Klimbim

Today, we went to an old, but new for us, playground. On Friday, Emma and Janne have the afternoon off and as the weather was unexpectedly nice, we cycled to Waalre (5 km) and went to De Klimbim. It turned out to be a big playground, in the middle of the woods. Very, very nice and an enjoyable afternoon.
Rope bridge

Family swing

Flip the school bear is spending the weekend at our place and he and Eeyore got to ride in Janne's bicycle bags to the playground

Fun on Monday

This Monday (Pentecost Monday, if such a thing exists in the Anglo American world ...) we did what a lot of Dutch people do on that day; we went on a family outing. From the many options we had, we chose to visit a nearby farm, which opened its doors to the public. It was a fun way for the girls to get to know more about a cow farm, even if it was sponsored heavily by Campina, a major Dutch dairy company.
Playing farmer
Not flying cows, as in Taiwan, but jumping cows
A one day old calf

Later that day, we joined the festivities in our neighborhood, to the occasion of the opening of the new bandstand. Again, lots of fun for the kids and a great day!
Making their own paper
Baking bread-on-a-stick; actually pretty tasty!

Oma up-date: Oma stayed in the hospital for a week, after which she moved to a home for the elderly to recover further. She has had visitors pretty much every day and she's doing fine. Her plan is to go home this week.

Mother's Day

To the occasion of Mother's Day, I received breakfast in bed and two beautiful hand-made gifts from Emma and Janne. As I always post pics of Pieter in bed on Father's Day, it's no more than fair, that I also post my pic. So here you are :-)

Antwerp Zoo

This week, me and the girls spent a few days at oma's.
The girls enjoying breakfast at oma's

Oma treated us to a trip to the Antwerp Zoo. The Antwerp Zoo was founded in 1834 and is one of the oldest zoo's in the world. In 1983, the zoo became a national monument, thanks to its beautiful old buildings.
Zoo entrance
To the occasion of baby elephant Kai-Mook's first birthay, there is a very pretty decorated elephant exhibition in the Antwerp Zoo

When I was little, we only lived 25 km from Antwerp, so we visited the zoo regularly. Back then, the zoo was rather old (fashioned) and not exactly known for it's animal friendly living quarters. But as a child, one doesn't really see that. Fortunately, the zoo has invested quite a bit into improving the facilities for the animals (and for the visitors) and although it's still a very small park, it's a lot nicer to visit now. Its small size is mainly due to the fact that the park is located in the centre of the city of Antwerp, next to the central train station. Which does make it very convenient to go to the zoo by train.
Antwerp Central Station is not nearly as big as Grand Central Station in NY city, but it's still a beautiful old building

On a less happy note: oma is in the hospital. She fell in the dressing room of the swimming pool and broke three ribs. At the age of 79, that's a rather serious injury, so she'll be in the hospital for 'at least a couple of days'. We all hope that her good health and strong constitution will help her recover quickly back to her own independent self.

Brussels

Today, we visited Taiwan friends Thomas and Florence in Brussels. Florence cooked us a wonderful lunch and the best Brussels' waffles for dinner. We took the kids (and Boelie) to one of Brussels' many parks and we had a great day. Even though we only see each other twice or so a year, it always feels like yesterday that we talked for the last time. What a joy to have friends like that :-)
Four monkeys in a tree