to go out for dinner ourselves. We all had a good time :-)
Emma with one of her teachers

Pakjesavond

Emma and Janne apparently were very good girls this year, because Sinterklaas brought many great gifts on Friday, the eve of his birthday. At about 6 pm, someone (Black Peter?) nocked on the window very loudly, which startled us all. Emma quickly opened the curtains, but was too late to see Sinterklaas' black helper. When Janne opened the front door, a bag full of gifts was standing on our doorstep!
A bag full of presents from Sinterklaas

If we would have let them, Emma and Janne would have opened all the presents there and then :-) Instead, we had them open them inside, one present after another. Still, they unwrapped all gifts in the record time of about fifteen minutes ... The next day, we literally didn't do anything but play with all the new toys.
Hurry, hurry; there's more presents to unwrap

Sunday, we went to oma, to celebrate her 78th birthday. And what a surprise when we saw that Sinterklaas also delivered gifts for Emma and Janne at oma's house! Another fifteen minutes of frantically unwrapping presents were followed by cries of excitement, jumps for joy and requests for help (to take the packages off all the new toys). At the end of the afternoon we had a fun and delicious meal at the local 'Tasty Wok' restaurant with my mom and my sister and her family.
Look mom, Sinterklaas was here as well!

All (or at least most) of the gifts were real hits, so Sinterklaas did a great job at selecting presents once again. And now, after three weeks of excitement and anticipation, Sinterklaas is finally over ... Emma and Janne, as most kids in the Netherlands, will need a few good nights sleep to recover from it :-) Family dinner at the Tasty Wok

Colourfull faces

Two Zwarte Pietjes

This weeked, Emma and Janne got to meet Sinterklaas in person and even received their first Sinterklaas gift. Great excitement all Saturday long, also because we grease-painted the girls as Black Peters. It was very nice that Sinterklaas was so well informed about all the kids, so the meet-and-greet met all expectations :-)
Have you been good this year ...?

On Sunday, we went to the local mall for lunch and to our surprise, there were also a lot of Black Peters running around. That was a nice extra for the girls. To top it off, there were make-up artists at the mall, who grease-painted the kids. The lady did a great job and it was worth the long wait. Our pretty little cats

2nd snow this year!

Yesterday and today, it snowed in Holland. Emma and Janne were VERY excited and played out in the snow on both days. Yesterday, they could play with two friends, because our Taiwan friends Florence and Thomas visited us from Belgium with their three boys. We spent a leisurely Saturday, eating, drinking, chatting and even taking a short walk through the neighborhood. The little town we live in is not very exciting, but it is VERY Dutch and therefore worth showing 'foreign' friends :-) Admitted, it's a bit less spectacular than Brussels ...

Fun for four in the fresh snow on Saturday

Janne enjoying the snow on Sunday

Emma is having fun as well

The weekend before, the most exciting thing of this season happened; Sinterklaas arrived in Holland and he even visited our own town of Veldhoven! As a child, I loved the excitement of the Sinterklaas season, from his arrival mid November, until his birthday and following departure from Holland on December 6th. (More details about the Sinterklaas tradition can be found at www.thehollandring.com/sinterklaas.shtml) Now, I love it because Emma and Janne are so enthusiastic about it all :-)

On our way to see Sinterklaas, Emma and Janne dressed as little Peters

On Dec 5th, the eve of Sinterklaas' birthday, all good boys and girls receive (lots of) gifts from Sinterklaas. Once the children stop 'believing', Dec 5th turns into a regular gift-giving evening, where the gifts are supposed to be packaged in some ingenious/funny way and are to be accompanied by a poem.
Here comes Sinterklaas (in Veldhoven)

On the nights between Sinterklaas' arrival and Dec 5, children put their shoe in front of the fireplace, filled with a carrot or hay for Sinterklaas' horse and/or a drawing for Sinterklaas himself. At night, Sinterklaas' helper Black Peter, climbs down the chimney (hence his black color; it's amazing that Santa is not black ...) and exchanges the carrot and drawing for a small gift or some candy. In this period, it's never difficult to get kids out of bed in the morning, as they are very eager to see what Black Peter put in their shoe. It's all a lot of fun, both for young kids and their parents. All parents hope that the children will 'believe' as long as possible, but usually they see through it in first or second grade. Hopefully Emma will have at least one more year of 'believing', before reality replaces fantasy.
Singing for Sinterklaas, IN the fireplace iso in front of it :-)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the girls' school really believes in parent involvement. In the last couple of weeks, I've been at school every week, helping out, driving or decorating. It's fun, but it's also amazing how much help they seem to need and how little the teachers (can) do on their own ...
Janne's class on their fall hike; they all looked a little less clean at the end ...

Full weekend

On Saturday, we went to Alblasserdam, to the occasion of the opening of Pieter's daughter Charlotte's medical centre. From conceptual idea to opening day, it took the four initiators four years to realize their plans. And Pieter was of course beaming with pride that his daughter, as one of the initiators, made this happen! Below are the before and after pictures of the old school building in which the medical centre is now located. More info (in Dutch) and pics at www. gezondheidscentrumalblasserdam.nl
The old school

The new DOK 11 Medical Centre

Today, we celebrated my 41st (sssssht!) birthday. It was a very nice and busy day, with friends and family and kids. The food was not exactly the biggest success ever (I think I saw the kids using my meatballs as marbles ...), but fortunately everybody was very forgiving and they agreed I would probably do much better next time :-)
Birthday Girl - slightly out of focus; maybe that'll make me look younger

Despite the food, I think everybody had a good time. Including the six kids. With a similar toys-everywhere result as last Sunday.
The only quiet moments of the afternoon; the kids are watching Tarzan ...

Last, I want to share this pic of Janne with you. She truelly looks like Klein Duimpje in the Zevenmijlslaarzen. Guess whose boots these are ...
Little Thumb and the Seven-league Boots

Busy times

Again, it's been a while since the last post. Here's a few pics of what we did since then.
We went to my sister's rollerscate show; club members of all ages participated, from 4 up to 50+ years old!

Visiting Pieter's (French) sister and her youngest daughter, Zora
We had friends over for dinner; this is the result of a four adult, four kid (ages 3-5) dinner :-)

Janne calls oma; this looks promissing for when she's 14 or so ...

Now that he is retired, Pieter doesn't need all these ties anymore; we cleaned out over 20 and he still has about 20 left. Next round, we'll bring it down to 10.

Week of reunions

This week, it's fall break. After finishing Janne's room, Pieter is now painting Emma's room. The combination blue-green in Janne's room turned out quite nice, the pink in Emma's room is a bit brighter than expected. Maybe the red will tone it down a bit. I ordered the curtains for their rooms, which will be finished 5 weeks from now. You think that is long? Although our bed was delivered, as promised, after 12 weeks, we'll have to wait 4 more weeks for our dining room set to arrive ... And, needless to say that our kitchen is still not finished! But, it's nearing it's completion, even I can see (and believe) that now :-)

Well, now for the title of this post. Because this was indeed a week of reunions (if such a plural exists). On Sunday, Pieter had a High School reunion, HBS in this case. Of the possible 180 attendants, 160 showed up! That's an amazing percentage! That was probably also one of the reasons why the reunion was such a big success; they were all there! Pieter is still talking about the people he met, the stories he heard and the memories he re-lived with all his old friends. Lots of forgotten memories came back during the day and for Pieter, it's a 'shining pearl in his memory'. For most of people present, it was 40 odd years ago since they last talked to each other. It must be a very special experience to see all your old class mates after such a long time! And from looking at the 600+ pictures on the reunion website, I learned that at this day and age, at 62, a person is NOT old. Those men and women really still look great, with hip glasses and hairdo's (the women a bit more so than the men ... ) and fashionable outfits.
Pieter then and now

For me, there were two 'reunions' albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. I went to see a high school friend, whom I hadn't seen for 10 years. Except for our high school reunion in 2006, where I talked to her for a total of about ten minutes. We took a little bit more time this time around. While her son played with Emma and Janne, we talked, talked and then talked some more. It's kind of a cliche to say, but it did seem like we talked to each other last month, instead of ten years ago. The funny thing is that we didn't talk very much about the past ten years, but more about the present. Our current jobs, hobbies, plans, the kids. It was really great to see her and we will definitely see each other again in the near future. Starting this Saturday, because I left Emma and Janne's winter coats at her place :-)
My girls, her boy

The other long-time-no-talk visit was from a former Philips co-worker. Actually, she worked for a consultant company and did a project for us (Pieter and me) at Philips. We hadn't spoken to her in at least ten years and also with her, the years melted away and we had the same 'seems like yesterday' feeling. Because she also has a technical background and has always worked in a male dominated environment, she's kind of a role model for me and a greatly admire her entrepreneurial and strong personality, her intelligence and her empathy. Also now, I asked for her advice with regard to my applications and, as usual, she had some great inputs. It was another wonderful reunion. We'll see her again mid November.

Emma is now staying with my mom for two days and we will pick her up on Saturday. It's a bit quieter around the house, with only one little girl. Janne was quite disappointed that she couldn't go with oma as well, so I'll take her to the movies tomorrow and maybe we'll go swimming. All in all, it seems like we're re-integrating nicely; this week's agenda is totally full, as every self respecting Dutch family's agenda always is :-)

Adding colour

Some more colour and decoration decisions have been made and we are using fall break to paint Emma and Janne's room. We did the master bedroom a few weeks ago. This weekend we started painting Janne's room, which is half finished now. Later this week, we'll work on Emma's room. Although only (some of) the painting has been done and no decorating, here's a sneak preview.
The master bedroom even has curtains

Half of Janne's room is now happy in blue (her choice)

And, we also painted a bench from Janne's classroom. Emma and Janne did most of the work, I only did the difficult corners.
From orange to yellow; good job!

Out of storage

Today, the very last part of our move back to Holland happened. Vereijken Movers emptied out two crates, with a total volume of 16 cubic meters, in our garage. Plus a vintage Honda CB750 motorcycle. All this had been in storage for seven and a half years. Over the past weeks, we had tried very hard to remember what was in storage. Some items, like my ice cream maker, my sewing machine, an antique chair, an antique dining room set and camping equipment, came back to us. Other things, like my black and white dark room equipment, three (!) tv sets (the big, bulky ones of course), three boxes with pots and pans, several boxes with glass and chinaware, were a total surprise. Why did we keep this stuff? Why did we pay storage fee for these forgotten things for over seven years? Here's some hindsight advice: when you move (to another country), throw everything away that has been in your attic for over 2 years. Unless you have a strong emotional attachment to it, like I have to my grandfather's old radio, or unless there's a practical reasons why it's been up there, like that you haven't gone skying for three years.
Hello boxes; long time no see ...

It is fun though, to open all the boxes and find hidden treasures (crystal wine glasses) and surprises (photographs of old boyfriends). Even if half of it will end up in the second hand shop. Maybe someone will appreciate that we kept it for all these years.

Charity event for Nepal

Last night, Emma and Janne's school organized a charity event to raise money for a village in Nepal. The children in the village don't have time to go to school, because they have to spend hours every day to fetch water. The 'theme' was introduced weeks ago and several fund raising activities, like collecting empty PET bottles, were organized. The older children (grade 5 and 6) came to the lower grades to tell about Nepal and to explain the reason for the fund raising.
Janne throwing with all her might, cheered on by Miss Jany, one of her teachers

During the fund raiser last night, each group organized its own 'event', which they prepared earlier this week. In Emma's class, most kids made some food at home, some were selling toys. The popcorn sold very well, but Emma was very disappointed that only a few people wanted to buy her home-made-and-decorated cookies. Good thing is that we get to eat them :-) In Janne's group, the children had to bring some toy/gift to school, which they wrapped and put in a 'grabbelton' (lucky-dip?). It was a big hit and all the gifts were gone in less than two hours. Also the 'ballen gooien' (throwing balls at cans?) was very popular.
Cookie saleswoman on her popcorn break; Janne wants to buy some cookies

Being new to the whole school thing, I thought that the International School in Hsinchu asked quite a lot from parents. It seemed like there was an event almost every week, which required either help, donations or some kind of other involvement from parents. After five months of experience with the school system in Holland, I'm beginning to realize it's the same as in Hsinchu. So, it's probably the modern way of organizing education, with LOTS of parent involvement. As long as I don't have a job, helping out in Emma and Janne's class is an excellent opportunity for me to get to know more people in Veldhoven and to get to know Emma and Janne's classmates and friends.

My bike is back!

Today, my brother-in-law brought my bike back to me. Actually, it's at the motorshop, where they will (try to) get it back up and running. I am SO EXCITED to have my Tranalp back (even though it is not exactly nice touring weather at the moment). I didn't really miss the riding in Taiwan, but ever since we're back, it's been itching pretty seriously. So, hopefully they will be able to fix the bike and hopefully we'll have at least a few nice days in fall for me to go riding.

The bike looks surprisingly good, pretty much the same as I left it seven years ago, and even the tires seem to be still ok. Next week, the guys at the shop will start working on it. As I forgot to take a picture this morning, here's one from 1996. It's taken during a motorcycle trip to Switzerland.
Me and my bike! Also note the long hair I had back then :--)

Happy Birthday Pieter!

Happy birthday from Emma and Janne

Yesterday was Pieter's birthday and also the day he finished the garden cabin. Two reasons for a party, so he got breakfast in bed, gifts from all of us and lots of best wishes from the birthday guests.
The roof under construction

Finished!

Found you!

For all those who were concerned about our lost photo albums and who kept their fingers crossed; thanks, it worked! Even though I said we unpacked all boxes weeks ago, that was not true literally. There were one or two boxes of which I scanned the contents, but which I didn't unpack. One of them was a box with ASML stuff (or so I thought). I briefly looked through the box and concluded it was filled with work related ASML binders. Today, I needed some ASML information and therefore took all the binders out of the box. And happy, happy me, when I discovered that the bottom five binders were actually Taiwan photo albums number 4 - 8, representing October '02 - April '06!!! I guess it would be wise to re-check a few boxes to find the last missing album, of my six months in Colorado, USA, back in 1992. So, thanks again for the crossed fingers; you can un-cross them now :-)

Another month went by ...

Well, almost another month; time flies when you're having fun. Time also flies when you're busy :-) Even without a job, I don't have much 'spare' time. I spend a lot of time putting things in the proper places, moving them from one room to the next to yet another place. I have to admit that I also spend about half an hour every day exercising, mostly roller blading these days, sometimes bicycling. Wardrobes in the guest room are in place (and full already) and I've started moving boxes to the attic. Fortunately, I finally had some inspiration as to how to decorate some of the rooms, so we can start painting and buying curtains etc. The living room is still a question mark with regard to decorating, but I cannot really make any decisions about that until the dining room furniture has arrived and the kitchen is finished! Indeed, the kitchen is STILL NOT FINISHED! That's all I'm going to say about that topic here, otherwise my blog may be shut down due to improper language ....
The raw materials

Under construction

Pieter, has been busy as well; he is putting a shed/garage/cabin in our backyard, all by himself. Even though it's kind of a LEGO construction package cabin, it's still a lot of hard work, mainly because many of the planks are bent or rotated. I'm very proud of my hubbie! I'm also very happy, because one of the main reasons for building the cabin, is for my motorcycle! After seven years, my Honda XLV600 Transalp is finally coming home! In what condition, I don't know, because it's been 'in storage' for the whole period. Next week, my brother-in-law is bringing the bike to Veldhoven, where a local dealer will get it up and running. If all goes well, I should be able to ride it again in two weeks time.

Still under construction

Emma and Janne have resumed their swimming class. They're both making nice progress and even got their first dolphin part two weeks ago. Each dolphin part represents a certain skill, e.g. swimming with their head under/in the water or swimming without arm floats. When they earned all the dolphin parts, they will start practicing for their first certificate. It's really a nice way to keep the kids motivated and Emma and Janne try very hard to earn their second dolphin part. I hope they will have their A certificate by summer next year.
Dolphin part 1: the eye

Trampoline!

Yesterday, I bought a trampoline on Marktplaats.nl (Dutch version of eBay) and today we put it in the back yard. As you can imagine, Emma and Janne love their 'move gift'.
Jumping for joy!

Oops ...

We've unpacked all moving boxes. Which is good. What's not so good is that we are missing some items. And of all the things that could have gotten lost, this is definitely one of the worst: photo albums. After going through all the boxes, even the ones which go into storage, I'm still missing at least 5 photo albums from our time in Taiwan!!!! Although we still have all the digital files of the pictures, it would be virtually impossible to redo the albums, because I simply don't remember everything anymore. That's exactly why I spent so much time making those albums right there and then. Please keep your fingers crossed that we'll find the albums, either in some forgotten box here or at Crown's warehouse is Taipei or Rotterdam!!!!

In the meantime, I did find my photo storage device. I'll try to find some time later today to post some pics.

Making good progress

Over two weeks ago, I promised some pictures of the move, but alas ... I misplaced my photo storage device. As the connection cable for my camera has not resurfaced from the boxes yet either, I'm currently unable to post pictures. So, you'll have to believe my word that we're making good progress unpacking boxes. The guest room still looks like a storage facility, but in all the other rooms, most boxes are gone, even in the garage. And once we start moving boxes to the attic, the guest room will also look more presentable.

Last week, both the Erard and the Yamaha piano arrived. Pieter is thrilled to have his two other sweethearts back and we are happy to have music back in our house :-) We also have grass in our back yard now, instead of a huge sandbox and as of today, Emma and Janne are allowed to play on it. I am trying to buy a trampoline via marktplaats.nl, Holland's most popular second hand sales website.
9 am: yard without ...
6 pm: yard with grass!

During the last week of summer vacation, Emma and I participated in the Jeugd Wandel Driedaagse. This is a three day event, during which kids aged from 5 to 12 walk 5 or 10 km per day. We registered as members of one of the school's groups, because I thought it would be a great way to get to know some kids and parents from school. I also hoped it might kindle some interest in Emma for walking/hiking. I'm very glad I did, because Emma had a great time. Not to say that she didn't complain about the distance or the heat or her tired legs, but all in all she did very well. On the third day, she didn't complain at all and she absolutely loved the marching band, which accompanied us during the last kilometer, the cheering people along the route and the flowers she got from dad. We are all so very proud of her!!
Walking the walk
Group picture

Emma and Janne both (!) started school a week ago, so their lives are 'back to normal' as well. Emma was very excited to go to group three and proudly informed us that she can now write the letters 'i' and 'm' in handwriting font. She did say she missed all the art time they had in Kindergarten though. Hopefully we can make up for that at home for the next couple of weeks, until she's used to the new regime. Janne was looking forward to going to group one of the basisschool and I think it met her expectations. She was totally shattered by the end of the week though, so she'll also need a few weeks to get used to this new experience and the new schedule. Now that we live at less than 10 minutes walking distance from school, the morning and lunch routine are a little bit more relaxed than before, when I had to cycle 15 minutes to get Emma to school.

That's about it for now. It's seven am and our day has started. Emma and Janne went to bed a little late last night, so it's be a difficult start of the week :-)