One surprise after another...

Our Marten turned 40 on June 14th... so I decided to throw him a surprise party on the Saturday before. It is a great pity I was not blogging during the weeks leading up to this surprise party, as it was a regular comedy of errors and I was just a teensy weensy bit stressed out.

The important thing is that Marten had a fantastic birthday. We went to the forest on Saturday afternoon (am trying not to think now about the ticks we found on us afterwards...)
and on Sunday we had a great afternoon of football (soccer, of course) with a miraculous turn-out of our friends and family here. Marten had no idea any of it was coming, and his response made every moment of preparation worthwhile.

Here is the birthday boy with Sonia and his birthday cakes. Sonia thinks those cakes look pretty good indeed.

Maddy noticed the lack of party hats (yeah, well... can't think of everything, now can I?!?!) and set to work fashioning one for Marten out of a paper napkin. Her summer collection will be available soon in a boutique near you.

Maddy and Soniaberry

The weather suddenly turned good, so we went to Zegerplas (the lake by our house). Within a half an hour of this photo, the girls had given up wading and trying to catch little fish with their net in favour of stripping down to their skivvies and splashing eachother. This photo makes me think of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stories.

Friends...

Sonia and Isabelle are both thrilled with the idea of eachother, but are still trying to figure out how to express their affection for eachother without either knocking the other over with hugs (Sonia) or going all shy and quiet (Isabelle). Here they seem to have found a comfortable middle road.

Photo taken on June 4th. Happy Birthday, Courtney!!!

Loose toof

Here is Maddy with a toof so loose, it swung in and out like a little white barn door. Hanging by a thread. For days on end. Needless to say, the suspense was killing us.

Maddy was so excited she could hardly stand it; we all had to look several times a day. I have somehow earned her trust in judging a.) whether the tooth was indeed looser (always say yes), b.) whether she should let me give it a good yank and be done with it already (always say no after a fair amount of teasing) c.) when it would fall out all by itself (always say any day now). This photo was taken on the 12th of May.

13 suspensful days later on the 25th of May, the loose toof finally popped out while Maddy was brushing her teeth. Hurrah! Once you have observed the enormous hole in her smile, please note the soft look in her eyes. The loss of her first top front tooth did something to her. As happy as she was, she needed a little time to adjust to her new appearance. When I saw this look on her face, I remembered the feeling I had when I lost my first top front tooth. Excited, startled, a little bit sad, but mostly amazed that I had changed. And that there was no going back. And everyone in the world could see it! The toof was out. Funny how that works.

The garden

The garden! These pictures were taken on April 13th... Marten replanted the border with healthy new plants and, thanks to our diligent care, they still look great two months later. We are very proud of ourselves this year!

Sonia is putting a candle in one of the magical garden fairy lights I got from Jan Anne and Greetje for my birthday. I love them.

As we sat outside enjoying the mild evening and the magical garden fairy lights, Marten (the brute) wondered whether the airplanes coming out of Schiphol could see our little landing strip...
sheesh.

At home with Rembrandt

We're back online...
My apologies for the wait (thank you for your patience, Dad).

In order to get re-aquainted, what will follow here is a series of photos with brief comments. Enjoy!

This first one was taken in Amsterdam in April. We went with our new friend Lies to the Rembrandt House and on our way back to the metro we stopped to enjoy this street musician...

In the Rembrandt House, the girls got a recorded tour especially made for kids. Great fun. At one point, we are in Rembrant's receiving room and I turn around to see Sonia climbing up onto a beautiful, delicate antique chair.
Me: No, no Sonia... don't climb on that chair!
Sonia: Mag wel van Rembrandt! (Rembrandt said I could!)