Nativity play

At the kids school the reception class each year puts on a nativity play. This year Kaat is in Reception and she volunteered to be Maria. The fun started with the fact that I got repeated instructions Kaat had to wear a plane white tunic on the day. As we had no such thing I asked around with friends and took the planer dress on offer in white. It still had some sparkle on the bodice to satisfy Kaat so I thought I had done well.

Then the evening before the play I got an anxious call from Kaat's teacher. She had no idea whether I was actually in Bangalore and had gotten worried when karat had declared she was all ready for the next day's play and that should would wear her Tinkerbell dress. Oops. The teacher was worried that Kaat would actually manage to convince us and Anbu of such and hence called to make sure I would not -:)

Duuk and I went out to school with Kaat and Rick that morning and watched Kaat being further prepped. The while white dress was barely visible by the way!

Duuk wanted to stay close to Rick when it became clear he could not be close to Kaat.

And then when the waiting for the show took a while, he wanted to sit as usual, on top of Rick.

Kaat was playing Maria, with her now standard acting partner Hannes (Hans from Hans & Gretel at the school show) playing Jozef. They did very well together.

No lines to recite but the moves where all fabulous.

Going around looking for a place for the night

The birth of the baby (from under Kaat's scarf) was clearly a joyous affair.

With Kat reporting back to Ms Ash 'that she had done it'

There were lost of Shepherds (there are about 30 reception class kids in 2 classes)

And even more Angels

Once the story was over the kids sang Happy Birthday for baby Jezus, and Jingle Bells. 

And that was then end of the 10 min show.

Fabulous Maria!

Rick & Art for a Cause (Backlog-blog, life in Bangalore)

A friend of mine here in Bangalore runs an organization called Mommomobile - and aims to provide mobile cancer screening units for women in rural area's in India. (Link to Mammomobile site )

The lady in question, Shadi, is an avid Artist herself, used to be our neighbor and two other current neighbors help out in her organization. because of this the team organized an Art workshop for kids in our Windmills clubhouse. Rick took part in the session with me in support. It was a fabulous few hours trying some different art making techniques, being talked through the process and inspired by Shadi's enthusiasm and examples.

Rick was very very concentrated and committed. I made him take off his shirt, as it was actual grown up paint, and not really the washable kid kind.

Afterwards came the presentation

All kids got to show their work

Got a chance to provide a story with their work, and received a healthy dosage of stimulating feedback from Shadi, fueling further Artistic growth. Great fun!

A few weeks later there was another 'Art for a Cause' affair in our clubhouse. This time organized by residents, as part of a campaign to conserve water. The community we live in is build by Total Environment and is supposed to be a sustainable living environment. As we were not quite heading in the right direction with our water consumption an effort was set up to implement some measures and make us all much more aware. There was a workshop organized for the kids, in preparation of which they got to paint a life size picture of themselves.

Rick loved having me as an audience, but he needed and wanted no help. His ideas where plenty and with 45 minutes of concentrated work he was done.

The line up in the club house as a result looked fabulous! (and was about twice as long as shown here)

From summer picnic to snow in < 48 hours (Backlog-blog Mieussy)

Less then 48 hours after we had a nice picnic with 3 families, in summer clothes on the col we woke up to….fresh snow! Near the house it looked not too elaborate.

 But another 800m up, definitely snow. And not all rental cars had winter tires yet…..

 Our picnic spot did not look as attractive anymore

 But Rick was happy and wandered off immediately

 Kaat wanted to make an Olaf (the snowman from the reasonably new Disney movie Frozen)

 Praz de Lys looked pretty in white and the Mont Blanc was covered in clouds.

 Duuk had fallen asleep in the car so he missed the 10 min of snow fun.

 It will take a little before our kids bodes like the snow as long as their minds want them too…..ooooooh COLD!

Xtra Auke (Backlog-blog Mieussy)

After the big nephews left us in Mieussy, we still had some extra time with Auke. As he had also already been in the house before he is quite comfortable there and we resorted to some smaller outings, like a walk up the hill starting at the back of our house.

 From a little higher up we got great views of the house and a different angle on 'our' views. Our roof is the one behind the parked cars.

 Although the kids did quite some running we made of course no pace at all. Too much to see and talk about.

" Tante Neeltje,…."

 Sticks, clothes on, clothes off

 Treasures

 Deep conversations (non verbal!)

 Independence tests

 Different opinions on where to go

 And then a reward at the end - a gorgeous Rainbow!!

 Or actually two! Much better visible in real life then on the pic.

Sinterklaas in Bangalore

On December 6th, as a detour on his way back from the Netherlands to Spain Sint stopped by in Whitefield, Bangalore and we were all invited.

Just like in the Netherlands, all kids could easily be clustered by teacher through their hats. Ms Gerdien had done a fabulous job of course, and actually as our kids are the only ones we know off in Bangalore with actual Dutch lessons, they also were the only ones with a hat.

 Both Rick and Kaat remembered they have a Piet-costume and were adamant to wear it. Rick's was too small. But anyway. The kids were very very excited.

 And fortunately they did not have to wait long before he arrived! On a Royal Enfield.

 Duuk was a little stoic, but not scared at all. Maybe mainly interested in getting back to the pepernoten.

 There were quiet some crying kids but Rick and Kaat had no fear and took front row.

 I suspect that Rick was actually one of the few kids who paid attention to everything Sint said and Kaat and Enzi were the only ones brave enough to do something for Sint - of course sing a song Ms Gerdien taught them. Kaat was also first to hug Sint from the small kids who got to see him first.

 Duuk, oblivious to te importance of Sint, was at the front all the time too, mainly I think because that was where he found a continuous supply of pepernoten.

 When it was present time Kaat grabbed Piet by the shoulder, told him her name was Kaat Jorritsma and that he would have a pink present for her and then she sat down to diligently wait for it -:)

 Pfew….. The Pieten had managed to locate the present fairly soon, and it was the right one. Happy Kaat!

 Rick and Kaat did not hesitate to storm back to Sinterklaas to thank him and show him the amazing presents they got.

 As Duuk's present had been making noise every time the presents where moved in transport it had been banned to the bottom of the bag. Not bothered being the last one to get his he diligently set out to unwrap, supervised by Tandia.

 No supervision needed.

 Though it looked for a while as if more then 2 engineering dads were needed to get the musical cars from their store packaging after Duuk had removed the Sinterklaas paper. Some sweat and teeth and brute force later though…..pfew!

 A very successful afternoon and our vote for the cutest two of the afternoon goes to Ballerina Piet Kaatje and her friend Enzi.

See you next year Sinterklaas!