pakjesavond

What a lovely Thursday afternoon! After celebrating the 5th of December at school and seeing Sinterklaas, the boys had the afternoon free. We played games and did arts&crafts and sang songs until the boys got tired of waiting for their presents to arrive. By then it was dark (and wet) and off they went outside to see if they could spot any Pieten. I don't know how they missed them but when they got back, there the presents were, at the front door! The rest of the evening was filled with the opening of and playing with all their presents. Two happy boys!

Oh those Pieten can be so funny, did Papa only get old newspapers in his huge present? 

 Pakjes Piet

 Where is Piet?

Kapla time

 how high can we build it?

watch out, it's swaying!

 waaaaaah!

The Sint

So, it's nearly Christmas which means Sinterklaas is back in town. He arrived, along with all his Pieten friends and his horse, last Saturday.

Despite the international attention concerning 'Zwarte' Piet, everything carried on as usual. It may have had racist beginnings, waaaay back when, but nowadays it's really just an old tradition filled with fun, excitement, songs, family, and of course, presents and sweets! I have certainly changed my opinion about it all over the last 13 years. The children LOVE it and get totally swept away in all the excitement. For the next 2 weeks we talk, eat, sleep and breathe Sinterklaas!

The boys were very excited and it was fun to watch Travis really join in the festivities this year.

 

I still have a sore neck!

 

Hey Jan, what are you doing here?

Disco Piet is always the highlight!  

   The parade

(And honestly, they generally get called 'Pieten' as opposed to 'Zwarte Pieten' and I think the painted black faces are on their way out anyway... not that the kids will notice.)
 

london, visiting friends

We managed to fit in a visit to London in our Autumn holidays. We stayed at Martin, Faye, Nicholas and Daniel and had an excellent time! I started with this photo because it kind of typifies what I always think of as London weather. Our Sunday sightseeing was the only rain we had all weekend though!

 

the boys loved Trafalgar square

On Friday, while Nic and Danny were at school, we went to the Natural History Museum. I love the fact that museums are free in London. The highlight were the dinosaur skeletons!

The T-rex was pretty life-like and scared both the boys... 

There was also time to play outside 

Helping Faye with the gardening, Travis with his worm. 

 Daniel and Faye grew potatoes from another potato!

and time for a lovely autumn walk in Isabella plantation

 

Thanks guys, it was awesome! Where's our next meet-up?

summer in Italy: Lake Orta

Our last stop was a hotel right on the shores of Lake Orta.

Hotel Giardinetto. You can see it, left, behind the boys.

 Lovely pool but we (and the other guests) spent most of our time swimming in the lake.

look carefully, it looks like Travis kicked Dylan into the water!

 

 

Can you spot Dylan and Marko? 

 

 the jetty 

 

 

 

 

The lake was the perfect size to zoot around in a little motor boat!

 

 

And that was the end of the summer holiday. These photos do make it seem as if it was endlessly long. Dylan is already looking forward to Winter. Me, I would never say no to a few more months of Summer!