New Blog...

I have merged Tobias' and Lorelei's blog into one. You can find new posts about them on:
http://tobiasandlorelei.blogspot.com

Party!

Two weeks ago the kids had a week of vacation (unfortunately not coinciding with Lisa’s week of vacation…). So, on my Wednesday off we had a little party, just the three of us. A party consisting of basically anything Primarily Tobias came up with (because Lorelei just followed suit… :-)). The first thing was sleeping in… until 8:30. Then Tobias came down and made a sign which he put on my bedroom door saying: “The party begins here!”. Then he went downstairs “to make the first surprise”. By that time Lorelei had come down too. She had crawled into bed with me and Tobias came up with breakfast in bed! Sooooo sweet!.

Then we talked about what else we were going to do on our party. That’s where Lorelei came in screaming: “Eat pancakes!!!”. But Tobias first wanted to make his second surprise. He went downstairs and called me a couple of minutes late for help. He needed help building this “hut” they are in in this picture :-) (basically a couple of blankets draped over the table, but the two of them played in it for quite a while! (They are holding leftover candy canes :-)). It was so great to see how well they can play together! And even when Lorelei came up with ideas Tobias would play along. She kept hauling games into the tent and they just played them together. Needless to say I had a great time!

For lunch we ate pancakes (because we had Pasta Pesto, Tobias’ favorite, for dinner). We watched a movie in the afternoon. Lisa didn’t come home too late so we also got to spend some time with the four of us. What a wonderful party it was!

(Check out Lorelei’s arm around Tobias… adorable!).

School Christmas Dinner

Ok, this is a while back, but still worth mentioning, I think… This year was Lorelei’s first Christmas dinner at school. She was so excited about that (and a little apprehensive too). As you can see she enjoyed it thoroughly (that thing on a stick is a lantern :-)).

Fortunately it was not that cold, because tradition dictates that, before they eat, they walk to the town square and sing songs by the giant Christmas tree there. They then walk back to school and feast on things prepared by parents (and/or kids). We baked Christmas cookies (“We” being me, Tobias and Lorelei). That was fun.

More Hair…

I told you so :-). Now, this is hair, right? It’s hair with a story. Frances, Lisa’s dear friend who spent some time in the US and is currently living in India, was over in the Netherlands for a week or two.

Whenever she is here Lisa and Frances make sure they meet up at some point. And, whenever she is here and they meet up it turns out that she took some presents for our kids from wherever it is that she came from. In this case I believe her last stop before the Netherlands was England, so that’s where this hair (and dress) came from. It’s a Goldilocks costume, including the goldilocks :-).

Hair

I think I have mentioned before that Lorelei has a hair issue: it just won’t grow! Well, when we went over to my parents my mom (always the hair consultant :-)) had a solution that was both practical and exciting (to Lorelei anyways…): hair clips with hair extensions attached :-).

Lorelei was so proud and excited pushing it back like real hair, throwing it back etc. She felt like a real princess…

So, do you think this looks good…? Just wait until you see my next post!

Just Cute…

Yes, Christmas has come and gone. We had a great time with our family and our visitors. Nonny, Granddaddy, and Aunt Shelli came over. So, we had a full house!

Like I said in a previous post we spent a lot of time on the ice skating rink in town during the vacation. Now, if there is one cute christmassy picture in the bunch that kind of sums it all up it would be this one: two happy children on the rink by the Christmas tree :-).

Ice Skating Rink

During the Christmas holidays we have been having a rink on the market square for the past couple of years now. The weather during the Christmas holidays was far from wintery with temperatures above 10 (C). But, the rink was there anyway, so, we had to take advantage. And that we did!

Tobias got new skates from Santa, so Lorelei could use his old ones. It took some getting used to, but she kind of managed to skate on them without support. Of course, learning how to do that is kind of tiring (probably extremely tiring :-)), so here she is relaxing while her friend and classmate Warner pushes her along on the ice.

Snow…

We are having wintery conditions these days. Below zero (C) temperatures, ice on the canals, and… snow! This picture was taken last week when the ice was still way to thin to skate on. We had quite a bit of fun in the snow that afternoon with Tobias entering a snowball fight with some kids and Lorelei sledding, first with Tobias, later with Jochem, our neighbor. It was pretty cool actually.

Lorelei was so proud (and strong) that she could pull Tobias… (here I asked them to stop so I could take a picture, but she was really pulling him along…! I was impressed…)