grrrr grrr

O ...what sound does a cat make? ...grrr grrr

O has discovered our books with pictures (real ones, not cartoons) of animals and is really interested. So we have been making the appropriate sounds. Fun for both of us.  So now when he sees a cat he says Poes (cat in Dutch) and grrr grrr .  ..we will continue to practise :-)


Friday we all kids got dressed Dutch style. Or Queen is stepping down ..her son is taking over so all schools organized: The King games ..everyone got dressed up in orange..and they played games in the classroom (it was raining outside). Tuesday we will celebrate the last queens day. As of next year we celebrate Kings day ..hmm still need to get used to that.

 Lot of updates this week...

O is a charmer he gets his friends to do anything!  :-) We had lots of play time outside this week...we are loving it.

 Our milk carton garden...every day the boys check its progress. We talk about the different seeds and the different plants.

 Some of them are growing really fast :-)

K has got art lessons as part of the after school program. They are experimenting with different materials. This week water colors and oil crayons. This is ....a pirate ship in pieces in the water.  :-)

Another great adventure. K and one of his teachers went spawn fishing this week. We have them at home now and their progress is followed by all the kids of our neighborhood.  ..they all felt it  & smelt it. They all come in every day to check on them. Curious about what is going to happen.

 K's drawings now show spawn instead of eggs :-)

 This week K asked me how he could draw a heart. I showed him but he had some trouble so I drew a few hearts with a pencil and he traced them with a felt pen.  ...he loved it and now continues to ask me to draw more hearts :-)

Tweet tweet tweet

The birds are waking us up in the morning.  My favorite kind of alarm clock. Me and the boys stay in bed a bit longer to listen to the birds together. On our way to school we can still hear them sing.  The blossoms in the trees are coming out..we see more and more leaves!  Spring!

 (K asked me to take this pic..during our walk to school..he loves this tree)

We had an eventful week. On Tuesday K told me that he was going to teach himself how to cycle. He asked me how he had to get on the saddle.  ..and of he went...no problem with balance...no problem with the breaks...no problem at all!  ..very surprising.  His balance is good...due to the bike without pedals :-)  He has been cycling in our street and to school. He picked out his basket & the flag.

K & O had fun with the water table again this week. We set it up with : water balls. First time for O. He really enjoyed the feeling of the water balls. ..kept running his hands through it. He loved the scooping and pouring. K has played with them many times...and still loves it. It is an easy activity to set up ...great for the witching hour  (cooking dinner!).

We started our little milk carton garden this week too (told you it was an eventful week!).  K added the soil and seeds. He waters them regularly and checks each one to see if something is growing yet ...every morning. So far ...not much.

On Saturday we went to Fort aan de klop with friends. The make a wish foundation offered several workshops....circus...decorating cup cakes etc. K became spiderman! ...had fun at the cup cake table..jumped really high on the air mattress...and painted together with O. The weather was good...it was a great day.

 The end result :-)

 And they wanted to make another painting :-)

 :-)

kwak kwak kwak

This week we had a fun surprise @ 7 am!  ...frogs at the playground.  No other kids around yet...just us and Annelies.  We were able to get close and really study them. A few were stuck in the sandbox....so K built a bridge for them so they could get out. We talked about their color, how high they can jump....what the 2 frogs on top of each other were doing...where they were all going ...and what they will do etc etc. The whole frog life cycle was discussed.
K came home with several frog coloring pages and we added them to our spring tree! ....K found a special spot for them ...in the sky! Because that is how high they can jump according to K.

K came home with to big packages of  sidewalk chalk after an afternoon of Bingo at school. He was so proud! You should have seen his smiley face. He had won 3 times. The first price he picked was a ball. And the other 2 prices were the sidewalk chalk.
He had a great time with the chalk. ...according to K it makes the same sound as tiles..but it breaks more easily than tiles. He spent some time with a hammer and the chalk. On Saturday afternoon he took it outside and the neighborhood friends joined in. It was good to see everyone again. It has been a long winter.
At the end of the day he was disappointed that he did not have any chalk to draw anymore. ..but he did like that he had had a good time today with his friends.   ...he had a good time..and found out what happens to chalk when you break it...add water to it etc. ...I have already found a recipe online so he can make his own sidewalk chalk.

We set up a practical life activity for the boys this week. ...sorting and folding socks. K had a great time and I only had to show him once how to fold the socks. O enjoyed the socks too. He was filling up the bowl with socks...and emptying it :-)

DO NOT DISTURB! --- we are enjoying the sun!

FINALLY!    The wind settled...the sun was out....the temp was around 10 C.....good enough to enjoy some outdoor fun this past weekend.

We started of with a spring walk with Lisette and Raven on Saturday. The walk itself could be nice if the bulb fields are in bloom. But..because of the cold weather...no flowers yet. The catch is...tickets for Keukenhof are included & no parking cost. The spring walk was 6km...add the time spent in Keukenhof...we  & the kids walked 7,5km.

O was in the pram most of the way...but he also this his fare share of walking.

Some people say it is to early to go to Keukenhof. Well yes...not all flower beds are in bloom.  This did not make a difference for the kids. They enjoyed every single flower...especially the ones that weren't in the official flower beds.

Raven had a camera...therefore K asked if he could take pics with my camera. He shot over 200 pics. Was very serious about it...was very careful with my digital SLR camera...and had a great time. It is interesting to see what he saw...and what he found important to take a picture off.

O ran around in Keukenhof...stopped by every stroller to see who was in there...waved at people he found interesting..and spend some time in the playground. He is very good at the playground..he can go of the slide himself and loves to play with sand. He can easily entertain himself for 30-45 min.

According to mytracks app..we walked 7,5km in total.  Who needs a gym :-)

On Sunday we walked to the library (yes it is open on Sundays! from September till May)...and spent some time there. Enjoyed a lunch at the coffee/sandwich shop there. K picked out books and a puzzle...O entertained everyone around him. We tried to get the IPADS to work...yep they also have IPADS in the library these days. Unfortunately other customers had set the passwords on the IPADS ..grrrrr . I have mailed the library to see if they can find a solution & to install some kids apps.
Afterwards we stopped by a playground..where the boys entertained themselves. The both found a friend real fast and played for a long time.
Another stop at the new water playground in the city center...more play in our street.
....2 tired but happy boys went to bed @ the end of the day :-)

The new water playground in our shopping street.

The puzzle K picked. It did not have an example picture..so I took this one so we can use it as reference. It is really nice quality. All wood and very detailed.

O has made another development 'jump'. All of a sudden he said: apple and later on also said car.  He has also stopped saying cat to the dogs we pass. He now says: ond   (in Dutch dog = hond)  ..which is close enough. His favorite word is: kijk (look).  This is his way to get you to do what he wants you to do. He will say kijk ..and point towards the sink ..meaning: I want to play with water :-)
Or kijk ..and try to open the kitchen drawer where we keep our rice wafels and crackers...meaning: mom I am hungry!
He knows what he wants and he makes sure he gets it. He is a great little man.

This week I had set up an invitation to play to paint flowers using forks. But...we ended up painting a cleaning towel tube instead :-)

We are discussing spring every day. Everything starts to grow...new life. So we pay extra attention outside to the trees, bushes and flowers during our walks to and from school (it is 1,5km one way so plenty of time to talk!). We listen to the birds...and we watch our own 'garden' . Lia and Jamilla gave us bulbs and mushrooms to grow...so we have been following the instructions and of course the development daily.
We have more seeds to plant..so stay tuned!

A little boy climbed into our spring tree and he even made it up to the clouds! It is Ermias, one of K's school friends. I am amazed that he already knows most of the names of the kids in his class but also knows who is in the other class next to his. We now run into class mates all the time during our walks.

Pics of Keukenhof taken by K

Wooden tulips in the gift shop

 His shadow...he intrigued by his shadow. ...always trying to catch up with it..etc

 ...attention to detail :-)

 More flowers at the gift shop

 Tulips!

 Picture of me!

 Very good find...a heart on a tree...

 A sculpture & the beautiful spring sky

 More flowers

 The windmill ...we forgot to go in ...to much to see outside

 Flower art made by kids who did the kids guided tour in Keukenhof

 Part of the playground. Really great playground...lots to do for all ages.

 And of course! He spotted an egg

The woman who speaks English

This weekend we had a visitor who stayed a few nights.  K called her ' The woman who speaks English' at first but that changed to an enthousiastic Brenda! ...and a disappointed ...' where is Brenda...' on Sunday afternoon.

Otis discovered our visitor early Friday morning...when he was on his way to surprise me in the bathroom he saw that the door to his bedroom was open...and the light on...he looked around the corner...and saw this nice lady sitting there. He ...ran into the bathroom...saw me...and went back...looked around the corner again. After a few peaks he decided to walk into the room.  That was the beginning of a great friendship.

We had a blast these. Books were being read, towers build, songs sung, games played. Brenda got introduced to acro gym and judo.  We took her to Hema for dinner and Ikea for breakfast.


Big towers :-)

 Marble painting with Brenda. We printed the result on a canvas. A K orginal for Brenda :-)

 Look mom they have got the same kitchen as us @ Ikea  :-)

 Serious reading :-)

 the S for Snake..ahhhh scary

 We bought the Ikea truck with wooden blocks & a magnet. O and K both love it.

 Both K and O have been drawing a lot lately

The weather was great for a few days....warm and it felt like spring had started..this week back to cold & even heavy snows in the south.
K and I are in the mood for spring. So Snowman flag has been sent on vacation and we now have an apple tree on our door. We have been talking about spring and I am impressed...K knows a lot about spring.  So he has big plans for our apple tree :-)

K has watched an episode of Huisje Boompje Beestje where they talk about apples. He wants to plant an apple seed to see what happens...so we are going to start a milk carton garden. An idea I found on Facebook from grow food not lawns.

We got lucky with our easter tree this year. We got a few branches for free from a friendly gardner who was trimming her tree. We started easter art work straight away.   I also found last years art work but I am not sure we have enough room :-)