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 :-)

Away away....

It's Sunday morning...we are in a vacation cottage @ Beerze Bulten.  ..next to me Raven is watching krokindertijd on a mobile phone...on the other couch K is watching krokindertijd on a tablet...and I am sure Nienke is upstairs on her smart phone..and maybe Lisette has found a quiet spot somewhere to play wordfeud :-).  ..we figured out how we could use 1 wifi ticket (had to buy one) for all our devices. This is totally new to our families...last year we only had word feud...a lot changes in a year

The vacation park is great...loads of playgrounds all around the park (and right in front of our cottage),  a play beach..which is also fun now, indoor and outdoor pool, big indoor playground.

 The pool has 2 kids pools...one with a big sandbox as well. There are also 2 big slides, bubble bath, wild water area and a big pool.  The kids had a good time at the pool the whole weekend.

We are lucky ..the weather is good...not to cold...no rain or snow...perfect for this time of year.  :-)

..they even have masseuses for the moms :-)

O has moved on from cups to pieces of the memory game. It is a lot of fun to watch him play...he is moving the pieces around...on the table..off the table...He is very good at entertaining himself. Finds different things to play with where ever he goes.
He is not talking very much (mama, hit,  kijk, dit, poes, judith, nienke, helpen) but he is very good at making clear what he wants.  He just taps you on your leg or arm when he wants your attention...and points out what he wants. He has a good sense of humor..already trying to crack jokes.

 Enjoying dessert to the fullest :-) love watching this little man eat. He makes a big show out of it.

 Lunch at the indoor playground. Normal prices and good portions. We like this vacation park!

Very proud of O ..he is able to go down the slide all by himself :-)

Spring vacation

Spring vacation...a weird name for a school vacation in winter. The weather was great...sunny & cold.  It was a fun week.   We went out several times but also spend a lot of time at home. We even found time to start to organize our pantry.

Sunday brought us some spring weather..sunny and a temp of 10c. We met up with Wendy, Amy and Finn at Onder de Plantanen.  They have a great playground...loads of sand ...K and O were in heaven.  O had not been there before and spend a few minutes looking around. Standing still..just his head moving..then all of a sudden he went off and started to explore the playground further. They brought their truck, digger and wheelbarrow...and were busy for a long time :-)

 Barbera and Lotte invited us to go to Artis Zoo  on Monday.  We walked around ..and it was so much fun to see what K saw.  He was more interested into sand than the birds  :-) ...he noticed an egg instead of the big Leopard in the corner...he was fascinated by the small fish in the pond..instead of the huge butterflies next to it :-)

Wednesday we went to Wijk aan Zee for a real American breakfast.  The cook needs to book himself a trip to the US and have a real American breakfast. ...but we were in good company...Lisette, Nienke, Raven, Grandma Radsma, 2 nieces and Lotte..so we had a good time. Afterwards we took a short stroll on the beach. K didn't want to be in the picture :-)

Of course there was time for crafts :-) we had a good time with puffy paint. The idea came from Happy Hooligans post earlier this month. We tried out the blow paint  (blaas stiften) we had bought from toys42hands.nl  a while ago.

 K spend a lot of time playing with kitchen towels and scarfs. He folded them...draped them etc. Amazing to see the things he comes up with for play.

 Cooking with packing peanuts :-) , water bottle and empty vitamin bottle. I love watching him play, listen to the stories he tells while playing.

The tripods came out of our pantry. K didn't know what they were and spend a good half hour exploring them. Trying out everything. ..later on he started to add things...scarfs etc. 

K has a fascination with eggs...O is fascinated by bottle caps. He just loves to play with bottle caps. Luckily for him..we have loads of bottle caps!

 
In and out...open and close..great exploration :-)  (we do also have regular kids toys...really!)

 This morning we woke up and discovered it had snowed again. K went out in his pyjama's ..but was smart enough to put on boots and a jacked. O ...sneaked outside while I didn't look..but of course had not thought of boots and a jacket. It didn't take him long to discover that snow is wet and cold. :-)

In loveeeeee.... :-)

K is in love with his teacher! And with the girl from acro gym and with the girl from the baby Einstein video and the girl from....   What a fun phase!

This week his teacher celebrated her birthday. K made her a K Original...and had big plans for more presents. He wanted me to gift wrap most of his books :-). In the end he went to school with the painting and 3 painted egg containers. He had a great time at the party.

Today (Sunday) it felt like spring had started. It was 10 degrees C ..sunny...blue skies. We met up with our friends Wendy, Amy and Finn. We met at the play park of Spaarnwoude. Great playground. The kids had a wonderful time playing in the sand.

It was O's first time at the playground. In the beginning ..he stood..looked around and when he had taken it all in ..he went off and had a good time. Keeping an eye on me and his brother. Great to see how he adjusts and enjoys.

This upcoming week we have spring break (Really weird name as it is still winter!).

O loves to play with bowls, cups, boxes, lids...pens...well actually anything that fits in his bowls, cups and boxes collection :-) 

K loves to help me around the house. His latest thing is folding!  ..he does it really well.

Raven is showing K how to play a game on her tablet.