Happy Birthday Pieter!

Sunday, it was Pieter's birthday, so we had Michiel and Charlotte and their families over, as well as Pieter's sister Maartje. As Michiel didn't only bring the kids, but also their two dogs, we were quite happy that it was sunny and we could all sit outside. Boelie enjoyed all the attention, both from the canines and the humans.

Boelie socializing with Spats and Floem

Also joining the party was this mystery guest ...

Boelie!

After months of deliberation, the decision was made. Followed by immediate action; yesterday, we bought ... a dog!!! Her name is Boelie (Booly) and she's a Scottish Collie / Border Collie mix. She's 7 weeks now, a bit young to be away from her mom, but we are taking really good care of her. So we're back to busy nights, potty training and other baby and toddler related activities. Hopefully only for a few weeks :-)

Cute as a button, posing like a real pro

She seems to like my shoes ...

Piano lessons

School has started and so have the sports clubs and other lessons. New for Emma are the music classes. She attends AMV, which will teach her the basics of music (like reading music), and Pieter started teaching her playing the piano! She seems to enjoy both, so far.

Dutifully practicing for 10 minutes every day ...

Leontien's Ladies Ride

Pieter went to Venlo, to watch a soccer game (VVV - AJAX) and I went to Den Bosch with my sister, to join Leontien's Ladies Ride. It's a 70 km bycicly ride for women only from Den Bosch to Boekel and back and it is organized in name of Leontien Zijlaard - van Moorsel. Leontien is a Dutch cyclist, who won (among other victories) double gold and one silver medal at the Sydney Olympics and the Tour de France for Women. Through her Leontien's Ladies Ride, she wants to make other women aware of the benefits of cycling and a healthy way of living.

Some of the 9000 bikes at the start

Beautiful castle Heeswijk, along the route

Relaxing on a FatBoy, nice after 70 km on a rather hard bicycle sadle

Big sister, little sister

Today, Emma and Janne had the perfect big sister little sister moment, when Emma was reading to Janne from their latest Disney Book Club volume. It was so cute, I just had to take a picture!

.. and then Winnie the Pooh walked to Tigger's house ...

Digital photography

After making 23 analogue cut-and-paste photo albums in 7 years (see above picture), I too entered the digital era. Admitted, I did make a computer based album of 2008, so technically, that was my first. It doesn't really count though, because it was meant as a quick fix for me being behind with my album-making.

The one I made this time around is a 'real' album; of our Australia trip, last year February. Making the album 1,5 year after the fact, meant that I had to use travel books, atlases, our weblog and Pieter's much-better-than-mine memory to recollect all the locations and place names. For the album, I didn't use Apple's iPhoto, but the free software of MyPhotobook.nl. I chose this provider, because it is said to have the highest printing quality. Main advantage of the sw over Apple's, is its flexibility. It provides lay-outs and everything, but you can change those at will and even design your own formats. After two weeks of hard work, the album is finished. Now all I can do is wait for the result ...

Family photo

In case you hadn't noticed yet; I love taking pictures. Most of the time, my pics turn out pretty good, sometimes even great. The photographs I took during the Wandel 3-daagse for example, were applauded by everybody. 'You missed your calling', was the comment I liked most :-) And maybe I did ... The only disadvantage of having photography as a hobby, is that I usually am not in any picture myself.

But, yesterday Emma came home with a note, saying that she had to bring a family picture to school, for some writing exercise. So I, being the photo-crazy me, dragged the whole family outside to take a group shot for Emma to take to school. Tri-pod out, camera in automatic mode, dad and girls on the trampo and 'click-run-sit-smile!'. Although it's not 100% in focus (the plants in the background are ...), still a pretty nice family portrait, don't you think? And in under five minutes!

Slightly out of focus, still looking good :-)

Jeugdwandel 3-daagse (part 2)

Yesterday was the third and last day of the Jeugdwandel 3-daagse. It was a great day for walking; the sun was finally out. Saturday is always the most fun, because the Veldhoven marching band joins the kids during the last kilometer of the walk and the local dahlia club presents each kid with a nice bouquet of flowers. Therefore, this last km is always very festive, especially because lots of family members line the roads. And, to top it all of, Emma and Janne's group won the second prize!

Happy Team

Dahlias waiting to be handed to the kids

One more kilometer


Second place!

Little Sunshines

During the six weeks of summer vacation, we did quite a bit of handicrafting (I have no clue what the proper translation of 'knutselen' is, any ideas?). Emma loves to do that and Janne mainly likes it because we do it together. The latest project was a photo frame, made from clothes-pegs. To say so myself, it turned out pretty nice, one of the better projects :-)

Our two little sunshines!

Jeugdwandel 3-daagse

As Janne is 5 years of age now, she can also participate in the Jeugdwandel 3-daagse. Today was the first day and it went fine. It rained quite seriously when they started, but they were able to take of their raincoats soon. During the remainder of the 5 km walk it was windy but dry. Last year, I accompanied Emma on each day, this year I thought I'd let them try it by themselves. They did great! They said they were tired, but that only lasted until we got home ...

All ready to go!

The team, with a (temporarily) handicapped captain

It rained in the beginning

On route, raincoats are off already

Dierenrijk

This being the last week of summer vacation for Emma and Janne, we went on one last day-trip. To Dierenrijk (Animal Kingdom), in Nuenen. Although its name indicates that it's a zoo, its main attraction lies in the combination of zoo and playgrounds. There's not just one playgrounds, but there are several playgrounds throughout the park, all more or less in theme with the neighboring animals. What was nice about this visit (don't know if that's always the case), is that the animals were quite active. Two polar bears were playing in the water, otters were running around, raccoons were out on a stroll and elephants were taking sand baths. So, despite the uncooperative weather (it rained most of the afternoon), we still had a nice day. We'll definitely go back for another visit on a drier day.

Attentive otters; we couldn't figure out what they were looking at

Taking a soothing sand bath

Our own two little monkeys

And even a picture of me