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