Club Счастье

I realized yesterday that in my 4 years in Houston (yes I have been here 4 years this week), I have never ever gone clubbing here - after going several times a week in Aberdeen and Yuzhno. In Yuzhno the most recent place we used to frequent was called 'Club Happiness' and I have many fond memories of long nights there with many good friends. Last night at home I realized I actually have club happiness at home here in Houston, somewhat different, but also good for many happy nights! 

With lots of cuddles & silly faces 

Big smiles & giggles

shows & dancing

 and I am going to 'getcha!'

And Rick made phones for the whole family as well so lots of direct and indirect good conversations going on -;) Hallo Hallo!?

Patent WO2012/112668 A2

Art

Last week was Grand Parents day - we completely missed it but Kaat did not skip it and made all y'all something nice.

Rick made a drawing of the Family. Not too sure what to read into this. Especially when I asked where I was and where papa was and where Kaatje was and we all turned out to be the exact same dot. 

Rick keeps referring even after a week to this picture as 'the family' so he does see clear references to us in all this.

Shuttle

Last week the Shuttle made a stop on its way to LA as its final resting place, in Houston. Upon arrival and departure it made a few fly-by's over Houston. Eelco and the kids got quite a good look at it and I saw it too albeit somewhat further away and whilst driving so not able to pay 100% attention. Plenty of amazing pictures going around made by all sorts of fellow Houstonians to share:

The background in this picture is the Houston Harbor and the San Jacinto monument (Kees that is where we went to the battle re-enactment)

So the end of an era - pretty cool stuff!

Preppy polished nails

Kaat likes the girly stuff, and when she decides she wants something it is sometimes too much effort to talk her out of it.

Drying......

Mmmm, maybe I can do this myself?

Voor Papa in Norfolk

Nul keer raden wat wij aan het doen zijn -;)

Papa, papa, PAPAAAA!

Lego

After staying at Jaspers house (in the Hill Country) for a week without Jasper, Rick was pretty pleased that he came over last weekend to play or maybe more so that the whole family including brand new baby could get out of the house for a bit and enjoy our pool in return to cool off. The boys are quite funny together and the whole time you hear 'Hey Ricky' and 'Hey Jasper' with 80% of the remainder of the conversations being absolutely non-verbal. The boys don't really go for the same toys at all when they play - except one thing - the Lego.

No issues though - playing with the Lego with a little help from Eelco goes all in utter agreement, even down to the point when it comes down to how this tower is going to fall & break down. Fun to watch!

More Friends

Last weekend we had a whole weekend full of social events including a gathering with 8 adults and 6 kids at our place. Everyone was happy and all kids where seated at the table having a go at their food when Rick proclaimed 'I need more friends to come!'

To us it looked just fine as it was. Guess it just confirms that Rick is a people & group person. Suits me just fine -;)

Hill Country - the House

And herewith to close of the holiday series some pictures in and around the lovely house in the hilly woods we got to use for the week. First of all we where not the only visitors all week:

The dear came up close very often adn we all loved watching them as much as they loved watching us.

Apart from watching deer the kids also loved watching 'mouse!' as Kaat calls it (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) - either on my laptop inside in front of the huge fire place.

Or outside in the lovely lounge seating

Rick loved hanging out outside finding lots of treasures and dreaming away in his own fantasy land for hours on end.

Happy being left alone with his own games.

Kaat looked often as if she was up to something

But other then steeling everyone's food all the time, including dad's beef jerky, mom's blue cheese and Rick's snacks (who was too busy anyway) she was mainly cute, sweet & happy.

No snakes, no spiders, very few if any mosquito's, some lovely hummingbirds and just one tiny Scorpion we saw all week. I though the Scorpion was about 1 - 2 cm. According to Eelco it was more like 4 or 5. I can tell you if it really would have been that big I would not have gotten this close to tae a picture!

The house was fabulous in a beautyful rugged but green Texas environment. This is the back of the house from the pool. 

This is the 'deer's' view from the back of the house.

 And this is the front of the House. 

As Rick said - I want to stay here forever and ever. That is how we felt although it was also quite nice to be back in our own beds again.

Hill Country Day 6 - The Pool

On day 6 no major adventures - just relaxing by the pool and around the house and Gruene. Actually we used the pool daily - several times - not just after 6 days. Both kids LOVE the water! Like his dad Rick can last for hours and hour and hours on end in the pool (or any type of water) and is really busy with all sorts of games, imaginary adventures and really trying to teach himself new tricks and test the limitations or capabilities of his body. 

Rick is easy giving himself praise with what he does - or an occasional gold medal for instance for swimming under water.

Chief Kaatje watches it all and says Ugh (Lucky Luke) or maybe its her scores.

Kaat loves the pool too but is done in 20 min or so. Then she wants to get out and HAS to wear her (really Rick's) nijntje towel and eat again. Fortunately there was a good fence around the pool so if she came back to the noises coming from the pool or to watch Rick she could not jump in unnoticed.

Kaat too has a lot to say about her swimming - or maybe more so ours - we all get directed to do what she wants us to do or help her out. Very serious!

After a couple of days like that Rick only got more comfortable around the pool and although his technique is pretty poor (doggy style) we are a lot less worried about him near a pool. He has the right instincts and comes back up - buying us the extra time needed in case of any pool accident.

Good news for both of them - swimming lessons will be available at the compound in Bangalore.

Water Feature

We had a farewell party yesterday afternoon which was held at a Restaurant with a water feature. Safe to say that it took no time at all for our kids to get in and be happy:

Both kids soaked in no time and to make sure he was covered completely Rick did several head dips too. Subsequently Rick was complaining about the fact that we did not bring his swim clothes. When I tried to explain him that this was not a pool and not for water play he looked utterly disappointed in my abilities to recognize that I was obviously wrong. Probably based on a disappointing experience with me he mmovedr on to dad and tried to explain him that he really really really needed to take the water out of his diaper - oh really!?!

As a girl, Kaat is legally not allowed to be 'bare chested' in Texas, so we tied her a little toga from her blanket when it was time to go home and had to take off the soaked clothes to avoid my truck smelling of swamp water for months to come.

Hill Country Day 5 - Cowboy Capital (Bandera)

Bandera is the self proclaimed Cowboy Capital of the world and with a population of just over a 1000 it is a tiny rural town that exists probably mainly on tourism, nearby major ranches (like DDD, Double D, Diamond etc) and passers by. As it was 'Celebrate Bandera weekend' we decided to check it out. Us in the truck feels normal now and even more so if 2/3 of the other cars you encounter are also trucks.

 

After a scenic drive through the hill country we arrived in Bandera and found a parking space 'in style' for my city slicker truck.

The food at the feast was more in line with what we expected and Rick demonstrated us how to stow away the BBQ food and texas sized hot dogs.

As we had lingered too long in the pool we had missed the morning parade but we arrive just in time for the shoot out - some kind of enactment of some 'famous' Texas gun fights.

Rick HATES the sound of gun fire so he did not enjoy it at all but the rest of us thought it was very entertaining to watch though very slow paced. With any of these type of events we always wonder whether the participants or the spectators enjoy it the most.

After the fair it was time for the Pow Wow. This is a native festival which was on a different site a few miles out of town close to the location of the evenings Rodeo activities. The Pow Wow had all sorts of demonstrations, and stands to buy artifacts and arts & crafts, and a native dance competition. We clearly have a gap in our education as Rick immediately shouted out loud 2 or 3 times when he saw the people in their native costumes - "What are these Aliens doing here"....oops. A lot of explaining to do!

What the place did not have a lot of was shade and it it was roasting yet again that day. The kids where intrigued enough though and did not complain.

People of all ages competed in the dancing including what appeared to be those 4 teenage brothers all with identical turkey style tails. The outfits where quite beautiful. 

The audience was pretty serious - so I adjusted - and tried to understand how the whole thing worked and what made the difference between a good and a low dancing score.

Rick & Kaat make themselves at home anywhere these days and quickly settled into all sorts of other imaginary games and activities.

'Momma' as they say in Texas was VERY hot but also very happy watching her kids and it all. Finally overtaken by the real holiday feeling!

We decided we had had enough sun and did not fancy the bleachers in teh burning sun for another couple of ours to watch the Rodeo so we headed back. Too lazy too cook we ended up at yet another restaurant. The humid hot weather proved ideal for Kaat's curls and we finally managed to get her to pose for a curls shot.

We ordered some pasta for the kids but Cowboy Rick preferred papa's ribs.

No worries - after a quick break to watch the sun go down Kaat was happy to empty her brothers' plate.