Omarijke's 65 weekend

My mom turned 65 this past year and to celebrate we all went away for a weekend together to a gorgeous well kept converted traditional farm house maintained by the forestry department - so smack bang in the middle of the Dutch woods in Ruurlo. The male nephews clearly where unanimous in priorities - food! After numerous growth spurts Kaat is eating very little at the moment...

Of course the forest around offered ample entertainment and looked stunning this time of year with all the fall colors.

 Plenty of treasures to be found....

 And because some other family specifically booked it even the maze with watch tower was open.

Our kids clearly lasted shorter in the cold and with the walking, nevertheless a morning trip.

After the physical activity it was time for princess, pirate & board games with Oma.

And we dreamed up our own games by hiding treasures for each other and laying out treasure hunts. Kaat decided that all her boots, the leather & rubber ones, should be fine in the puddles....not!

 And despite the language barrier, Rick understands Dutch but speaks not enough for Auke, the boys had a great time together.

We also played hide & seek - here Kaat counting to 3. How do you mean you need more time to hide? No you don't as you will be told where to hide half the time anyway -;)

Balancing on the edge of the water well singing Dutch songs (as taught by Ms Gerdien)

And the traditional Dutch 'boompje verwisselen' (lit. exchanging trees) which the boys dared to take part in by themselves after a while. Almost understanding what to do.

And of course some quality papa & mama time and lots of stories.

Lovely weekend and happy 65th Omarijke!

Family time

As it was Diwali school holiday here and Eelco had a training in NL we took all the kids to the Netherlands the past few weeks. We where both working, quite a bit. But especially the kids also got some decent exposure to the Dutch fall season and spend quality time with the Opa's & Oma's and Nephews.

Of course just hanging out at the funny Dutch house is also fun. Look at this hole in the door with the brushes in it! (the letterbox) My toys & hands fit through!!

I worked quite a bit from home - especially early in the mornings, when I would have some much better company then sometimes in the office. Cuter to look at anyway -;)

We spend quite a bit of time near the lovely windy beach.

Finding treasures

Riding in the tram there and back

And using Oma to sleep on

and Opa - who was inspired.

Kaat also does very well on the Dutch coast in the cold gusty wind. Her name fits her!

 We also visited the aquarium with Opa Kees & Elena

Making it clear that Duuk also got the hang if the Dutch weather and was no longer faced by it.

 Duuk reading Kaat's princess book with Opa

 And then when Rick had left to go spend a few days with my mom, Kaat decided to introduce Duuk to princess hood.

He was a willing & cheerful participant.

We also moved the play paradise for a few hours to Agnes' house in Amsterdam - who will probably still find things out of place for weeks to come.

And with the big nephews there was only, a lot of fast running (no pictures) or downtime at Wybe's birthday party.

Kaat was upset they had no princess dresses at the house. Fortunately Tjibbe has some girlfriends which live nearby and Auntie Bernadette had their moms phone numbers and sorted something out to safe the day for Kaat. The nephews had some questions and giggles on her princess dress fixation (there where 3 o choose from so she changed out a few times during the afternoon).

It almost felt as it if was all normal we where around and none of us got a cold.

Halloween

Yes a little behind in terms of blog posts.... on October 31st we celebrated Halloween here in Bangalore. The kids had a halloween parade at school and we had trick or treating at the compound. Of course Rick wanted to be a pirate. 

 Kaat left the house as a butterfly but decided she did not like the outfit enough and managed to score a pink dress at school that matched all the other princesses.

  There were loads of princesses but not as many pirates. Most boys dressed up as....ehm...what again ? -;)

 Rick decided to just stay in character for the day and Kaat changed again. With papa dressed I send them on their way for some games in the new club house whilst I decorated our entrance and set up Duuk & Sarala with bowl of candy for the visiting trick or treaters.

 Even in the dark you can tell the club house is quite nice and a good place to wait for dark to come and do some pre-halloween games.

 As it was also Diwali weekend many houses were elaborately decorated with flowers and lights - not really just for Halloween. Rick & Kaat still easily remembered what to do.

So Rick was explaining Simeon at our American friends hose who of course has the best themed decoration for these kind of things.

Back at the clubhouse the kids ate pizza and played with the pond.

and there was halloween story time.

Kaat & Lila literally watching the music player, happy, tired & satisfied.

We finished packing our bags after and left for the airport a few hours later - with a very tired pirate. Bad news for us - which we did not know yet when we took this picture. It was the holiday weekend the the queue at immigration (to leave India) was 2 hours!