Sinterklaas visiting Voorwaarts

All waiting for Sinterklaas to arrive

Today, Sinterklaas visited Emma's gymnastics club 'Voorwaarts'. All groups had practiced a routine, which they performed for Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten. There was lots of singing, lots of pepernoten (gingerbread nuts) and lots of mischievous acts by the Zwarte Pieten. All in all, the kids had fun!

Zwarte Pieten acting silly

A hand-stand for Sinterklaas

Wish list

With Sinterklaas back in town, it's time to make wish lists. So, I let Emma and Janne cut out pictures of toys from the toy store magazine to make their wish list. Tonight, Janne very proudly showed me that she made an additional wish list, to put in her shoe for Sinterklaas. I think she did a great job and I hope that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet have brushed up on their Kindergarten-language skills ...

It even took me a few seconds to figure it out:
K3 mamaSé (K3 MamaSé)
K3 spiegolte aan ewant (K3 Spiegeltje aan de wand)
K3 bij de poliesie (K3 Bij de politie)
K3 CD de nieuw (K3 CD de nieuwe)

As I said, I think she did a great job :-)

Over the line - part 2

Yesterday, Janne also received her 'over the line' certificate from her swim instructor. She is ever so proud that she is now also swimming in the deep end of the pool, like her big sister.

Stray dog

A stray dog followed our neighbours' daughter home and I ended up taking care of it. Well, for about an hour or so. That's how long it took me to find a place I could bring it to. I called several animal rescue services, but got answering machine with all of them. Finally, I called the local vet. She said I could bring the dog over and they would take care of her. Fortunately, the dog was chipped, so the owners picked her up ten minutes later.

Looking a bit lost without her master

Actually, she was such a good, obedient dog, that I would have been okay to keep her! Maybe she could have taught Boelie some manners :-)

Art on Sunday

With Pieter watching another VVV Venlo soccer match (they won 5-0), Emma, Janne and me spend half the day on yet another art project. We used stencils for the outlines (thanks Florence!) and our creativity for the colors and decorations and are very proud of the result. Therefore, we'd like to share it with you :-)

What other theme for our art than princesses?

Windmill 't Nupke

Windmill 't Nupke, Geldrop, the Netherlands

What better place to visit with foreign (Belgium) friends than a windmill? In the little town of Geldrop, where we lived in before we moved to Taiwan, one can visit the still (part-time) functional windmill 't Nupke. On Saturday, it's open to the public and the two voluntary millers are there to give a tour and explanation about the mill.
Emma hoisting a 25 kg bag of grain

The inner mechanics of even this rather simple corn-mill are amazing; everything is handcrafted from wood and the huge mill stones weigh 1500 kg each. The miller explained that the Netherlands know the biggest variety of applications of windmills in the world. Not really surprising, is it?

All eyes and ears on the miller

Say cheese! Say what?

Sinterklaas is back in town

It't that time of the year again. On Saturday, Sinterklaas arrived in the Netherlands, together with a bunch of Zwarte Pieten and with a boat full of gifts. As we wonder how much longer, both Emma and Janne are still firm believers. It's the most exciting time of the year for kids and parents just love to play along. So, we're in for another round of 'schoenzetten' (putting out one's shoe, with hay or a carrot for Americo, Sinterklaas' horse) and singing Sinterklaas songs.
Sinterklaas kapoentje, gooi wat in mijn schoentje ...

Another piano

This past weekend Pieter and his brother drove to France, to their sister.
Ready to leave for France. (I know, I know, a convertible with a tow-bar ... )

They didn't just go there to visit, but to pick up the very first grand piano Pieter ever owned. He bought it when he was only sixteen years old and the last fifteen odd years, it had been staying at his sister's house. Now was the time to go and get it. So, they made the 1400 km (round)trip and brought home Pieter's first Grand. At least, what is left of it ... After standing in a half finished, leaking house for over ten years, the once grand piano didn't look as grand anymore. In fact, most of it had disappeared into the fireplace and Pieter and Gerben only had to bring back the iron frame.
One day, this will be an attractive piece of art! You gotta think big.

Plan is to turn it into a piece of art for our front yard. It's an idea we picked up during a vacation on Curacao, where one of the old mansions had a grand piano frame standing upright in its front yard. Local building laws prevent us from putting it upright, but we'll find an interesting way to put it up. Any ideas anyone?

Boelie again

Boelie is still growing and getting more active every day. She even seems to be shedding her nest hairs already. Apart from an accident every now and then, she's house trained. We're looking forward to start puppy training with her, because she really is a handful. Maybe we didn't know exactly what we were getting into when we bought a (mix) border collie? She learns new commands pretty quickly, but she's very persistent when it comes to her bad habits. The good thing is that everybody we ask says that's common in border collies, we just need patience, patience, patience and then some more patience. Which is sometimes hard, especially when she has her teeth in my new pair of jeans ... But, when she's behaving, she is the cutest and prettiest dog around! And we will learn how to be good doggie masters yet :-)

Me? Bad habbits? You must be talking about another dog!

Smile!

Every so many months, it's photo-time. Because mom likes to take pictures, but also to provide oma with an up-to-date photograph of her youngest grandchildren. Every time I try this, my respect for successful kids-photographers goes up a notch.
Testing 1

Testing 2

Testing 3 (out of thirty ... )

Girls' night out ...

November 10th was my birthday. And it also happened to be the day that a world famous theater act came to Veldhoven. That could not be a coincidence, I figured. So, I invited my sister to come along and we went to see ... The Chippendales. A tattoo for my 40th birthday, now the Chippendales. What got into her, I can hear you think! Anyhow, we had fun :-)

They do look better from a distance than up close. Still, great bodies!

More swimming

Emma and Janne are doing fine in their new swim class. Emma received her 'over the line' certificate last week, which means she is now practicing in the deep end of the pool. Janne made nice progress as well, but she still needs to work on her coordination (and concentration) in general. Most important is that they still enjoy swimming and that they love to go to swim class.

Janne practicing swimming on her back

Janne's instructor with his class

Getting ready to jump in at the deep end

Emma in the deep end, swimming back stroke

Swimming and K3

Saturday was a very busy day. Not only did I had to go buy groceries and did Emma go to gymnastics, but I also had a swimming competition and we went to a concert.

The swimming went well. I competed in four distances and swam two personal records.
* 4x50m freestyle relay - 2:35.85
3 secs faster than our registered time; OK
* 200m freestyle - 2:50.11 (PR)
5.1 secs faster than last time; very happy
* 100m individual medley - 1:27.59
first time swimming, not bad
* 50m freestyly - 33.79 (PR and 1st place out of 6)
1.5 secs faster than last time; very happy


The concert we went to was of ... K3. I realize nobody outside of Belgium and Holland has ever heard of them, but they are world famous here. Especially among kindergarten kids! So Emma, Janne, Oma and me went to one of their concerts. It lasted a total of 65 minutes, but those were a very exciting 65 minutes. The girls had been looking forward to the concert for over three weeks and fortunately, it more than met their expectations! Thanks to seven days of rehearsing during our trip to France, Emma and Janne know most of the lyrics by heart (as do I ...) and they sang along with their idols during most of the concert. Great fun to see them have such a wonderful time.