Hannah at school, painting a picture for Book Week
And her picture
Hannah's teacher on the right, Juf Fhathima
Hannah and Sam dressing up for our wedding anniversary
Our little fairy fell asleep during the movie
Hester is sleeping over, and we're having our favourite pasta
In the evening, they're building an impressive Thomas world
And now it’s too late. Our little bunny Kaatje passed away last Sunday, in her sleep. We came home from town and found her in the rabbit hutch. We suspect she had an ulcer, but of course, no post-mortem will be carried out… Here is Kaatje, squinting away at the sun, in her favourite spot in the hutch.
Kaatje, 2003-2009
We were a bit busy. Doing this…
Older, wiser and definitely a bit heavier we are looking back on 10 great years, and are wishing for a lot more to come!!!
We hadn’t posted any pictures of the new allotment, so here we go! It’s still a loooong way from finished, so a full tour will follow in spring, when everything looks cool and clean and ready! At least now we have space to put down some chairs, and as soon as we get the keys to the shed, also a place to put our stuff, so we don’t have to load up the car every time we go to do a bit of hoeing.
Our new domain:
Feet up
). Behind the feet are our brambles, raspberries and gooseberries. And a lot of soil that still needs to be turned over before winter time. Behind behind that is crops that still need to be harvested by the previous user, and which we don’t have to touch yet. Tomorrow, as the kids are away, we are going to try and make some yardage…
Aaargggh! There's treasure buried her! (ie bulbs)
Our little farmer tiger having a ball!
First, we make sure our hair and makeup looks right:
Hair and makeup
Then, we read the program, so that we know what’s coming up:
Reading up
And we try to get in first:
The big crush
In the interval, it’s time to think over what we just saw:
Relaxxxxx
And afterwards, we complement the artist on a job well done!
Dirk Scheele
Yes, Sam and Amy went to see Dirk Scheele (and band) sing loads of cool songs about Dikkie Dik, a big orange cat with attitude. It was great! They had front row seats, so were close to the action. Sam loved it, and is definitely up for another theatre visit 
But first, it’s Hannah’s turn again. As a true Annie MG Schmidt fan, she’s going to see ‘Tante Patent’ this Friday. Looking forward to it!
Whenever a little boy turns 3, one party isn’t enough. Three is about right!!! So, we started out with party 1 at home, when we unwrapped his presents and blew out the candles on his birthday cake…
That's a big one!!!
Proper stuff for Sam the Builder
Smile!
A strange-looking, but yummy cake. Just call it Dali Mickey...
At daycare, handing out his treats!
All the kids sing for Sam
More presents, a cool rescue chopper!
Hanneke also came to drop off a present
The Thomas draw bridge and Cranky (not pictured)
Party 2: Joshja, Shanara, Hester and Marit dropped by, and later on, we also got a short visit from Destin and Ebony (and all their moms)… Not really good piccies, we were too busy fetching coffee, cake, sweets, and having fun chatting and clearing up after the little uns…
Hester, Hannah, Marit and Sam
Shanara and Joshja and their moms. To the left is Ingrid, Shanara's mom, who is 31w pregnant with twins!
And party 3! With the ‘Vrienzinnen’, Amy’s group of friends – a combined birthday for Sam, Ruben and Marije. Again, more chatting than picture taking 
Sam playing with Simone en Ruben
With Ruben and Yestin, opening presents: loads-a-cars!
Sam has been horribly spoilt with cars, trains, books, and more. Thanks to everyone! Even though he was a bit ill, he enjoyed last week and all the partying very much!!!!
Last night, we took Hannah to her first concert. Not a kiddy girly band, not a musically dancy thing, no, the real thing: Marillion! The band often called ‘a Scottish heavy metal band’* was playing in our hometown, and as Steve is fan No. 1, that was one we couldn’t miss! As it was an ‘acoustic’ sit-down concert, it was a great opportunity to get Hannah to see the band, as she is almost a bigger fan than her daddy!
We were all wearing the T-shirts (Amy even got a proper women’s size one later on) and had a great night. Steve was clapping so hard and so long, the band even sang a song especially for him: Easter, which nearly had all of us in tears…
Afterwards, Steve went off to the pub with some other fans, and we cycled home to have cake, and end a perfect day!!!
Smile! You're on camera!
Some Dutch courage??? And see the shirt? It's FAMOUS now!!!
)
* which they are not, it’s prog-rock, people… tssss….
Little Famke, fast asleep (unlike all night last night)
Proud parents, Gerbrich and Michiel, with our box full of prezzies
And a proud auntie!
Someone loves bath time...
And the new mommy loves bath time too!
One more for good measure...
Yes, she arrived!!! On Sam’s birthday we woke up to the news that Amy’s sister had been admitted to hospital with high blood pressure and that her water had been broken. It was a very exciting day, and we kept an eye on our phones and mobiles while partying with Sam (more on that later). Then late in the afternoon, the good news came:
FAMKE
had arrived!!! After a good labour and a few hours of good hard work, Gerbrich and Michiel became the proud parents of a precious girl!
We will be posting a picture here as soon as we’ve been to see the new family! As Sam is still ill, he won’t be able to come, so it will probably be Amy and Hannah who will do the first honours.
A long blog post today… As a lot has happened this week!
It all started out really well, with Sammy doing his Teddy Bear 1 test at the swimming pool. He had to swim on his belly and back, jump and dive in the pool, and do a few other tricks. Of course, no problems at all. He had great fun jumping in the pool and reaching up as high as he could to get to the teddy bears, that Barbara, the teacher, had put up to decorate the pool. Steve made some cracker pictures, and here’s a selection!
Little did we know that 9 hours later, Amy and Sam were at the hospital, as Sam was suffering from a severy bout of pseudo croup. It was extremely scary to watch him, as he had so much trouble breathing and had a very high fever. After a few hours of observation, they were sent home with medicine, just in case the croup flared up again. It was a fitful night, but we all survived. Yesterday, Sam had another bad bout, but this time slept through the night and woke up quite cheerful. Today, he was tired and very clingy, and because of all the coughing, he got an earache and even had to vomit a few times.
But… tomorrow he will be well again (we hope), because it will be his THIRD BIRTHDAY!!! Yes, our little mister man is turning 3! And he is having cake, Mickey Mouse cake, with chocolate filling, even though we botched the icing up a bit (so no pictures, we just hope he recognizes it as a MM, ).
Piccies of Mister Man with his prezzies, balloons, bunting etc… later on in the week!
