My little boy turned 7 recently. I really can’t work out where those years have gone to. He is such a confident, and intelligent boy, and such a pleasure to be with. He has lived in 4 different countries and consequently knows he is British but doesn’t call Britain home. Home is where we live! I love that.
He loves Star Wars so there was nothing else for it, he had to have a Star Wars cake, and what a delicious cake it was. Yum Yum!
I have never been much of a beach person, it’s the sand. I know, I lived in the desert for 2 years, but I hate suncream mixed with sand – yuch! But this summer, which so far has been lovely, we have decided to just go to the beach as often as possible. I have a camping chair I lug with me so I am far enough from the sand and we always take a picnic.
Saturday was the best day of the weekend so we headed out and had a great day.
The children quickly kicked off their shoes and ran down to the (cold) North Sea, to have hours of fun jumping waves and digging out huge sand castles.
The picture above makes it look like a cold day, but it wasn’t it was lovely and warm, we had a great day. Here’s to more lovely sunny beach days!
Until next time…….
The children are off school for a week so we are tagging along on a business trip with my hubby, I know I’m a lucky girl. I will be dropping in during the week, but I will mainly be at the pool (it is about 38 degrees) and catching up with old friends, and enjoying the view.
Here are some of my old pics
Until next time…..
Thursday 30th April is a public holiday in The Netherlands where the dutch celebrate Koninginnedag. Many neighbourhoods hold street parties and if the weather is good partying can go on all day.
In our neighbourhood, there was a cycle ride on decorated bikes for the children following a street organ.
The children followed the organ around the streets and had a great time trying not to crash into one another.
There was a best decorated cake competition. My daughter decorated her cake with orange smarties and orange jelly babies in the shape of a crown. It is the cake at the bottom of the picture with a large section missing. You get to eat all the cakes with coffee after the ride. Yummy.
Later in the day there are traditional dutch games and a game of football. It was a fabulous day, with terrific weather.
Unfortunately later in the afternoon there was some tragic news and many of the flags were put at half mast. My neighbour commented that Koninginnedag would never be the same again, I hope that the Queen and her family can continue with their tradition in the future of visiting a different town each year. It would be a shame if that had to change.
I’m back after having a wonderful week in the UK visiting with family and then having a relaxing, although rather sickly week back in Holland. The children go back to school tomorrow so things will return to normal again around here.
I don’t have many photos of the holidays, but I will show you a few of what I have. I am far to much of an ‘in the moment’ gal that I forget to take photos, or worse still, forget to take my camera with me! But any how here is a brief snap shot of one day from our trip.
The children love horse riding, but can’t do it in Holland because they are too young, and they spent a lovely couple of hours with the horses. It was especially nice for my daughter because she had hoped to groom the horse like one of her favourite story book characters, and that wish came true.
We walked behind taking in the hills, it makes a nice change from the flat lands we have grown used to. The view above is looking up to the Malvern Hills.
And finally the beginnings of my new crochet project.
Until next time….
Next Monday is International day at my children’s school. Now, because we have been expats for a while my children are truly international and it makes it difficult to know what they should wear. My son was born in Singapore and has lived in Wales, United Arab Emirates and The Netherlands. My daughter was born in Wales (although my husband and I, are English) and has also lived in the UAE and Holland. So what to do?
My son has agreed to be a french boy , so I need to find a beret and a baguette! My daughter has agreed to be a dutch girl, so I have whizzed this up this morning. I used Jona‘s Evelyn skirt pattern as a starting point, but made it much longer. I think it looks quite cute, but because it’s not pink I’m not sure it will get worn at any other time. Girls – eh?
I will make an apron to go over it tomorrow and will try and sort out a hat. I was kind of inspired by this picture
(picture courtesy of Eucalypta over on flickr)
I have had a busy couple of weeks, some good and some bad. The bad has been that both the children have had to have time off school with a vomiting bug, which my daughter found very hard to shake off, she was in and out of school a lot. They are now both back at school and much better, thank goodness and are dressed in red today for Red Nose Day! They would have been gutted if they missed any of the fun.
The good, was my daughter was able to have her 5th birthday party on Saturday. She had a super time, with all her girl friends from her class at school and my parents visited from the UK. The party went well, and we made beaded necklaces, decorated some small jewellery boxes, played party games and ate food. Perfect!
On the Sunday it was a beautiful day and we went for a walk in Meijendel Dune park after eating huge pancakes for lunch. The sun was warm but there was a cool northerly breeze blowing.
I have managed to do a couple of crafty things despite all the chaos of the past 2 weeks which I will show you another time.
Until next time……….
I have decided that my hexagon blanket is big enough to cover me and keep me cozy so I have moved on to edging. I am so excited that it is nearly finished, nothing like the end of a project in sight to get you motivated.
I had originally thought that I would edge it in the yellow that was in the centres, but when I came to it I wasn’t sure.
I tried the scallop edging from the Vintage Crochet book but felt it was too big.
I asked a couple of bloggy friends and slept on it (not the blanket – the question of what to do) and then had a go at edging with purple.
I checked out Lucy’s hex and her edging was neater and smaller so I tried making it smaller and I am happier with the result
I love it now and if only I hadn’t ran out of wool I would be hooking now instead of blogging!
Oh well, the blanket will have to wait because we have a busy weekend. My little girl is 5 on Monday and we are having 10 of her girlfriends round to make necklaces and play games on Saturday. My parent are flying over tomorrow for a fun filled weekend of celebrations, so not alot of blogging, sewing or crocheting for me this weekend.
Whatever you do enjoy your weekend!
I wouldnt like to tell you just how long this took, because it would be embarrassing. But hey it’s done now. I just need to get my gorgeous husband to get it hung up on the wall.
I hope you had a lovely Valentines day. I would show you the cake that my lovely family purchased it was a chocolate loaf cake with a chocolate ganache on top with red marzipan hearts on, however we ate it rather too quickly. And I forgot to get the camera out…oops. Never mind it was delicious.
I will however show you these quick cards I whipped up Friday night after realising that I had forgotten about Valentines day! I really need to use that diary more to jog my frazzled brain. My 4 year old daughter was the only one to get a card from a secret admirer, although we think we know who sent it, she is adamant it wasn’t her ‘boyfriend’! (BTW – my daughter can never stop herself getting some pens out and customising – so the card on the right has her handiwork on it!)
Sorry….
I was cold this weekend. I spent all morning on Saturday sorting a load of no longer wanted and outgrown toys to either be sold or given away and as I am coming down with a cold, all I wanted to do in the afternoon was to sit on the sofa with a cup of tea, a biscuit and watch tv. My daughter wanted to do the same, omitting the tea for a cup of water though. So we sat and watched 2 halfs of 2 movies. We watched the first half of Lady and the Tramp until little girl got bored and wanted a change, so we switched and watched the second half of High School Musical 2. It was really nice to just loll about and relax, and snuggle under the blanket, the hex blanket just covers my legs. My daughter had to make do with a cheap ikea blanket!
What did you do this weekend?
Until next time…….
