Cloggies Blog!

Feest op school… Campi Domi 2011

2011-06-22T10:09:00.001+02:00

Onze school heeft ieder jaar vlak voor de zomervakantie feest… Campi Domi is de traditionele afsluiter van het jaar. Nu moeten ze nog wel anderhalve week maar vandaag was dus de dag. Voor Milan begon het met een optreden en daarna gaan ze naar de Bouwspeeltuin in de wijk. Het optreden is voor ouders en een aantal klassen:

Kids blijven mij verbazen… hij wil NOOIT dansen maar blijkbaar krijgt de juf het hier toch voor elkaar!! Straks naar het optreden van de oudste met een zelfgemaakt lied dat de klas gaat zingen. Hij deed het vanmorgen voor en toen hield ik het al niet droog…zal nog wat worden straks !!

Het jaarplaatje 2011...

2011-04-13T11:24:00.000+02:00

Altijd weer leuk, nieuwe schoolfoto's .... ze hebben weer hun best gedaan (alleen zijn ze nog altijd anti-gel! :P

Hiep hiep hoera Milan 7 jaar

2011-02-05T17:51:00.001+01:00

Vandaag hebben we een jarige in ons huis… onze baby is vandaag alweer 7 jaar geworden! Het is zaterdag en het grote feest hebben we vorige week al gevierd en zijn kinderfeestje doen we volgende week! Maar het blijft toch een speciale dag en ook op zwemles maken we er een feestje van. In de ochtend maken we een kleine ‘traktatie’… kleine gekke badeendjes (dat past toch prima bij zwemles):

Ze hebben ook heel mooi voor hem gezongen:

Milan B-zwemles op 050211

Tja en dan is nu natuurlijk weer de eerste verzamelwoede van 2011… Terwijl de jongste zich stort op de Troetels van de Plus (onze lokale buurtsuper) moeten we voor Mauro toch iets verder omrijden voor de voetbalplaatjes van AH… Hij heeft ook zijn eigen plaatjes gemaakt, ik vind wel dat hij nog wel wat ingevallen wangetjes heeft haha! Maar het gaat prima met hem hoor, die wangetjes zijn een beetje de schuld van meneer Heijn!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T12:19:00.001+01:00

We didn’t send a lot of Christmas Cards this year but we wish all our friends a:

2010 Winter Wonderland

2010-12-22T09:59:00.001+01:00

We started of the year with cold and a lot of snow and it ends with snow as well! I love snow when I am in Austria, with a lot of sunshine included But usually snow in Holland is not as nice, taking the kids to school… driving to work, run errands… you know what I mean. But this week we had snow and a bit of sunshine so I had to get out my camera and get some pics!

Happy Holidays!

Winter Wonderland 2010

Diavoorstelling weergeven

Alles downloaden

Day at the Children's Hospital

2010-10-01T22:21:00.001+02:00

30092010013.jpg
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Yesterday our big buy had to go into hospital for surgery...just for the day, if all would go well he would just have to stay for the day... This hospital is for children and I can go on about the great service and facilities for kids which make 'life' so much easier... For instance a TV with computer games and ice cream about 5 minutes after they wake up after surgery! All did go well yesterday and even though it was an exhausting day (for all of us)... I was so proud of our little boy... definitely no hospital traumas here!

No recent photos

2010-09-08T21:08:00.001+02:00

Nope…. I have no recent photos… I need to pick up that Sony A550 again and go for a fall excursion!! Like I did in 2008 with Petra (who just started this new blog about her ‘new’ life!).. We did some pretty nice Fall Photography last year so to get you in the mood I’ll show some once again:

When I look at these photos I forget the Fall-blues I felt today… but on the other hand it also brought good things… I took the crockpot out of the closet today and made Hungarian goulash… I have to use the crockpot more often than I do now…it’s soooo easy for a working mom (and dad!).

Today was my day off from work so I had some time to work on a new blog in the morning. I had already posted a first blogpost a little while ago but it needed a little boost… so here it is: Our Florida 2011 Blog! I still need a blog header but my PC had died and that’s the computer where my PaintShop Pro is on… not on the laptop. So I can’t make a blog header right now. Oh well…

The boys came home from school at 12.15 and it was still pouring rain (Andy came home later and told us it had been quite a nice day in Amsterdam…well yuk.. no need to know this… ) so I made the boys pancakes for lunch and after that they watched some School TV (Rekenen met Raaf) on the laptop. Milan just started group 3 (where they start to write and read and he loves to work with numbers!) so he’s really into the serious school stuff now! After that I took Mauro to his Musical Class (at FanWork), 2nd week and he seems to enjoy it! When I had dropped him of Milan and I ran some errands at the Hamsterweken @ AH… they had a lot of 2 for the price of 1 products so we stocked up!

Well… I am going to hunt villas again… I am looking for a good offer (like we had last year for Terra Verde, it will be hard to beat that villa…for location, price and size!!)… we’ll see!

Not a bad blogger....

2010-08-03T14:39:00.000+02:00

No, I haven't been a bad blogger.... just this blog has been neglected for a while!! It's time to update! We have had a wonderful summertrip around Europe for almost 3 weeks. For a change there hasn't been a special travelblog about this roadtrip but of course there were lots of photos. You can have a look at the pics here (more pictures will be uploaded soon). We started of on July 10, a day earlier than expected. The week before our trip our Dutch soccer team got to the finals of WC2010 so we had to make sure we would arrive in Italy on time for the match!

So we booked a hotel in France (near Freiburg, Germany). It was in front of a Carrefour and a small shoppingcentre so we had a good start of our holiday. The next day we had another 400 km drive, mainly through Switzerland to the Lago Maggiore in Italy.

We arrived around 2.00 pm and our mobile home was ready. We had a mobile home in the perfect spot, across the small street from the supermarket, gelateria, restaurant and pool @ camping Isolino. We enjoyed our time here mainy relaxing at the lake and the pool but we also visited Stresa and Mergozzo. Two great weeks here, for sure we would like to come back to this area! After 2 weeks we drove over the Simplon Pass (very cold, 6 degrees celsius!) and saw the everlasting snow! The first part was a bit of sentimental journey for me since I hadn't been in Switzerland for over 20 years and we passed the town of Susten where I have been working for Eurocamp (on a campsite) when I was only 21! Very good memories of that time so it was great to get a glimpse of the area and recognize the large satellite dishes on the mountains!

In the evening we arrived at Hotel Cheyenne in Disneyland Paris! We stayed here for 3 nights and enjoyed 3 full days at Disney. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood, Annette's and of course McDonalds :) ... Wednesday we changed hotel to the Vienna Magic Circus Hotel.... Now we know we never want to go back to a real Disney hotel again! We just loved the circus theme, the pool and especially the breakfast!

Thursday we took the train to Paris Centre! We stopped at the Eiffel Tower first and then took the Batobus to Notre Dame and the Louvre. We stumbled upon a fair at Les Tuileries and walked in the direction of the Champs Elysees but our little Milan thought that that was a bit too far for him so we took the metro for 2 stops and got of at the Champs Elysees. We finished our day with a quick meal (guess where...yellow arches again :) ) and headed back for Magic Circus on the train. Friday we had breakfast again, went to Auchan to get some last French favorites from the supermarket (pistache desserts) and lunch (to be eaten on the road)... We had to drive another 4,5 hours but with stops it was almost 6 hrs before we got home!

3 great weeks driving through Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium!

Nederland in het WK!

2010-06-14T13:50:00.001+02:00

Vandaag Nederland-Denemarken en zelfs de kleuters zijn enthousiast… de laatste kleuterweken van Milan zitten zo toch nog ‘vol’ met speciale momenten:

koninginnedag 2010

2010-05-03T03:30:00.001+02:00

koninginnedag 2010
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

spulletjes verkopen op de vrijmarkt

Zonnig dagje Drievliet

2010-04-18T21:35:00.001+02:00

DSC00032
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Het was vandaag Kids for Animals Fundag en omdat onze jongens daar lid van zijn mochten ze gratis Drievliet in.... Papa en mama op een 2 voor 1 kaartje van de Etos en we hadden een heel voordelig uitje vandaag! Met een heerlijk zonnetje en 18 graden was het een superleuk dagje!!

New York, Antilles, Orlando

2010-03-31T10:26:00.001+02:00

I will travel a lot of miles these first months of 2010…. In February we spent a long weekend (well 5 days) in New York because we found tickets for such a good rate… When I had just booked it I was asked to come to the Antilles again for my job to promote our training there so 3 weeks after NYC I crossed the ocean again to Curacao and later that week also to St. Martin where I spent 3 days. It was a great trip… a lot of work but also a lot of fun, my friend Petrina came over from Aruba for the weekend and I had a TourGuide Mike mini meeting with Thadine… my friend from Curacao. We had dinner together and spend the evening talking about Disney and lots of other things! Friday night I joined my co worker for the grand opening of Hotel Scharloo, a great momument that has been turned into a beautiful boutique hotel!

Willemstad, Curacao

Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn, even on Curacao!

University of the Dutch Caribbean (our sister-school)

Cruise ships @ St. Martin

Dinner with Thadine

Home again!!

Sunday morning the plane got back into Schiphol 45 mins early, but the boys were already there waiting for me!

So last week it was back to ‘normal’….school/office etc…. Luckily we have more good stuff to look forward to, the weekend will be Easter weekend so we will go egg-hunting and visit some relatives. Milan is booked with parties these days because all his friends are turning 6 (or 7) in these months. And then there is of course the countdown to Disney! Tomorrow it will be exactly one more month until we leave for Florida, this time with grandparents! I had a bit of a shock when I was on Curacao because I got an e-mail that we could no longer use the villa we had rented (10 months before)…. I sent out some quotes, had some really nice offers from Florida Forum visitors but in the end I got a really great offer from England so we will be staying here :

(you can click the picture for more info on this villa).

I was so thrilled with this offer… that I booked the Wishes Dessert Party (Dessert while watching fireworks at Magic Kingdom) to celebrate!

That’s all for now, have a great day!!

Karen

Inspiratie….

2010-02-17T20:46:00.001+01:00

Oh no, I don’t have time for this! Haven’t been scrapping in ages and now that I want to finish a birthdaycard for some one else I get inspired and must scrap… when we are leaving for NYC in two days!!

Credits: Six

Milan 6 jaar

2010-02-07T21:37:00.001+01:00

DSC03608
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Bij een verjaardag hoort een traktatie... en bij een Mac-verjaardag dus ook zo'n soort traktatie.... papa had het bedacht en we hebben het met z'n viertjes in elkaar geknutseld...best leuk gelukt toch??

Musical night….

2010-01-22T13:19:00.001+01:00

Last night one of my friends had a co-workers party and they all could bring a partner, friend or relative and she asked me to come along… This time it was a musical night at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam and the musical was All Shook up, love me tender. The musical has Elvis Presley songs in it (translated into Dutch, I always find this difficult, love the originals more)…. The cast was great, performance was great… the storyline was not very interesting… here you can see the preview! All in all we had a fun night out!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T14:47:00.001+01:00

PC200928

2009-12-20T14:14:00.001+01:00

PC200928
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

December 17… Pre-white Christmas

2009-12-17T09:05:00.001+01:00

Today we woke up in this winter wonderland… A week to early for Christmas but the kids were sledding to school this morning! TToday is the day of the most and longest traffic jams in 2009 so I decided (and was able to) work from home, a lot more relaxed. The boys celebrate Christmas at school today. This morning they all go to church, later today they have Christmas dinner at school!

Here you can see how they go to school:

Onze pietjes...

2009-11-23T22:00:00.001+01:00

DSC03037
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Afgelopen zaterdag waren onze Pietjes ook bij de intocht!

Weekend no kids…

2009-11-22T20:23:00.001+01:00

This weekend we had tickets for the Ilse deLange in concert so the kids stayed over at their grandparents! Of course we first had to see the arrival of St. Nicholas in Cothen… he arrived here yesterday morning. When we woke up it rained… when we drove to the village of the grandparents it was still cloudy but by the time we had our coffee the sky had turned blue and it was a beautiful morning to see St. Nicholas! We walked passed the local mill to the main street, had a chat at the butcher and bakery and by then the time had come, the first signs of St. Nicholas to arrive were here… the musical parade, the zwarte pieten… and then St. Nich!

After the parade we headed for the Community center and saw the show where MegaPiet (as a variation of MegaMindy) showed up to solve all the small problems! Mauro and Milan were small ‘Zwarte Pieten’ themselves, like many other kids.

Volledig album bekijken

We had nice soup for lunch and then headed home…leaving the 2 kids there, they would go to the theatre later with Grandma to see a play about St. Nicholas.

First we headed to The Wall, the new Utrecht shopping area to buy our new Nespresso machine. I sold our Senseo Latte on Marktplaats because I wasn’t really fond on the coffee it made. We were ready to buy it at BCC because they always drop the price if you have proof of the lower price at a different store. But they didn’t have any left in stock so we moved up 3 stores to Saturn and bought our new Fire Engine Red coffee machine!! The improvement of our coffee is soooo good!! There’s even a milk steamer on the side for the Lattes and Cappuccinos’!

The guy who bought my Senseo Latte picked it up later in the afternoon and after a small dinner we headed for the Big Red Box, the nickname of our new theatre Vredenburg. We had tickets for the Ilse deLange concert. It was great but we had noticed that it looked as if she was in a hurry, did the repertoire but not really took the time to enjoy herself… this morning I saw on Twitter that she had another gig in Amsterdam later on… So our gig ended at 10.00 pm and we were home 20 mins later!!

Volledig album bekijken

Peter Paddestoel....

2009-11-11T09:55:00.001+01:00

DSC02811
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Moest ik gelijk aan denken.... (uit K3 show)...of is 't toch t huisje van Plop??

Heerlijke Herfst

2009-11-11T09:50:00.001+01:00

PA200414
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Heerlijk he, zo in het zonnetje... was in de herfstvakantie!

A letter from Bo the bear

2009-10-24T20:59:00.001+02:00

Yes we are back from our week in Belgium. To our surprise we had company during this trip… Bo is the class bear (mentioned on this blog before, probably about a year ago). The kids usually take the bear home in turns to take care of him. Since we were going to Belgium the teacher asked us if it would be ok if Bo joined us… of course…the more the merrier. I just wrote this for Bo’s schooldiary (sorry it is in Dutch):

Bo de Beer op vakantie!

Milan kwam afgelopen vrijdag niet alleen naar huis dus er moest nog een extra plekje vrijgemaakt worden in de auto! We gingen namelijk op vakantie naar de Hengelhoef en de auto zat al vol met spulletjes!! Gelukkig was er nog wel een plekje vrij voor Bo en zijn koffertje kon er ook nog wel bij dus we konden snel op weg. In de auto aten we lekker broodjes op zodat we snel op weg konden.

De Hengelhoef ligt in een ander land, in België. Na ongeveer 2 uurtjes in de auto waren we er, de opa en oma van Milan waren er ook al. We hadden twee stacaravans naast elkaar en Milan mocht af en toe ook in de caravan van oma logeren en Bo dus ook. Dit is Bo in de caravan:

Het was erg gezellig op de Hengelhoef en Milan en Bo hebben een hele leuke vakantie daar gehad. Bo ging niet met alles mee en bleef soms ook in de caravan. Dan bleef hij lekker slapen zodat hij ’s avonds nog naar de disco kon.

Milan heeft een heleboel dingen gedaan, hij ging midgetgolfen en daarbij heeft hij van papa gewonnen. Ook ging hij twee keer naar het grote zwembad en daar durft hij van alle glijbanen. Bo bleef lekker bij opa, daar wordt je tenminste niet nat!

Af en toe vonden Bo en Milan het ook leuk om samen een filmpje op DVD te kijken en zo lekker een beetje uit te rusten van alle activiteiten.

Op woensdag ging Milan naar Plopsa Indoor om te spelen. Bo bleef lekker opa gezelschap houden, die ging niet mee.

In Plopsa Indoor heb je allerlei leuke attracties, vooral de MegaMindy verkeerstuin vind Milan leuk maar ook de hoge glijbaan, de springende kikkers, de botsauto’s en de draaimolen. Het allerleukste was de show van Bumba, die wilde Milan zelfs wel twee keer zien.

De camping van de Hengelhoef ligt in een groot bos en daar zijn ook hertjes. Die kun je voeren met de eikeltjes uit het bos, die vinden ze net zo lekker als snoepjes. Voordat we naar de hertjes konden moesten we dus altijd eerst heel veel eikeltjes zoeken in het bos en daarna gingen de hertjes ze zo uit Milans hand eten.

Vrijdag was de vakantie alweer voorbij en gingen we weer terug naar huis.

Onderweg stopten we nog even in Roermond bij een heleboel winkels, een speeltuin en een McDonalds. Daar gingen we nog wat eten en daarna gingen we écht naar huis. Zaterdag thuis regende het de hele dag en zijn we lekker binnen gebleven en hebben we een show van Piet Piraat en het geheim van Lorre gekeken. Ook zaterdagavond kruipt Bo weer lekker gezellig bij Milan in z’n bedje alleen nu natuurlijk niet meer in de caravan. Zondag nog één dagje samen … en dan gaan Bo en Milan maandag weer samen terug naar school zodat de juf jullie de avonturen van Bo voor kan lezen. Bo vond het erg leuk om een keertje op vakantie te gaan en Milan vond het heel gezellig dat Bo er ook bij was!

Liefs van Bo en Milan.

Joseph en Roodkapje

2009-09-16T22:12:00.001+02:00

Het was superleuk afgelopen zondag… het culturele rondje Utrecht. Met een kind dat helemaal opgaat in alles wat met theater, toneel, circus (en goochelen) te maken heeft is het ook een inkoppertje natuurlijk. En dat terwijl hij tegelijkertijd ook een soort ‘theatervrees’ heeft want er waren jaren dat hij met een handdoek over z’n hoofd in Gert zijn pretpark naar Plop zat te kijken. Nu hij zeven is lijken deze tijden steeds meer achter ons en gaat hij er meer van genieten.

Dit was ‘mini’ van alles dus dat was mooi, een klein beetje Woezel&Pip, Roodkapje, Hans & Grietje en dan natuurlijk Joseph. Mama en oma waren er in april al geweest dus hij was er wel nieuwsgierig naar. Het leuke was dat het Beatrixtheater (we kregen een rondleiding van meneer de directeur himself) alles in een kinder(kleuren)jas had gegoten dus ook Joseph. Het kinderkoor was er en Joseph #3 (Matthijs) om 2 liedjes te zingen. Lang genoeg om de aandacht vast te houden… mam, ik zou eigenlijk de hele musical wel willen zien. Daar denken we nog even over na…

Woezel en Pip, wel jammer dat er geen ‘preview’ van hun show was!

Mattijs (Joseph III) en het kinderkoor.

En als je vijf bent ga je je soms ook vervelen en moet je je even uitleven!

Joseph!!

2009-09-13T22:17:00.001+02:00

123
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool

Today we visited the Beatrix Theater in town, it was open to the public and we had a look behind the scenes! Also there were parts of musicals and since I have already seen Joseph the musical I loved this!!

Over 3 years of blogging…

2009-08-19T15:21:00.001+02:00

Today I have the house all to myself… woohoo! There’s only half an hour left of it and don’t ask my why but I decided to write my blog in this last half hour. I looked back at the posts I wrote earlier and I realized I started this blog in April 2006! What I love about it most that it is really a timeline… how the boys have grown!! They both go back to school next week but I remember so well when I first took the oldest to school, after the summer in 2006! Now he’s going to 4th grade! And my little baby will start in 2nd grade next week!

These are 2 of my fav pictures of the summer of 2009… Last month we were on the island on Crete and both of the pictures were taken in the Star Beach waterpark. The boys love the waterpark (the kids part :) and it is not very far from where we usually stay… I say usually because that’s what it looks like now, it was already our 3rd stay in Malia (and my 4th)!

From next week everything will be back to ‘normal’ again… school, swimmingclasses, work… we will look forward to our next trips (Belgium and of course Florida!), to Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Year… We will not so much look forward to fall and wintertime! But every season has it’s charm so we will get there in the end!

Back from Greece… our new ‘baby’…

2009-08-09T20:38:00.001+02:00

Yes we are back in town…! We have had 11 wonderful days on the island of Crete, in Malia.

Even though we always preferred to travel to different places each year I visited this village for the 4th time! Ten years ago I first visited Malia in the fall with my friend Petrina, where we had a blast with the ex-Orange soccer players. We met them there because they had to play against the former Greek national team back then. Later when Mauro was just under one we returned to Malia and then last year when we also had a blog about our trip.

This year we didn’t have a lot planned for the summer… we already had our superb trip to Florida (blog here) and we already booked to go back to Floriday in May 2010. So we had no plans to spend a lot on an expensive vacation abroad but when we saw the offer on Lastminute and we still had the discount of the flight tax from our last trip… we booked Meropi again, just like last year! We left Schiphol Airport on July 23rd at 5.00 am sharp with the Transavia airplane. Here’s a photo impression of our trip!

Now we have been back almost a week and still had time off work and school but from tomorrow I will be back to work … the boys still have 2 weeks of their summer break left.

Speaking about work… my new ‘baby’ is here! I picked up our new (company) car last Friday morning and I LOVE it….

Although the QQ is quite common on the streets here, I rarely spotted the QQ+2 (7 seater)… It’s so comfortable to drive that I can’t wait to get some miles on these wheels!!

That’s all for now, have a great week!!

Karen

2009-07-19T17:10:00.001+02:00

Follow this blog

Birthday boy and guess what… new layout!

2009-07-06T21:01:00.002+02:00

We had lots of things to celebrate so that’s what we did most of June… PARTY! First of all the kids were really happy that their grandparents are camping again on the campsite half an hour driving from here… They love to spend the weekends there (mostly in turns to keep it ‘nice’). The weather has been quite good too but if not, the pool is where they spend most of their time anyway! And there’s the first ‘bridge’ to one of the things to celebrate…one day before our oldest turned 7 he got his “B-diploma”.

This is the second swimming certificate. There is a C too but perhaps he will get that later, we don’t think he would be strong enough now.

And then there was his 7th birthday, we postponed all the parties for this because swimming exam and birthday don’t go well together … but last weekend it was party time. On Friday we took him and 5 of his friends from school and had lunch in our backyard. We had small cakes (tompouce ) and he unwrapped all the gifts.

Then we went to the bowling center to do some real Jungle Bowling! I was amazed by some of the talent :)

On Saturday we had the big family party for his birthday and we celebrated again with family and friends in our backyard, the weather has been beautiful so around 5.00 pm we got the BBQ out and cooked dinner for everyone! The birthday boy himself was invited back to the campsite with his grandparents so we filled his bag again, of course with some of the favorite gifts and off he went! We picked him up on Sunday afternoon and he had been in the different pools (indoor and outdoor) almost all day with his little friends Gaby and Corrie.

And now the last week of school has begun! Only 3 more days of REAL school until a 6 week Summer Break! The boys will get their school reports tomorrow but they are both going to the next grade.

Finally… I did something today that I hadn’t done in months… tonight I scrapped!!! Here’s the result!

You can find the credits in the gallery at DST (image is clickable).

That’s all for now!

Karen

We did it again... Orlando here we come!

2009-06-18T10:21:00.002+02:00

It shouldn't remind me of this Britney Spears Song (Oops I did it again) but in a way it does... we did it again! We booked the flights to Orlando, this time with Martinair because they will be flying nonstop to Orlando next year again! To our surprise the grandparents will come along too!

So we will be in Orlando again from May 1 until May 15 next year and I am trying to find a good house for us... I have already made a shortlist of communities this house should be on (Bella Vida, Terra Verde, Windsor Hills or Windsor Palms). This time not a townhome but a 'real' villa with a 'real' pool and no splashpool. We would love to rent from Storytime again but it's a little (little?) over our budget to rent a villa from them... if not we would definitely rent from them again! Who wouldn't love this house:

Oh well, we will find something we like, it will be so great to be back!

Twitter

2009-06-02T20:27:00.001+02:00

I put my twitter updates on my blog… Not that I am an addictive Twitterer but I like the news on there every now and then and I wish more of my friends would be more active on Twitter. It would be fun to see what they are doing on an average day (is any day in life ‘average’?).

Anyway… I can’t believe we have been home for almost a month! Florida is still on my mind a lot and I can’t seem to shake off this Florida Virus. It doesn’t help me that I check the Florida-Forum on a very frequent (I would say daily but it is more than that) basis. I read the blogs of people who are there now (like Teleton, he’s a great writer, too bad for most of you it is in Dutch). I was VERY annoyed by the fact that his laptop was stolen (amongst other things) from the condo they were staying at in Florida. Things like this shouldn’t happen, especially NOT on a vacation. Anyway, I think you get the point, we want to go back next year (sooner, but that’s not in our cards)… and I am busy looking at villas and checking flights! Great thing is that the May break for the kids next year is longer so we will have more days, yeah!!

For now I just have to get back to the real life here, the bankholidays are now all over, Whitsunday was the last until Christmas! I have to focus on my oldest 7th birthday party (end of this month) and we got him this bike:

He knows he will get it (he’s really getting to small for it).

But you know what he would really like?? A chinese juggling plate!

Of course I will try to order it somewhere from the internet, these things are only a few bucks… Yesterday he practiced again at the local playground and he became pretty good at it…it’s so much fun to see him practice!

Then there is the kids party to be organized. My son wishes to go bowling so we will go to the bowling center with a couple of his friends. First we started with the tradition that he can pick as many friends as his new age is but I think it’s not going to work this time as our car isn’t big enough. Then today I heard we might have our new company car in time for the party! Our Nissan Qashqai+2 might be here at the end of this month! It’s a 7-seater!

Well this is all the news I have now… have a great day!

Karen

Is my blog still live?

2009-05-16T16:00:00.001+02:00

Or did blogger take it offline due to inactivity… LOL!!

We had a very busy month with our trip to Florida but this time it was very nice to be so busy…:) You can read (if you can read Dutch) all about our trip here, if you don’t master Dutch you can still take a look at the pictures! I will post a few here too so that you get an impression of our trip.

Discovery Cove

Animal Kingdom

Magic Kingdom

Hollywood Studios

Seaworld

and shopping and other stuff:

Anyway, I think you get the point… we had such a fantastic trip (and the boys were handling the 20 hour trip great as well)… we now have this Florida Virus… We want to come BACK! Hopefully next April!

All for now, we have been back in school and to work for a week/week and a half and next week we will have a few days off because of a holiday… :) :). We will go to the zoo next Saturday and hopefully the weather will get a bit warmer, we were sooo used to sunny Florida!

Have a great weekend!

Aftellen: 10 dagen nog en dan Florida!

2009-04-15T09:19:00.001+02:00

Jaaa!! Over 10 dagen vertrekken we naar Florida en zijn we heerlijk 10 dagen in de warmte. Nu hebben we hier vandaag niet te klagen natuurlijk (zeker niet voor april) maar toch he… daar is ‘t tóch ff anders!

Als voorproefje zijn we afgelopen maandag naar Oud Valkeveen geweest! Nee, natuurlijk niet te vergelijken met welk pretpark dan ook maar ik zocht gewoon even een bruggetje om jullie even de foto’s te laten zien, haha! Alle foto’s staan hier, en hier komt nog een kleine selectie:

Het was een heerlijke dag en het weer was natuurlijk ook prima, deze Paasdagen… kan me nog goed de sneeuw van vorig jaar herinneren (waaronder we de eieren verstopten):

2e paasdag, 2008

We gaan verder met aftellen, en onze voorbereidingen kun je zelf ook volgen: www.usinorlando2009.blogspot.com.

Fijne dag!

(Sorry for our English readers… forgot to write in English, lol… next post will be readable again ;)

Dip or Dap? Trip to Volendam.

2009-03-23T20:42:00.002+01:00

This is our new pet! Not sure whether it’s called Dip or Dap but it’s one of those names! Last Saturday I took our youngest to the theater nearby to see Dip and Dap at the Circus. You can read about Dip & Dap in English here. Anyway… it was a trip for me and my youngest and he had been excited about this for weeks!! So Saturday the day was finally there, he was over the moon when he saw these little stuffed animals at the theater and of course I could not resist buying him one! Today Dip had to come to school so that the teacher could hear the story too!

Then Sunday came and we went to Volendam. This is a village north from Amsterdam where a lot of tourists go when they visit The Netherlands. It is famous as a fisherman’s village but also a lot of Dutch singers/performers come from that village. When tourists come there they mainly visit the little shops and they make pictures in traditional Volendam costumes. Today we planned to get the second picture of the boys in costumes but the youngest refused! So there’s only one on the photo!

I took my own camera too and tried my new 28-300 lens:

Volledig album bekijken

That’s all for now!

Karen

Swimming certificate A

2009-03-15T20:37:00.006+01:00

Today was a day that was feared for by our little boy, he had to swim for his first swimming 'diploma' or certificate. He started over a year ago with swimming lessons and today was the 'exam'. Since a lot of children get nervous on such a day, it is not the real exam, they prove that they can swim during the lessons they take and two weeks ago they already 'passed' this exam. Which was a good thing because he didn't go to his last lesson on Wednesday because he had been sick.

We invited his grandparents over and it was very crowded on the 'tribune' of the pool because 45 children were doing this test today (and 200 over this one weekend, in this pool only!!).

In the end he was one happy boy! He didn't seem to have difficulties at all with all the different exercises and it was over before he knew it. He got flowers from his little brother, a basketball ring from his grandparents and tickets to the Efteling (a well known themepark here) from us. We got Chinese food later on and the grandparents stayed for dinner... I think our little boy is happy with his 'diploma A'! Now from Wednesday he's taking the next class, for the 'diploma B'!!

Jump in the water (wearing clothes) like a pencil"

"1 lap with clothes on"

"Floating like a starfish"

Waiting for the results

"Yes!!! Passed the tests!"
"Flowers"

Have a great week!

From Antwerp to Ambulance...

2009-03-13T11:12:00.002+01:00

It was one of those weeks!

St. Nicholas gave us vouchers for a hotel last December and grandma would babysit the kids that weekend so last weekend we finally went to the hotel! It was about an hour south of where we live and we were happy to finally spend some time together again and not to worry about the kids. Friday we went shopping in Eindhoven and had dinner at the casino, Saturday we went to Antwerp, Belgium and in the evening we had a surprise dinner at a very good restaurant De Helvoirtse Hoeve (offer from Restaurantweek).

Sunday morning I called my mom and she told me she picked up the oldest from school sick, high fever and headache... our youngest wasn't fit either but no fever (yet). We decided to pick them up a little earlier than planned.

Our poor boys' fever was really high (39.7 C) but when I wanted to get him ready to go home he didn't respond to me anymore! So we called the emergency post, they asked us some questions and within 5 mins there was an ambulance in front of mom's house! In the five minutes that it took to get there he got really angry because we wanted to give him paracetamol but at least we got a reaction from him. We talked with the ambulance ladies for a while but they saw no need to take him to the hospital so they left again and we went home.

The next morning our 6 year old woke up and asked if he could go to school! No way! Since it was only 2 days of school for him this week - Monday and Tuesday - he didn't go all week. On Wednesday we had to go to the hospital for something else, Thursday and Friday the school was closed. Today is Friday and the youngest is recovering now... also had high fever, stomach ache and for now his mouth aches most so he can't eat much... I decided to stay home with them today - so they don't have to go to daycare - Later this afternoon we will take a short trip to the library and run some errands, the weather looks really nice so it will be good to get a bit of fresh air!

Have a great weekend!

New layout!

2009-03-01T20:18:00.004+01:00

Hi!

No, it's not that I am on a roll with layouts but I did think it's time for a new layout of my blog! Hyves-readers cannot see it unless they take a look at my 'real' blog here. I still have to adjust some bits and pieces but all and all my blog is ready for Spring 2009!

Today we had a bit of a Spring feeling! First of all, it's March 1st! Second, the weather was quite good today, so good that the boys played outside for most of the day and so did their friends. I love it when they walk in and out and enjoy themselves on the playground just around the corner. I just hope this is the start of a good season!

I also bought some plants for the garden this weekend. I LOOOOVE some Spring colors in the garden and in the house! I have to take some pictures of the new colors! I buy them straight from the greenhouse where it looks like this:

I always enjoy taking one (or both) of the boys there because they really like picking the ones with the nicest flowers.

A busy week ahead of us with two teacher-parent meetings, one business meeting in the evening, swimming lesson (where Mauro will her if he can swim his 'exam' to get his diploma) and on Friday we will go to Brabant for the weekend and the kids will stay with their grandparents... Looking forward to that!!!

Have a great week!

No more layouts?

2009-02-26T10:40:00.004+01:00

I have been so bad at making layouts this year, it is almost March and the total number of layouts I made (drums.....) is ..... 1!!!

I do like this layout, the photo is from Carnival at school 2 weeks ago. My little boy was wearing this cute suit with a hat (and he wore it all day!).

What else has been happening here since there are no layouts. Not much really, my energy level just seems a bit low (as I usually have around this time of year, still winter but longing for Spring, just not enough hours of light I guess). Well, since I came back from Aruba we have been celebrating the 5th birthday of Milan on Feb.5th and a couple of days later we had this Carnival party at the school of our boys. Then they had Spring Break for a week but we both had to work so there weren't a lot of special events for them! Only last weekend we went to the lights parade in Cothen, where my mom lives... they really enjoyed watching that Carnivals Parade and it's extra special to see all the little lights! I will put the photos on my Flickr page soon!

Tuesdaynight we went to see a gig of two Dutch singers Nick & Simon, I had bought the tickets in an impulse and it was better than I expected. The only thing is that I felt soooo old, there were lots of kids and teenage girls to watch them too! You know when I felt old?? When they did More than Words and the Wham Medley!! I knew every word of the lyrics!

Here's a video I found on youtube from their tour:

And now this week they are back in school again and we are counting down the days until we go to Florida!! It's 58 days from today.

Of course I had to think about our flight when I saw the horrible news about the plane crash in Amsterdam yesterday but I know flying is the safest way of transportation so I don't want to worry about it too much.

Well, just one more day until the weekend, my mom turns 65 on Saturday but she doesn't have time to celebrate so we will in October when we go on a short break to Belgium!

Have a great weekend!

Disney countdown 2 months 2 weeks...

2009-02-11T11:16:00.001+01:00

One more night...party!

2009-02-04T10:15:00.006+01:00

Hi,

Only 1 more night on the count down calendar! I can't believe it has been 5 years since I gave birth to my youngest... It was quite a story and I often tell people around this time of year that he was born 1 hour later than he was supposed to be born! On Feb 3rd I heard that Milan would be born by a scheduled c-section on Thursday (Feb 5th). It feels a bit weird to know that your baby will be in your arms the day after tomorrow but well... it was how I wanted it (for good reasons).

Anyway we had to get to the hospital really early in the morning and I would be the first in to deliver the baby. So I was all ready for it (and far more nervous than I was for the (emergency) c-section I had 19 months earlier)! But there was no doctor to do the surgery! Turned out they had forgotten to give her the planning for that day and she was still at home and in bed!

Luckily the doctor on ward had time to deliver our baby but by that time it was an hour later than planned!

And can you believe this is my almost 5 year old now??

Almost time to say goodbye

2009-01-23T03:21:00.002+01:00

Almost time to say goodbye to Aruba! I had another wonderful week here where the days were filled with work and sun and the evenings with catching up with my friend and great meals... I think I know more restaurants here than in my own hometown by now!

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to catch up with one of my old friends Anco .

If everything went well for him he arrived on the island tonight. Tomorrow I have to pack, return the car, have to work a little bit more, check in my luggage at the airport, meet my friends Petrina and Eric again , have a last meal (probably at the Dutch Pancakehouse) and then off to the airport again
to catch the plane back to Amsterdam to see all the (3) men in my life again :).

I think I can see the week was very useful but I also enjoyed every minute, have had enough light therapy for at least a month (and hopefully to get me through the rest of the winter), lol....

Have a great evening!

Karen

It's raining on Aruba!

2009-01-19T22:13:00.002+01:00

It is raining now so I have a moment to update my blog! It is the first rain since I got here Friday night so it isn't too bad right? And 29 degrees Celsius is totally opposite from what I see on CNN (when I am watching news about Obama) or what I saw on Emily's 365 blog

Today I worked to get the presentation ready for Wednesday, I want to finish off a program for ourselves too but I will have time to do that tomorrow.

Last night I had dinner at my friend's place, at Sero Biento.

If you have plans or dreams to go to Aruba, they have such a dream place and so affordable. Eric now even put a jacuzzi in the garden (of course also for the guests to use), the small swimmingpool was already there. I forgot to take photos of the jacuzzi but I am sure he will put some up on their website soon!

Other than the little bit of rain everything is fine here. I love having my own car now that I am not staying in Oranjestad but at Eagle Beach. I have a good hotel and the food is excellent here (we tried that on Saturday)... since I did not run any errands today (like I did at Ling & Sons yesterday, I might eat at Mango's again tonight!

Have a great evening!!

Off to work.... 29 degrees.... Celsius, that is!

2009-01-16T09:28:00.001+01:00

Yes, off to work in half an hour...to the airport.... off to Aruba via St. Maarten. I wanted to give you a few pictures of my last trip but Blogger is acting up so unfortunately you have to do without. I do hope I will have access to the internet to update my 365 blog !!

It worked!! Hope you have a great week!

Ice & Farewell CTs

2009-01-13T10:17:00.002+01:00

Hi,

Just 3 more days until I leave for a businesstrip to Aruba. I started the New Year with a major decision for me... I quit my CTs! I had two left, Melissa Bennett's and Sherry Ferguson's and although it hurt me, I just couldn't justify being member of the CT with so little time to scrap! I hope it will change some day so that I can make more time for CT obligations but for now, IF I can scrap I want to do it for ME! This year (2009) I haven't made one layout yet! But it doesn't mean I will give up on digital scrapbooking, no way! I still have the Hyves group, will publish on my blog and perhaps in the future I will find other great designers to CT for!

Back to here and now... the past weeks it has been very cold here and for the first time our kids have been on the ice to sled and skate! We live in an area with lots of water and this all turned into great places to ice skate. I regretted a lot that I didn't buy skates for myself in Austria at Hofer
where I saw ice skates for only 19,99 euros!

Anyway the kids spent a lot of time on the ice last week. Thursday the school took them to a little lake nearby and during the weekend we took them as well. Here are a few pics:

Click here for more photos and movies!

Have a great day!

Austria to Aruba

2009-01-07T19:32:00.004+01:00

Yes... there must be about 40 degrees Celsius difference between Austria and Aruba and I am in the middle of travelling between them... Last Saturday we got back (with a lot of traffic jams) from the Ponyhof... I would recommend it to anyone, great location, great food etc.... I just hope the owner will be a little bit more friendly to the Dutch guests :). You will be able to read a full trip report soon, I haven't finished uploading all the days yet, nor the photos! Just a couple of pics now:

I started working again on Monday and also school started again for the boys. There is a lot of cold here in Holland too (just like in Austria) and today I even took the boys to school on the sled! Tomorrow morning the school is organizing an ice skating activity for all groups so I am curious if they will like it on the ice!

And Friday next week I will probably be on the plane to Aruba again for business... where it is 29 degrees celsius!

That's all for now...

Merry Christmas.... 2 days until Austria!

2008-12-24T20:21:00.004+01:00

Merry Christmas!!

I hope all of you who read my blog have happy holidays!! Here are 2 x-mas layouts from me!

And then there is time for snow!! Lots of snow! This photo was taken 2 years ago... but only 2 days from now we will be driving to Austria again to go skiing, enjoy the snow, the Glühwein etc... You will be able to read our update (hopefully we can connect to wifi in the hotel) here on my Fusch blog
So I will leave it at this because I am going to watch all you need is love now.... the christmas special :)... Have a great Christmas!

10 days until Christmas... a year in review!

2008-12-16T11:54:00.002+01:00

Only two weeks to go and 2008 comes to an end... it was a good year for me (and for the family). We had the opportunity to travel a lot. After our trip to Cochem in december 2007, we spent a weekend in Weerterbergen, another weekend in the Ardennes in Belgium in June and for summerbreak we spend 12 days on Crete, Greece. In October it was time for our trip to Disneyland Paris

And then... I had to travel for work... so at the end of October/beginning of November I travelled to Aruba and Curacao! That was so much fun, especially because I was able to visit my friend Petrina. In November I returned from this trip and the December celebrations started to take off! And now? Now it's just 10 days away from our ski holiday in Fusch, Austria!! And this was only 2008!! I will be back to Aruba in January, we have planned our trip to Florida with the family and we have also set a fall break trip to Belgium in October (because my mom turns 65 and we have to celebrate such things in life, right?)

We have all been in good health (except for the strained muscle that Andy got from tabletennis in Crete) and I hope we will continue like this in 2009!

Have a great last 2 weeks... enjoy Christmas and have a fantastic 2009!

Snow and Christmasmarket

2008-12-09T20:05:00.004+01:00

Hi!

I took the day off work today and went shopping with my mom! We headed for Germany, a town called Bocholt, near the Dutch border. I checked on the internet if there would be a Christmas market and there was!
So I dropped the boys off at school (where all the teachers were welcoming the kids singing Christmas Carols) and picked up my mom. A little over an hour later we arrived at the parking lot behind the Arkaden, a new shopping mall in the center of the town.

First things first so we headed for the bakery to get coffee and cake! We shared apple cake and Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Black forest Cherry Cake), we couldn't chose so we had half of each!

By the time we finished the coffee (and the cake!) it started to snow!

We did some good shopping for shoes, scarf and hat for one of the boys, some toiletries for our ski vacation (in 2,5 weeks) etc... Did you know that I will post a trip report about our ski vacation here? Anyway...after the shopping we had lunch, shopped some more and then headed back to our own little country! Back home I picked up the boys, made dinner and decorated the Christmas tree! Will post pics of the tree later this week!

This week I did one layout with a new kit by Melissa Bennett... I really like the elements in this kit!!

And this is the layout I made with it:

Image is linked for credits

Two more days at work and Friday off again because the youngest has a day off school on Friday... and then only one more week until 2 weeks Christmasbreak!!!

Have a good day!

Karen

Just 2 new layouts...

2008-12-03T14:06:00.003+01:00

Hi,

I had a great evening last night because someone tracked me on the internet and I haven't seen him in about 15 years! Enric worked for a disco called Menfis where I spent a lot of time in the early '90s! I was working as a rep in Calella, Spain. I worked there for 3 summers but most years I also went there in May for a week to see my friends and party! Needless to say I have great memories of that time but I lost contact with most of my friends from that time (and one passed away a few years ago). So it was great to hear from someone from the old days again!

Then I also had a little time to scrap:

I have to take Mauro to swimming class now, something he really hates (because of the cold water) even though he is almost good enough for the final test. Today he has to practice with his clothes on in the water... he says he does not want to go so I have to make him.... wish me luck!

2008-11-29T21:03:00.003+01:00

Hi!

Everything normal again, everything settled... cold weather as usual and work as busy as usual, lol! My friend Petrina is now in Holland and even though I don't get to see her every day like on Aruba, we will see eachother again on Wednesday, I am looking forward to that!

Two weeks ago St. Nicholas arrived in Holland so our days are filled with st. Nicholas candies, arrivals, shoes near the chimney waiting to be filled with gifts etc. With 2 little boys in the house (who still believe in St. Nicholas and his helpers).... it's a fun time! Today we went to the town of Veenendaal to run some errands and of course we met some Zwarte Pieten in the streets with their bags full of candy. Even the youngest now knows exactly how to put his hands up so that Piet can fill it up! I have to make a picture of his little hands tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow St. Nicholas will come to Andy's company. Oh no, not in his office this time because this year it turned out too small for the amount of children all the people that work there have. This year they moved 'out' and St. Nicholas is now coming to a different location in Amsterdam. Every child gets a gift (paid for by the company) and we have the music (accordeon players) and coffee, lemonade, cookies and candy... Usually it's one of the highlights of the year for our kids (even when the now 17 year old was a lot younger!).

Last Saturday St. Nicholas arrived at the village where the grandparents live... here are some pictures....

The red balloon Mauro is holding was given to him by a Piet. The whole story this year at the Sinterklaasjournaal is about the red balloons and he was so proud to get one!! Unfortunately it got loose from the thread when we were watching the Sinterklaas show at the community center... he was SO sad!!

Ok and then it was also time to do a few layouts... I couldn't find all of my mojo yet but I started again and that's something! And I hope I will get inspired by all these great sales this Thanksgiving weekend!!

Images are clickable, this is also where the credits can be found!

So tomorrow will be a Sinterklaas Sunday here (instead of most of you celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend). We will have the traditional gift night next weekend...will post more about that next week!

Take care!

Bye bye Aruba… Disney photos online

2008-11-15T21:27:00.001+01:00

Finally, I have all our photos from Disneyland Resort Paris online… we stayed there for 3 days and 3 nights and I had 800+ photos!! I know …just a little too many! I tried to make a selection but still there are quite many, You can have a look at them here

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Disneyland Paris (algemeen). Make your own badge here.

I didn’t really have time to cool down from Disneyland, when I got back I heard that I would leave for Aruba and Curacao on Oct. 30th so only 2 weeks later! It was even faster than that, my ticket was booked only a week in advance!

From Thursday night until Sunday I stayed with Eric and Petrina on Sero Biento, you have already read about that in my previous post. Petrina used to be my friend and co-worker when I lived in The Hague in the early ‘90s. Last year, in October 2007 she moved to Aruba… and now I got the chance to see where she lives now!! I was really excited that I had the opportunity to combine the business trip with the fact that I could see her place!! Well, if you look for something affordable to stay at, Sero Biento is definitely worth looking at!

On Friday we had a drive around the island, to see the most important spots. We drove past the low rise and high rise (where most hotels are), the Aruban trademark California Lighthouse, coffee at the Paddock and lunch at Moomba’s. In the afternoon we headed back home and relaxed a little and I did some work on the computer… I was so thrilled to have the wireless internet on my EEE-pc, it worked fab!

On Saturday Petrina and I went into ‘town’, the town of Oranjestad and had a look at the stores there. We had lunch and headed back home again for some e-mail checking (it was a work trip after all), a little rest and getting ready for dinner!

Sunday afternoon we did a tour of the national park of Aruba. The road is bumpy but the scenery is fantastic! We toured a bit more of the island, had a stop at Baby Beach for a cheeseburger and a swim… I found this photo of Baby Beach on the internet:

Later that Sunday I moved to the ‘business hotel’. It was the Renaissance Resort and Casino where I had this great suite with seaview! The location was the most important, in the center of Oranjestad, where most of my business meetings were. Work started from the following morning, on Thursday I took and early flight with Insel Air. I booked the 7.15 flight but it wasn’t there so the flight was moved to 8.00 am. It only takes half an hour and there I was on Curacao!

I was very well taken care of by our partner college/company that day, we had a short drive to the office but in the mean time I got to see some of the highlights. When I get back there I will definitely try to see more! I spent the day at the University of the Dutch Carribbean. I flew back to Aruba around 5.00 pm and was back at the hotel around 6.00 pm.

My last night! Petrina and I went out for a meal at Casa Tua, it was quiet but the pasta was really good! After that we had a drink (yes the first cocktail of the week!) at the poolbar of the hotel. We chatted with a lady from Chicago (I was surprised she didn’t even once mention Obama).

Friday again, my day to travel home. Luckily I still had the whole day and Petrina had the day off work too. We had planned to do some last shopping (my favorite shop is Del Sol in the pink building) and go to the hotel’s private island. Ok, it's all fake but it’s beautiful :), here are some of my pics.

We stayed there for lunch and a swim, and then it was time for me to take my luggage to the airport. Easier to take it beforehand so I didn’t have to worry about it later. We dropped my luggage off, went back to Sero Biento to pick up Eric and tried to get a bite at Havana but the kitchen was already closed. We ended up at the Dutch Pancake House (yes, they tasted as good as in Holland!) at the Seaport Market. And then it was really time to say goodbye!

I had a good trip with KLM back to Amsterdam and was very happy to see all my (3) men at the airport. I tried to deny my jetlag and it worked quite ok.

The next day we all went to the Ouwehand Zoo where we were supposed to meet Petra and some other friends. We met all the other friends but apparently our route didn’t match with Petra’s because we ended up without meeting eachother… oh well, a next time!

A busy working week was ahead of my (again) but today is Saturday and one of the main events of the year in Holland was today… the arrival of St. Nicholas. We watched it on TV. Next week we will see the arrival of the good man in Cothen.

That was all for today, I hope you enjoyed the long story…. without any word about scrapbooking or layouts… I have plenty of pics but just no time! Hopefully time will change that soon too!

Dag 2 op the happy island

2008-11-02T16:52:00.002+01:00

Een rustige zaterdag! Heerlijk ontbijtje gekregen van Eric (roereitje met tomaat) en Petrina! Daarna hebben we even rustig rondgehangen om tegen de middag naar Oranjestad te gaan. Ik was gewaarschuwd dat het op zaterdag wel erg druk is in de stad dus ik zag wel wat voor me (Hoog Catharijne op zaterdagmiddag...) maar niets was minder waar. Het was juist rustig!!

We hebben wat rondgewandeld, een leuke foto gemaakt voor collega Dick,

en daarna geluncht bij
Iguana Joe.

Weer terug naar ons eigen complex Sero Biento waar ik nog even mijn werkmail check, en skype met Milan en Andy... Milan vind het maar raar volgens mij!
Hier onze huisdiertjes:

's Avonds gaan we eten bij Gasparito waar we lekker buiten zitten (muggen weer!) en van de local menu eten (Aruba combo)... heerlijk met chocoladetaart toe! Daana vallen echt m'n ogen snel dicht (sorry Raymann, de uitzending op BVN heb ik niet helemaal gehaald ...jetlag).

Bon bini, ik ben er...

2008-11-01T14:03:00.002+01:00

Ja hoor, ik ben op Aruba!! De KL733 was zelfs 50 minuten voor op schema. Onderweg zat ik naast Hongaren wat ik een beetje vreemd vond, wat doen die nou op Aruba. Later bleek dat ze gingen trainen op de Freewinds, een schip dat (nu nog) voor de kust van Oranjestad ligt. Petrina vertelde weer later dat het met scientology te maken heeft, haha ik vond het a zo'n vaag verhaal!

Maar goed, Petrina en Eric stonden me dus al op te wachten. Op m´n immigratiepapiertje had ik keurig 'for business' aangekruist maar toch wenste de beambte mij een fijne vakantie.... haha!! Nou nu voelt het ook nog zo hoor!

Ik had geen beter startplekje kunnen uitkiezen dan www.4rentaruba.com!! Ik heb m'n eigen studiootje met natuurlijk een tv met BVN maar vooral.... draadloos internet. En daar maakt mijn eee-peeeceetje dankbaar gebruik van!!

Hier zit ik dus nu binnen!

Gisteren was Petrina vrij dus zijn we even het eiland rondgetourd. Koffie bij Paddocks (Joan dat was toch jouw tip) en lunch op het strand bij Boomba. Verder mail gecheckt, afspraken bevestigd en bij Petrina blijkt Charlotte te wonen die bij het ministerie van Onderwijs werkt... Haar baan klinkt echt reuze interessant en toch weer een link naar mijn eigen werk!

vandaag nog even de stad in, maar nu eerst ontbijten.... gewoon bruine boterhammetjes met pitjeskaas haha!! Morgen verhuis ik naar het hotel om mijn werk van maandag en verder te gaan voorbereiden.

Groetjes!!

Aruba - for business!

2008-10-29T14:15:00.002+01:00

Hi!!

I thought I just let you all know that I will be in Aruba from tomorrow!! Yes, you heard it right, me on the happy island! I am so glad I got the opportunity to go on a business trip there! First of all because I will enjoy meeting the people there but second because I will see my friend Petrina again. The first few days I will be staying with Petrina and Eric at Sero Biento (if you ever need a great affordable place to stay). I will do some work from there and then after the weekend I will move to a hotel and travel to Curacao for other business meetings as well. I have travelled to the Carribbean before but never to the Dutch Antilles so I am really looking forward to it.

I will be back on Nov. 8 but when I have access to the internet I will try to do a small report!

Have a great week!

Photo excursion today!

2008-10-26T20:32:00.001+01:00

Petra and I did a Fall Photo Excursion today!

The excursion was organized by a nature photographer Fer Boei

A group of 15 walked through the forest of Doorn (Kaapse Duinen) to see mushrooms and make photos! The weather was a bit rainy (most of it in the afternoon).

I am sure Petra will blog some to on her own blog… I have many more but won’t post them all :)…. at least not before I have edited them with lightroom!!

From Fall weather to summer at the end of the week… I have to go on a business trip to Aruba and Curacao so I probably won’t be around for a while… I will be back on Nov 8th!!

Karen

Almost there and new layouts!

2008-10-10T13:17:00.001+02:00

Yeppers… only 2 more nights! We are going to leave by car on Sunday morning REALLY early to make the most of the day.

Disneyland Paris here we come! We are staying at the Hotel Cheyenne for 3 nights:

I will be writing a travelblog although I don’t know if I will be able to post it when we are in France, there is no wifi at the hotel :(.. who know we are lucky enough to pick up a signal anyway!

Ok then I also did some layouts this week, here they are! All images are clickable for credits and some love :)

So this is all for this week, next week I will be back with an (hopefully) exciting trip report for anyone who is interested!!

Have a good weekend!

Karen

Layout time

2008-10-03T21:10:00.005+02:00

Hi,

Ok, time to showcase some of my own layouts from last week... I did a couple and one is still not finished (I think it's too empty but then again I like it...still unsure if it's finished or not... if you understand what I mean)... But here are the ones I did finish, first I did a Halloween LO with the new kit by Dawn Inskip, did you read the news about her on DST?

Well this is her latest kit (you can buy it at NDISB for example):

And here's the layout:

Then I did one with her Friend's Expressions

And finally I did one for myself but with a lot of stuff by Melissa Bennett in it, I am on her CT and have so many items in my EHD that I mixed and matched:

Not a lot more news today... the week was pretty 'normal' as expected. The weather could have been better but it's Fall and the weather is like that, a lot of rain and a bit colder...we turned on the central heating for the first time yesterday!

Tomorrow I am going to try to sell some of the clothes and toys the kids have grown out of. I have hired on of the tables at a small market at the community center here, it's just for 2 hours and it's just for 2nd hand children's clothes and toys...so great for me. Later in the afternoon we will take the boys to their grandparent's house...they will stay the night there so mom and dad can go shopping on Sunday...spend the money we earned the day before, lol!

That's all for now...only 9 days until Disneyland Paris!

Just another week...

2008-09-29T21:35:00.003+02:00

Hi!
Ok... it's Monday, just another week has started... for some very special (for example Petra is virtually throwing all kinds of delicious food at me because she's already cooking for the عيد الفطر

or `id-oel-fitr, (we call it Suikerfeest), the traditional day after the Ramadan... I have known Petra for about 5 years now (or is it longer, lol) and she makes these yummie sweet cakes!!

I hope I don't get them just virtually Petra, LOL! :)

Other than that, for us it's just a regular week. Work, school etc. We have made a count down calender for the boys (oh well, I didn't make it, Andy did, credits to him) and they put a sticker on it each morning... only 12 nights until... Disney!! We're going to Disneyland Paris during fall break! I think we -grown ups - are even more excited than the boys are... About a month ago the oldest was in the back of the car when we were driving (where he is supposed to be) and told me... Mom, I don't need to go to Disney! I was a bit shocked by such a revelation because my boys love themeparks (just not the scary rides!). "Not to Disney? Why?" He replied "Well, the local bus is an attraction too!!" Hmmm... I know I have great kids! But this? The thing is that they hardly ever ride the local bus and they LOVE it! We always go by car when we need to go somewhere... they only use buses on days out from school or the daycare they visit.... Hmm...my boy is a real thinker!

In fact my week didn't start very 'regular'... after holding back CTs a bit I was asked as a guest for .... Dawn Inskip. I was pleasantly surprised when they asked me because I haven't been such a great scrapbooker lately (lack of time and inspiration). But when I look at her shops I might even get some ideas for new layouts!

A layout that wasn't done by me but by Petra is this one (she took one of my pics from last summer):

Doesn't that look awesome?? Sometime I just don't know how she does it! Thank you Petra (did I teach you how to do this... ever??? I don't think so, lol)....

Well this is all for now, I will leave my own layouts until my next post!

Have a good day!

Birdpark Avifauna!

2008-09-23T21:42:00.003+02:00

Last Sunday we had a beautiful day, it was almost like one of these days that are called Indian Summer in the States! We had tickets to see the birdpark and so we did arrive there around 10.30 am and left close to 5.30 pm... the kids walked around, played (a huge playground) and I took some photos of the birds:

Next zoo will be Ouwehand on November 9th, I just got our tickets through Girafpas today!

Two new layouts!

2008-09-20T21:19:00.002+02:00

Hi!

I finished two LO's today so I thought I'd blog about them first, pictures were taken during our trip to Greece:

Then of course, it is weekend!! Today we went to De Bilt,

It is a small town nearby and there was a Parisian market there, in fact they sold all kinds of stuff. We did some shopping there and we ended up buying a bench for the front of the house at BSC. I will take a photo of it tomorrow as it's hard to explain what it looks like. This store is changing their garden furniture for winter sports now and so they were having a great sale. I also fell in love with a teak furniture set in that store... But even though we could probably get it for less than half price it was still too much for us. Besides, we swore we would never ever get wooden garden sets because we have to do too much to keep it like it is (or like we like it!). So that was a no-no anyway!

Tomorrow we will go to Avifauna with our Girafpas . I mentioned this before, it's a great deal on different zoos, this time we will visit a bird zoo. The weather is nice so it will be a nice day out! And probably a little time for photos too!

bye for now!

Day off!

2008-09-17T09:07:00.003+02:00

Hi,

Usually I am not working on Wednesday, but there is always plenty to do, taking the kids to school, doing laundry, run errands etc. Today is a bit more relaxed. We took the kids to school together this morning (1 child each as they are in different buildings) and now I am enjoying my cappuccino in front of my new EEE pc in the kitchen... typing my blog. Ok I have had this little laptop for a while but I couldn't get it wireless so it feels new!!

Andy has just left for his fysiotherapy, he's finally doing a bit better but not ready for work yet (as his job is a physical one, maintenance of central heating). When he comes back we can run some errands , he can't drive the car with his injured leg so I drive. Can't believe that one game of tabletennis in Greece caused all this :). The upside is that the boys are happy that their dad is there when they come home from school!

Ok , just one layout for you today (image is clickable for some love):Credits
Holliewood Studios Falling for you
Taylormade Stitched in Place

Sun(ny)day for skiing!

2008-09-14T16:52:00.004+02:00

Hi,

Today is a beautiful Sun(ny)day! The skislope in Nieuwegein
had Open house today and the kids could take lessons. We are going skiing in Austria next December with our friends Myra, Eelco and Tim and today we all went to the skislope. The kids took their lessons and we enjoyed coffee in the sun on the terrace and later on a nice lunch. Grandma and granddad also joined in and were proud to see the little ones on the skis!

More photos on our Flickr site (link on the right!).

Have a great day!

4 seconds of National fame... :)

2008-08-29T21:32:00.002+02:00

Today I had 4 seconds on national television, lol!! Ok so it was in the background but one of my co workers DID recognize me! You can see it here

I had an appointment today at the local council of a small town called Naarden. I was there with one of my coworkers and we thought the town was so full of life and even a little crowded... The weather was nice and it's a nice small town for tourists so we thought it was just a nice day.

Then it appeared that we had totally missed the important event of the day, the mayor of the town was getting married today. I have worked on the sideline of politics long enough (even have my bachelor in European studies) to recognize the name of Peter Rehwinkel, the mayor of Naarden but I didn't know he was getting married today. The person we had the business meeting with told us we could go just across the street from the townhall for lunch, where we had excellent view on the whole ceremony outside! And since we sat outside on the terrace... I was actually in the scoop of the camera! You won't even see me if you don't know me I think... I am the person who is in the white trousers and brown shirt (it's my Fat Face shirt, Carol!) from 25-29 seconds on this video... my whole 4 seconds of national fame!

Have a great day (I did!).

Back from Greece...

2008-08-27T12:14:00.005+02:00

Yassou, we're back from Greece!

I have a first impression of our great vacation in Greece!

Frame is old proof sheets 2 by Christina Renee

You can read all about it (in Dutch or just look at more pictures) on my Malia Travelblog.

Hope you have a great day!

Off to Greece!

2008-08-10T15:02:00.002+02:00

Hi!

Yep, on the plane tomorrow to Heraklion Airport! We will leave at 4.55 pm and get there at 9.30 (Greek time, one hour ahead of Dutch time). We'll be back on the 22nd!! Can't wait until it's time for dinner on Wednesday :)

I promised my layout earlier this week, well it was made with this kit at Live Out Loud Scraps
Melissa Bennett did this collab with Faith True and Victoria Feemster:

So here is the layout:

Well that's all for now, see you in 2 weeks!

Playground Day!

2008-08-06T21:17:00.004+02:00

Hi!

Yes, it was playground day today... the house is clean, the laundry done (thanks to my mom too...) and it was time to spend the day with the kids. My friend Ellen came over with her 2 boys and after coffee we headed for this new playground in our suburb. It just opened 3 weeks ago and they boys have already been 4 times!

The weather was good again today so they were wearing their swimming trunks already, there's a bit of mud and water in the playground. Actually it is a construction playground where the bigger kids can build their own 'homes' from wood and plastic (with real nails and hammers!) but our kids (luckily) are not allowed in that part of the playground (they have to be over 7 years to do the construction part). No problem! The other part is also fun... take a look!

The boys together on one little bike

Ready to jump (Milan)!

Landing in mud!

Look... my legs (a beauty treatment?)

Steltlopen (for the Dutch...it's a traditional thing)

Play makes hungry!

I did one layout this week and I really like it! But I will save that one for another day or you can have a peek in my gallery!

Tomorrow it's Thursday and we're off for some family visit in the morning and then hopefully a nice lunch and some shopping in Purmerend.

My new yellow friend!

2008-08-04T15:38:00.002+02:00

Hi!

I have a new little friend... it's bright, yellow and waterproof!! I love the sunny color but I will probably even more like its results... photos (to scrap, what else!)... I bought it at camera4all and it was already in the mail last Saturday but we were not at home but at the local (just opened) Construction Playground. So the postman couldn't deliver the box... and I had to wait until today. But now it's finally here:

It's going to be my friend on our Greek vacation next week. We're off to Crete, one of the islands of Greece, the largest in fact.

It's just a point and shoot camera (even under water which I think I'll see plenty off!)

You'll see the results when we get back!

2008-07-23T10:25:00.002+02:00

Hello!!

It has been a while but I have been blogging on our other blog Us in Orlando 2009.

So I haven't been neglecting you totally, have I? Last Friday the summerbreak of the kids started and they have been at their grandparent's house since last Sunday night (because we both have to work). On Monday it was raining to they went to Ballorig with grandma, something they really wanted to do (I had saved them a Chocomel discount coupon). Last night I came home and Maurits came over to see if he could fix my internet connection (and yes, he did it so thanks to him I am now back online!). After I got my e-mail again I found these pics in the mail:

So I think they're having fun over there!!

Today is my day off work and the weather has cleared up so I might go into town a little bit later. First I tried to find ourselves a last-minute summer trip. We tried not to stretch our budget too far this time since we already booked a ski-holiday and the trip to both the Disney's (WDW ánd DLRP)... It's hard to find something sunny last minute because apparently all the Dutch have decided to escape the bad weather and book vacations abroad. I have found something on the island of Crete, Greece but we'll discuss this tonight! I work this week and next week and then I have 3 whole weeks off as well!! I am really looking forward to that!

I didn't do a lot of layouts but there's one I'd like to share with you since it only had one comment sofar! Image is clickable for credits (and for some love of course :) )

Time for a shower and some breakfast!! Have a great day!

Verjaardag, huwelijk, Florida

2008-07-02T11:33:00.004+02:00

Hi all!
It has been a busy week, last Saturday Mauro turned 6 and it was time to party. And partytime it was, treat at school on Thursday, kids' party on Friday (school was closed) and the big party on Saturday. Here's an impression:

We cancelled our Sunday plans (we wanted to go to the Cherry vineyard to listen to a concert (http://www.kersen.nu/) but it was all a bit too much. the boys wanted to rest and play with all the new Playmobil and Lego. I can't blame them!

Monday I was at work and left there around 11.00 to attend the wedding of one of my co-workers. Jaap got married to Simone in the town of Huizen. I took some pictures and even scrapped one!

Yesterday I said goodbye to Petra on MSN. She's now at the airport to catch her flight to JFK and from there they are flying to Tampa, FL. She will be travelling in Florida and Texas but also visiting her WW friends later this month. She was soooo excited and nervous but I just know it will all turn out great! I hope you will blog very soon Peet!

Talking about blogs, I have decided to make travel blogs... 11 years ago I started writing those on paper (when I travelled to Cuba) and now that we have plans to go to Florida I have started another digi blog. It's called Us in Orlando 2009.

I have to pick up the kids from school now...see you all later!

Guess what Mickey here we come (twice!)

2008-06-20T11:06:00.001+02:00

Ok so we already had plans to go to Disneyland Paris in October... but then we had this great opportunity!

Can you believe it.... I am sooooo excited :) More details later!

Have a great day!

Back from the Ardennes!

2008-06-11T14:52:00.001+02:00

OK, in between a hospital visit (nothing serious).... running errands and taking my oldest to swimming class.... here are the pictures of our trip to the Ardennes!

Hope you like them!

So I am trying to keep my blog up to date...

2008-06-06T10:14:00.002+02:00

Hi!

Can't you tell that I am really trying in keeping my blog up to date?

Just a few mins left behind my puter before I have to pack the last stuff to go to the Ardennes, pick up the kids from school and put everything in the car.

We're going to Stavelot:

This is a beautiful part of Belgium, I just hope the weather will not be just rain like the forecast says... we will see!

Ok and then there is one more layout to show you before I leave, I just finished this one!

Image is clickable for credits of course.

Probably a lot more pictures when we get back on Monday night!

Have a great weekend everyone!

2008-06-04T10:54:00.003+02:00

Hello!!

The kids are still in school, it's Wednesday so only until noon, this afternoon Mauro has his swimming lessons...

I recovered from the short nights during the game I organized and in fact there are only 2 more working days (or better, just 1,5) until our little break in the Ardennes. I am really looking forward to go to Belgium, I just hope the weather will be good. Just dry weather will be fine...please??

For the first time in a long period I did a scrap that took me longer than just one night! I finished it this morning and here it is!

Credits can be found in my gallery when you click on the image!

It is from this great Lil Grad kit by Melissa Bennett who is now selling at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I have been on her CT for quite a while now and I can hardly keep up with all her great designs. This is lil Grad....
Isn't it cute??? I love all the little grad figures in it!

About two weeks ago my boys had their school pics taken. Usually this is done every year but this time it was the first Elementary school picture for both of them. We were in Greece last year when the pictures were taken en well, Milan only just started school... Don't you like the little rascals??

Well, I have to run some errands before I can pick them up from school... see you soon!

Work... and play!

2008-05-28T09:19:00.003+02:00

I am back!

Still very tired... I organized two simulation games for our students who work at the public governments and they were both last week and this week and I was there for 2,5 days each...almost nonstop work (ok, I admit ... at the bar at night too). Last night I came home and I was soooo tired and my back hurt from that hotelbed! Even though I had only been in that bed for about 5 hours (from 1.45 until 7.00 am). We have a great group of co-workers, students and trainers so it was tempting to stay at the bar until it closed.

The next morning when the simulation game continued I had a lot of coffee and a 45 min. walk in the beautiful forest of Lunteren. The weather was great, not as humid as it is now. We finished the simulation game around 4.00 pm, cleaned up, had another last drink together and went home. I got home by 6.20 pm which was good.. the kids were still up of course it was nice to be able to spend another hour with them. Now they are in school until noon only so I have to get some groceries done this morning and clean the house a little.

Just before I left I did one layout, this time not for any CT, just for myself (image is cllickable for credits):

Last night when I read my e-mail I saw that I couldn't access the Simonetta Rossi forum any longer, the CT forum I mean. This morning I read her personal email to the CT that she's going to disband the CT... I was so sorry to hear this. I am a fan of her designs and lightroom presets! I hope all goes well for you in the future Sue!

As I said today's weather in Holland is humid... and it's probably going to be hot later today (it's 9.31. am now).... Here are some of my fav pics of Milan last week when the weather was good too....

Two more days at work and school and on Saturday we're going to the Ouwehand Zoo...Perfect location for some more photos! Then only one more week until schoolbreak here. The kids have a week off and so have I! We're going to the Ardennes, Belgium, a beautiful region with hills. Of course we are also visiting Plopsaland there since we still have our annual pass.

Have a great day!

Queensday market in Baarn

2008-04-30T21:55:00.001+02:00

DSCF4904
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool

Here's a short video impression of our Queensday in Baarn. We are selling brocante/antiques at my mom's stand!

40 and Happy Queensday!

2008-04-30T21:19:00.004+02:00

Two parties in two days ... and it was fun!

Ok so I did not really throw a party for my 40th birthday (I mean, what's to celebrate, lol)... but I did have a good day. First the boys gave me my gifts around 7.00 am.... I had the a beach bag from Riviera Maison , one of my fav stores! I also had a Dirty Dancing dvd (special edition), a picture of my 2 little ones and a lot of self-made crafts with happy birthday on it! After that I had an appointment at the hairdresser... and then I found a Wii at the MediaMarkt!! I had tried to order the Wii at different stores but all sold out.. and there they were 8 of them at that store! And it is fun! Yesterday we tried some bowling, tennis and boxing from the Sports Pack and today we did the games of Mario's Carnival!

Anyway, so I stayed in the citycenter of Utrecht for a while to do some shopping. I bought the new book by Sophie Kinsella because I loved the Shopaholic series... Now I bought Remember me. I bought some clothes, a nice brown jersey dress, a poloshirt and an orange t-shirt... which you will see on the pictures later on. I ran some errands at Albert Heijn because we have two holidays ahead of us... Queensday and Ascensionday. Around 4.30 pm we pick up the kids from their day activity center (they are off school this week) and drive to IKEA... It's my birthday so I can decide what we will have for dinner tonight and I love to treat the boys to a meal at the yellow letters (as they call it because they can't read yet, although Mauro has thought himself a little). One boy picks the Swedish meatballs, the other the chicken nuggets and Andy has a kid's meal too (because there's an ice cream with the meal, lol). I get the salmon which is ok as a birthday meal...lol! When we got home and put the boys to bed the phone rang constantly... so nice to hear people remember my birthday! Arond 9.30 another phonecall... It was Mick my friend from Wellington, New Zealand!! She's Dutch, we took the same course years ago (that's how we met) and she moved to Wellington 5 years ago with her husband and 2 kids. It was so great to be chatting away for an hour (!!) on the phone...like she had never left Holland! I would love to see for real how they live but tickets (for 4!) are expensive! Anyway, thank you Mick for calling...it was a great ending of the day!

And today it was Queensday....

We left the house at 7.00 am for the first flea market. It's a special fleamarkt because children sell their spare toys mostly.... also adults sell second hand stuff.... We went early to get the best deals and the best things! Came home around 8.00 am, had breakfast and the boys played with the toys they bought on the market... Then we left again to go to Baarn... here's an impression:

Me at 40... lol! Wearing my Queensday shirt!

Our stand

Royal mugs... all with the royal family on them (for sale!)

The boys sorting out grandma's silver teaspoons (all for salem except for the boys!)...

That was all for now.... tomorrow is Ascension day so another bankholiday...it fact I have off work until Tuesday... woohooo!!!

Final countdown

2008-04-24T20:44:00.002+02:00

Hi,

It's the final countdown... that song keeps going through my head... :)... 5 more days until the big four o... A friend of ours gave us these '40' decorations since her husband turned 40 on April 11th (happy belated birthday Peter!)... These decorations are already up in our house since Andy turned 40 last Monday and we couldn't be bothered to remove them, after all what's 8 days ... or should we have taken them down and put them up again a week later. Perhaps our neighbour will now miss the fact that it will be my birthday too and just think I am too lazy to remove the decorations, LOL...

One more schoolday and the kids have a week off... It will be Queensday on Wednesday and we might visit a themepark on Friday or Saturday, all depending on the weather... lucky us that it is a very long bankholiday Wednesday until Sunday! Schools are also closed on liberation day (Monday May 5th) and since I don't have anywhere to put the boys on that day I took that day off too... Long long weekend!

I didn't do a lot of scrapping lately ... just no inspiration I guess. I like this one I did:

image is clickable for credits

Did you see the latest by Natali Designs? I bought this yesterday:

I have been buying a lot of Natali's stuff lately..so please can you send over some scrapping inspiration?

Have a great Thursday, Friday or whatever day it is in your part of the world!

Just a fresh look

2008-04-16T11:45:00.003+02:00

Since I am at home with the flu' for a week now (I hope to get back to the office tomorrow) I decided to give my blog a fresh look... Might make me feel better too... let me know what you think... Do you like the new 'me' or did you like the old one better? People say they get weird close to 40... my birthday is less than 2 weeks away so 'they' may be right!!

Have a great day

Easter to April....

2008-04-07T13:23:00.004+02:00

Hi all!

White Easter.

Sorry, it has been a while... no excuse really! I have been on a 2-day training (Practical Coaching) and work has been busy since Easter! But today my oldest boy is on the couch with fever and I think he's taking a little nap right now...so I have time to update my blog. In an hour I have to pick up the youngest from school too. Meanwhile I will try to get you updated about the past weeks... So there was this Easter that people were joking about...people wished eachother Merry Christmas because the weather forecast said it would be a White Easter! Well here's proof of what happened:

It was more difficult to find the Easter eggs this year...lol... Can you find it?

Just a little bit of snow on the branches!

Our Almond Tree in Bloom!

The snow didn't last long that day so we got up and were playing in the snow by 8.30 am. Later that morning we drove to Hapri (short for Half Price), it's a fahion outlet store where I love to go a couple of times a year. They had marked down all the children's items to 5 euro a piece. I bought some things for the boys and 2 items for myself. On the way back didn't take the highway but the smaller roads and the ferry across the river Rhine. Especially the boys love these routes! Near Veenendaal we stopped for lunch at McDonalds.

Drums

This looks great huh? My oldest boy (who is now on the couch with fever) loves music and last year he took some general music classes. He thought (even though he was only 4!) they were boring because he didn't get to play a lot of the instruments. He had this toy drumset but it broke quite fast and now we got him a new set! I bought it on Marktplaats and he is sooo over the moon with this (and it wasn't even his birthday!).

Just after Easter our friend Debby gave birth to her new babyboy Max! We visited him when he was 3 days old but unfortunately I had brought a camera without a memory card! Stupid me! I can tell you it's a really sweet boy! My co-worker had delivered the week before and she has a baby girl named Sophie. I hope to see them soon!

And then there was last weekend... they boys stayed at their grandparents in Cothen. It was sort of last minute decision to let they stay over... we thought of taking them there in the morning so grandma could babysit them. But an extra night off is very welcome and they love to stay over at gran's so we were all happy! We took them there and when we left we drove to Zeist to see a new movie called 'Zomerhitte'. This movie is directed by Monique van de Ven. She's also a famous actress in our country. Anyway, I already loved the themesong of this movie:

When summer ends by VanVelzen:

On Sunday we went to the Sample Sale at the Amsterdam Fashion Square and I did some great shopping there... bought 3 skirts, a blouse and 2 shirts and a knitted sweater! All items were 10-20 euro a piece so I thought I had a good deal!

Today is Monday and I have taken the day off because of the sick little boy... tomorrow I have to work and my mom will probably look after him... I don't see him going to school tomorrow after such a fever!

Well have a good day you all...next time I will show you some more digistuff... I hardly scrapped the past weeks!

Karen

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T15:21:00.002+01:00

Happy Easter, everyone... hope you found all of the eggs today :)

Will come back soon for a real update ....

Karen

Busy girl

2008-03-12T09:07:00.002+01:00

Hi all,

Oh no I don't feel sorry for myself, it's just that I sometimes feel that I am a busy girl. Like last Monday... I wanted to list what I did but I didn't have time to blog it....

7.00 am got up (kids woke us up, very reasonable time :), get us all dressed (not dh, he's off to work already, lol) and fed.

8.05 am all in the car, drop both the kids off at school in their different classes (8.20-8.30) and off to work.

9.00 am my first cup of coffee in the office and I stay there until 2.00 pm.

2.00 pm I run some errands and drive to school

2.45 pm school gets out and I pick up the kids in pouring rain (I hate that!)

3.00 pm home, give the boys a drink and a little snack

3.15 pm I start doing some of my chores, this time it's an hour of ironing (kids are playing)

4.00 pm The youngest is watching a dvd and falls asleep, I can peel some potatoes for dinner

4.30 pm dh gets home

5.00 pm early dinner because I have to be at a workshop at 7.00 pm

6.15 pm I leave the house and dh takes care of the kids from now on, bath, bed etc.

7.00 pm I meet my old co-worker Marije who has just opened this great meeting center (http://www.ruimteutrecht.nl/), I introduce myself to the other people there and the workshop starts

10.30 pm I say goodbye to Marije and thank her for the nice evening... my drive home is 20 mins.

11.00 pm I sit on the couch and feel tired.. so off to bed...

Ok... so not every day is this long...and today I am off work, like every Wednesday. Of course other things are waiting for me today, the kids are off school at noon already and the oldest has to be at his swimminglessons at 3.30 pm. I still have to run some errands and clean the house... scrapping, reading a book? Hmmm, I think it's time for a day off, and I mean OFF... When will that be do you think? When they're 18?? LOL...

Ok I think I did make a couple of layouts last week to show you, let me see....

Ok that's all for today, I hope you don't have the stormy weather that we're having right here... I want Spring!!!

Have a great day!
Karen

February... spring break

2008-02-25T13:02:00.002+01:00

Hi all!

It is Spring Break for the boys! They have a week off from school but we both have to work, ok not all week we have Friday off, woohoo!! So they go to the extracurricular activities today and tomorrow and I have my regular day off on Wednesday and Andy on Thursday...

On Friday we leave to go to down south for the weekend, we have booked 2 cottages on the park Weerterbergen:

We have been here 2 time before and it is great for the children, they love the indoor playground, the swimming paradise and the dances and crafts with Koos Konijn. The boys know exactly who Koos is because he's the mascotte of more vacations parks we have visited....

He even has his own fun website! Of course it is all in Dutch but perhaps you manage to get something out of it anyway. So we will be with Koos for the weekend, until Sunday night because we have to get back to work and school on Monday. When we are there we have time to celebrate my mom's 64th birthday, she actually has her birthday on Thursday but I have to work on that day, so we postpone it.. Unfortunately she won't be able to enjoy the cake she will buy for us because she will have her galbladder removed soon, since it has gone bad, full of gallstones...yuck! I hope she will feel better soon and can eat anything she likes soon!

Anything else? I haven't scrapped a lot lately but I did this one page with photos you saw in my previous post, let me find it... ok right here!

Oops when I look into my gallery I see that I did 2 more... wanna see those too?? One is my friend Kitty and I at the Indian restaurant in Brum, and the other is the AAM I did for the new Weeds and Wildflowers forum.

All images of layouts are clickable for credits.

Ok, I am off to shop now, I have to get the girls from daycare a farewell gift. Milan is now in school and tomorrow is his last day in daycare... I already bought some treats (food) for the kids but the girls also need a big Thank you for all the four years they have taken care of my little boy!

Have a great day!
Karen

A little spring... a better mood!

2008-02-14T20:16:00.005+01:00

So hello again!

I hope you have been checking my blog and noticed I wasn't here for a few days... No I wasn't away... it can't be party time every day, now can it?? I was busy doing other things than blogging but I didn't forget about you all so I did do my homework and made some layouts!

Weather

Can you believe it's the beginning of February and the temperatures climbed up to 15 degrees Celsius last weekend!! We were so lucky! On Saturday we celebrated Milan's fourth birthday and many people came over to visit us including Petra. She brought Milan a watch... such a great gift for him! I hope he'll start to tell time soon and wear the watch so that he knows 6.15 am is NOT the right time to get out of bed, lol!

On Sunday we had tickets for Harderwijk. I just recently got us a Girafpas, it's an annual pass for 18 euro per family (2 adults and up to 6 kids). With this pass we get 4 times a year free entrance to a zoo on specific dates. This time it was Dolfinarium weekend. We had never taken the little boys there (we took Mitchell once but at 16 you don't like the zoo anymore) so it was a great opportunity. We also took our nephew, niece and their dad!

The weather was sooo great on that day that we had a great day out. We loved the shows and to see the animals (sea lions, dolphins) but the small beach and playgrounds were just as good for all the kids! Here are a few photos:

Layouts

A few of my recent layouts... there was enough to scrap, Milans first schoolday,

Carnival... one of the trip to the forest on Christmas day and an older picture, when Mauro was little... but oh so cute!! All images are clickable!!

Well this is all for now, one day left of this week and then there is a weekend full of NOTHING... Nowadays I love these weekends most... no obligations, no birthdayparties... nothing :)

See you soon!

Karen

Happy 4th birthday little boy!

2008-02-05T14:21:00.000+01:00

All day I am thinking about this day exactly 4 years ago, I had to be at the hospital at 6.30 am for a c-section... Milan was born around 9.00 am (an hour late because there was NO doctor to perform the surgery, she was still at home, in bed!)... But today is my youngest son's 4th birthday!!

He started school yesterday and next Saturday will be the big party for family and friends. He got presents from us this morning, the biggest gifts were a V-smile Pocket and My first dr. Bibber. His grandparents are picking him up from school in 15 minutes and we are all having dinner together later tonight...

Have a great day!
Karen'

Birmingham... great to see my friends again!

2008-01-30T11:09:00.001+01:00

DSCF4768
Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Last weekend I left one boy with grandma and the other with dad... so had the chance to go to England for the weekend with my (higschool)friend Kitty.

We chose Birmingham for the time zone (extra hour to shop), the shops (GAP, M&S) and perhaps there would be a chance to see my friends from Wolverhampton/Cannock/Stoke-on-trent....wherever they live in the area.

After a bumpy landing we were in time and all ready... so we shopped until we dropped... had the nicest meals and on Sundaymorning we met Carol, Danni and Gary. It was a great weekend, my head was all empty and that's a good sign....

We have to plan more weekends like this one!!

Karen

January.... january

2008-01-11T22:07:00.000+01:00

Hi!

I don't like January after the first week... The first week makes me happy, it gives me sort of 'clean' feeling, like there's an empty page in front of me and I get to write on it... Usually I have the first week of the year off so that makes me feel even happier... and then real life starts again... Short days when you take the kids to school in the dark, drive to the office in the dark and only see daylight if (if!) I get the chance to peep out of the office for lunch... I finished work at 5.30 pm tonight, got home at 6..... DARK! Oooh I know I must be glad I don't live in the Scandinavian region but I want DAYLIGHT!

Ok so I better think of other things... I start looking for holiday destinations...when and where can we go this summer... I have worked at a travel agency for a while and I was a rep in Switzerland and Spain so I know where to find it and I know at what price... NOT! I search the web from here to Tokyo and back (not that I want to go to Tokyo)... Everyone says NOW it's the time to go to the States and hey, I have a long long GAP (and other stores) shopping list here so why not? Gladly I can give my shopping list to Petra because when I see high season ticket prices... it's NOT so funny anymore and we may have a strong Euro compared to $$$ but double the fares because the children have summer break? I vote for a president who makes fares lower when children have time to travel!! Hillary change your plans! Still don't know where we will be heading but well... at least I have spent hours in front of pictures of tropical beaches, hey!

A few layouts??

All credits can be found here

Ok I am off to get some WEEKEND... a little daylight perhaps on Saturday and Sunday...lol... ow and some groceries...vitamins...feel like I have a cold and earinfection but I am not complaining...no work for 3 days!!

Have a great weekend!

Karen

Digiscrap Hyves!

2008-01-02T10:22:00.001+01:00

Hi!

If you're Dutch you have probably heard about Hyve...it's kind of Facebook with friends and groups and so you create your own internet community....

About 2 years ago I started a hyves group about Digital Scrapbooking.... we now have over 100 members. To celebrate Melissa Bennett was so sweet to give away a $15 coupon for her store at SBB . Miranda from Rotterdam won the coupon and she already picked some great items from the store....woohooo... I hope we'll have 200 members soon and I am sure we can think of another give away!! Take a look here and become a member:

Karen

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-01T21:18:00.000+01:00

So here we are in 2008!!

I hope you all get the sort of year you are hoping for! I still have to make my mind up what kind of year 2007 was... If I count all ups and downs it ends up in being a good one... I found my half sister again, I think I haven't seen her in 20 years... internet makes the contact a lot easier so that's how we got back in touch! Jana, you're the best!!

I just finished 2 layouts, images are clickable....

Let me know what you think of these!!

Karen

Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T11:07:00.000+01:00

For some of you a bit late but here we have a 2nd Christmasday. Last night we had dinner with the 3 of us, with our 3 year old. Our oldest stayed at Grandma's and we will all have dinner here tonight.

Here's our picture from last night:

I hope you're all having (or had) a Merry Christmas!

Karen

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-21T10:51:00.000+01:00

Hello from Winterwonderland!!
Last year we only had to de-ice our carscreens once or twice and look here today! We have a wonderful winterwonderland, it snowed a little last night... ok not much but Dutch kids are really happy with this!

The kids are now in school and kindergarten and I have been packing, we're leaving this afternoon for a weekend in Germany (Cochem) and I am looking forward to a small vacation together. We are all off school and work for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Year! But I needed a little time to share the winter scene with you....

I have done some layouts too and I have to tell you about some great new alpha's that Melissa Bennett created.... ok, let me share the alphas with you! This is "Little Light Alpha no. 5" (image is clickable)... and she has 4 others to check out too....!

Gotta run now, have a great weekend!

Karen

Merry Christmas from us, the Elfs!

2007-12-18T22:14:00.001+01:00

OMG I had such a laugh today... I hope you will too:

Best wishes from all of us....
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you who read my blog!

2007-12-11T16:15:00.000+01:00

Hi!!

We're back... landed last night at 8.50 pm and got home around 10.15... Prague was wonderful, I have to pick up the kids but just wanted to show you a quick photo impression!!

Have a great day!

St. Nicholas, CT news and Prague!

2007-12-07T09:37:00.000+01:00

Hi all!

A bad start
This morning didn't start of so good to say the least.... I felt powerless when my youngest didn't want me to put his clothes on, he's just so into "NO!" at the moment! He's turning four next Feb. so you would say he's getting over it but no way! When I took them to daycare and school by car I couldn't find a space to park in front so I had to drive to the next block to park my car there. Around 8.00 am it's always extremely busy and when I put my car in reverse to get into the parking space I noticed the car behind me had put his car so close to me so that I couldn't go backwards to park into that space. He went a little backwards in the end and then turned down his passenger seat window and started yelling at me that I couldn't drive, couldn't park and HE had to go to work! Huh?? Hmmm... what was I doing here?? Just dropping off the kids so I could turn into my cosy little bed again?? No way SIR! These accusations always hit me really hard, don't know why... and I also don't understand why I always stay 'too' polite! GRRRRRRR!!!
I dropped off the kids - the teachers were singing christmas carols with christmas hats on in the front of the school, this makes me teary again - and back to the car, off to work. On the way I get some sort of rock on my front window screen... At the office (a little later than most of my co workers) I find out someone disconnected the internet hub from my desk ... GRRRR again... Glad to hear more people think it is not so nice of this colleague! I know he did this to get one of the classes started but well, it was just too much for me! OK I found another spot to work (but if I'd known all this before I really would have stayed in the house today!)

St.Nicholas
Ok, I have to think of the nicer things this week so I'll make myself feel better. Actually the week was pretty good until today... and will probably be good from tomorrow! St. Nicholas day was GREAT! Piet knocked really hard on our backyard window last Wednesday and there were 4 large sacks with gifts in the backyard! The kids loved it! We celebrated it with their grandparents and us all here so it was a nice evening. I had great presents but my most fantastic one was my new TRACY JOY camera bag... yes I now own a real Tracy Joy! Can't tell you how happy I am with it and will post pics later! I also got new mugs and teaglasses and a watercooker.

CT news!!
Actually I have great news!! I applied to Simonetta Rossi (aka Scorpiosue)'s CT and I got in!! She sells her designs at Sophia Sarducci's website. I think this will be a good fit for me! And then I also got a PM from Deanna Tafoya, if I would like to be a guest on her CT?? I had a look at her products and yes, I would love to be your guest Deanna... we'll start that off in the month of January!

And then this morning... another surprise! I have been on Melissa Bennett's CT for a while and I am still so happy to be on her team... she surprised us this morning! She sent us 2 coupons, one for Heather Manning's store and one for Jill-D Zines! WOW!! Thank you so much Melissa, you're the sweetest!

And now I am doing some more work here in the office and then I am off to go home and PACK... Yes, yes, yes... in all the misery of this morning I forget that we're going to Prague tomorrow....tonight we drop off the kids at their grandparent's house and tomorrow morning at 6.30 am we're going to Schiphol to get the 8.30 plan to Prague!! It will be rainy but I don't mind...it'll be fun anyway!

Have a great weekend!
Karen

He's finally here!

2007-11-22T21:04:00.000+01:00

Hi all!

Is it Thursday already? On Sunday we headed for Edam to see if St. Nicholas was really coming into town... We got a great spot right at the bridge (that had to open later because St. Nicholas'ship had to sail through) and my boys enjoyed every minute of the arrival! First there were Pieten in canoes (they had wrapped their candies, pepernoten, in small plastic bags, how clever :)).... After a lot of canoe Pieten we saw a large ship with a lot of little flags coming closer! On the boat... Sinterklaas and a LOT of Pieten!! I always go back to my own childhood when I see this!
Many people were watching the arrival but it was not too busy so after Sinterklaas got ashore we all went to the Townhall where the mayor welcomed Sinterklaas. I made a lot of pictures and I put a couple on the website of a local newspaper Noord-Hollands Dagblad. You can view these pics here (mine are the ones from Karen).

I also did 2 layouts with the new Sinterklaas kit from Digitaal Scrappen, I am on their CT now as a guest so a little promotion can't hurt right??

Two more weeks for Pakjesavond or Giftnight, on Dec. 5th.... The following day it is our 10th anniversary (we're not married so we celebrate the day we met) and the day after that we're flying to Prague to celebrate! No kids, just the 2 of us!!

Have a great day!

Karen

St. Nicholas is here!

2007-11-17T21:31:00.000+01:00

Around noon we were all watching television, I guess it was what most families with small children in this country did... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland today! With his steamship, his black peters and his horse Amerigo! Even if you don't understand the language it is fun to get the vibes ... so you can watch it here!

I did this layout this evening (it's a photo from last year but today we unpacked the box with our St. Nicholas stuff and my boy wore this suit all day!)

Click for credits here... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland so from now on you can find him anywhere... tomorrow we will go to Edam to see his arrival in this little Cheesetown! So more photos after tomorrow!

Have a good weekend!

Karen

Coughing, cold, layouts and 3 more nights!

2007-11-14T11:53:00.000+01:00

Hi,

I have a cold, coughing my lungs out so I am at home... don't know if it's flu', it looks like it... Hopefully I will feel better at the end of the day because 3 days in a row is just too long for me... But at least I have time to post my 2 latest layouts. My youngest is at daycare and my mom is here to clean a little and to take care of Mauro, he has a day off school because all the teachers have their study-day...they're taking classes themselves today.

Layouts

Credits can be found here

Credits can be found here

I did another St. Nicholas layout but I have it on my computer upstairs and I am on the laptop now so it'll have to wait!

So hopefully tommorrow I am back in the office, and Friday I work at home because school is closed AGAIN. One goes to daycare but the other one is invited to his friend's Max house to celebrate his 6th birthday. During the weekend we'll have our 'very' oldest over because Mitch will turn 16!! We're throwing him a small party here on Saturday after we have watched the arrival of St. Nicholas on TV! That is the biggest thing of the year for a 3 and a 5 year old so we can't miss that! On Sunday we are going to watch the arrival of St. Nicholas in the town of Edam, that is going to be soooo exciting!

Have a great day!

Karen

Out for dinner tonight

2007-11-10T15:44:00.000+01:00

We're out for dinner with 6 of our friends tonight... One of the friends chose a great restaurant and their boy is staying at our home with our 2 boys and our babysitter tonight... Well can I call her babysitter?? It's my scrapfriend, blogfriend... Petra aka Milo82. I promise we won't be home too late Peet!

The winner is....

2007-11-09T10:53:00.000+01:00

HI,

My own little SUAS winner... is my week 4 layout... It's the one you can see in the previous post and it is called 'Beautiful Greece'.

Last night I made some more layouts with Melissa's new Christmas kits. She has another one in store today and I love them all! The newest one is Homespun Holiday and will be available at Elemental Scraps soon!
My creations with the other kits, Mistletoe and Jingle Jangle can be found here and here

Off to work!

Karen

SUAS Revea and some Christmas enaBLINGl!

2007-11-08T15:51:00.000+01:00

Hi all!

Ok... the results have been published and I am not a winner although one of my Layouts got 11 points... Can you tell me which one scored points?? I will tell you in my next post! These are my layouts and I am proud of every single one!

I had no illusions I would win so it's not a dissapointment, I am glad that I did all six assigments and stretched myself. Some of the layouts would not be here without the SUAS!

Did you see the collab fall Autumn Splendor kit by Melissa Bennett and Cori Gammon?

I did this layout with it:

Melissa also has some wonderful new Christmas kit in store.... Have a look:

This one is called Jingle-Jangle and is available at Scrapbook-Bytes from TODAY!!

And the other one is Mistle Toe:

You can also have a look in her shop at Scrapbook-Bytes for her Christmas Magic Brushes 1 and 2 and her quickpages.... they are awesome!

That's all for now!!

Karen

Back in town!

2007-11-04T22:21:00.001+01:00

Hi all!

Ok so we've been back for a week... the week off was great! The place in Belgium is wonderful for us (forest and beautiful nature) and for the kids (pool, indoor playground etc.)... we didn't even have time to do all the things the park offers... that's a good sign, right? Our littlest one had a great time with one of his best friends as a neighbour (we rented two chalets), when they would up they could wave at eachother through the chalet windows. :)

This week we were all really busy here and I had to cancel a dinner with a friend because my eyes couldn't stand my contacts.... my eyes felt a bit weird... still have my glasses on... Another dinner with (ex)co workers was cancelled because some people couldn't make it and it wouldn't be fun without them... so in the end there was even some time to scrap!

But last night, we did go out! We went to the Gelredome Stadium for a new Symponica in Rosso concert. Last year we bought tickets because we both like Marco Borsato's music and this year because we liked last year so much! The Symphonica is performed by a different artist each year and needs 3 components, Red, Italian and Music. This year's performer is Paul de Leeuw. Let me tell you, 5 concerts are sold out and each night 30.000 people have a blast.

The fun thing was that before and after the gig I heard that many people were going or have gone to the Stadium but I didn't see anyone I knew! Marco ... Ines... better luck next time!

Here are some impressions, photo & video:

Next time more about scrapping! I can reveal one BIG little secret:

I am a guest CT for Digitaal Scrappen!!! Woohooo!!!

Karen