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…)

It’s A Digital World…

Can you imagine being exposed to so many nifty digital gadgets so early on? I was kind of an early adaptor of technology because my dad was one of those people who had a computer quite early on… But my kids…. Man! they are not only exposed, they are immersed, from the day they were born…

Weekly webcam, any movie, show, song, game they want available on any device at any time of the day (and in many ways in any place imaginable)…

Now, the question is: should, or should you not, immerse…? Well, my answer: Yes! (but of course within reason and reasonable measures…). They pick it up so easily now and if provides them with so much fun and information! Not immersing would be depriving… right?

So, there it is: Lorelei on the iPad, having fun and learning… (her interest in the iPad is a recent development…).

Monkey Girl…

My girl is a real monkey girl. She loves being outside, running or biking around, and, probably most of all, going to the playground… She uses our own swing a lot, but there is nothing like the playground :-). This picture was taken at the playground down the street where we went last week with Tobias, his friend Jort, and Lorelei. Tobias and Jort were playing on these bars and of course Lorelei had to copy that. I turned my back for just a minute and this happened :-).

I like this picture….

(I tend to take more an more pictures with my phone while I am on the go. I tend to post these to facebook sometimes. If you’re interested check: www.facebook.com/cgdepee)

Hello Kitty Party

On November 10th we celebrated Lorelei’s birthday at home. She had a Hello Kitty party all the way… From napkins to cups, from cake to outfit, everything was Hello Kitty. We had a house full of people and ended up with a house full of new toys :-). We also ended up with a very happy (but tired) and four year old girl! Unbelievable, but true.

Lorelei’s special guests were Jojanneke, her best friend from the daycare who turned 4 just about two months back, Jochem, her after-Jojanneke best friend at the daycare and our neighbor, and Warner, Catherine’s brother and Lorelei’s friend and now classmate.

Her favorite gifts were her bike (of course, she loves riding that thing!), her doll house (although she has not been playing with it much, so far), which was a gift from our neighbor Lotte, and her Hello Kitty (of course…) backpack, a gift from aunt Shelli. Tobias gave her a robe (his idea) and she likes wearing that too :-).

New Bike!

This is Lorelei on her new bike, which was our birthday gift to her. I have always been amazed at her physical capabilities. As you may remember she was able to ride her bike quite early… It is now about a year later and she was definitely ready for a new bike! She had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the transition… As a matter of fact, she loves it, because she can go much faster now :-).

That is not only nice to her, but a lot more comfortable on our way to school….

This picture was taken the day she of her birthday party (Nov. 10th). This was her first “trial ride” :-).

Lorelei is 4!

Lorlei is 4! Of course there were several celebrations, the first being at the daycare. One of the things Lorelei is very excited about is the fact that she gets to sit on the table when it is her Birthday. They do that at the daycare when they sing to the birthday boy or girl. So, as soon as the party started (that is, as I walked in) Lorelei climbed on the table, sat down and waited for everybody to sing :-). Well, they sang and Lorelei beamed! She surely was one happy birthday girl... I was so glad I got to be there and see that!

 

....and kind of sad or melancholic or sentimental (something like that) at the same time since it also marked her last day at the daycare... She is getting so big so fast...

Pancake

Sometimes I just like to take my kids out… anywhere, really. This was one of those times. Tobias was out playing with a friend and having lunch there. I decided to go out with just my girl. We went to the Pancake House just around the corner and had a nice big Dutch pancake!

Look at that cute happy face! Priceless, right?!

Babies

Lorelei has been very much into het “Babies” recently. Things like that kind of come and go with her. Before it was always dolls in the stroller, now it is holding, feeding and “Maxi Taxi” :-). The babies go everywhere with her (not to school though…). She talks their ears off, mostly in Dutch. She tells them off, comforts them, teaches them stuff, and then at night, puts them to bed. It is very cute!

I love this picture: feeding two babies at the same time :-).

Princess

Lorelei got a Cinderella dress a while back. Maybe I should stop this post here, because you can probably predict what’s coming…. Right?

She LOVES it!

If it were up to her she would probably wear it all day! When she gets up she wants it on over het pajamas, once she is dressed she wants it over her clothes, but best of all, she just want to wear it like it were her real clothes…. A bit cold at times, though….

I have to admit, it looks kind of cute on her, doesn’t it? She also got a Snow White dress, but she only wore that once so far… It has to be Cinderella at this point.

Maybe that has something to do with her favorite movie (which she is watching in this picture)….: Disney’s Cinderella! :-)

Halloween

A zombie and Tinkerbell, that’s our kids at Halloween… We had a party last Saturday which was really nice, and of course they got to wear their costumes. They were excited! It was a great party with lots of sweets and treats, oh, and also some really good adult-food :-).

There was no trick-or-treating yet, but we will do that tonight… well, kind of… We are going to Oudewater where, apparently, some kids organized a trick-or-treat-trail of about 4 (yes, that is FOUR) doors… Well, it is more than the ONE we had the past few years (our own…). And the kids get to wear their costumes again.

Ready for School…?

Does she look ready? Well, even if she doesn’t, I can tell you she is! Ready for what? School, of course! That door behind her is the entrance to her section of the school and this picture was taken last week on her very first “wendag” (getting used to school day). She was so excited! She got to ride her bike, carry her backpack, pick a chair and a picture for on her chair (she picked the cherries-picture…).

I think I have probably told you that she has been ready for school for a while. I think that is because she looks up to Tobias and wants to do the same thing. Anyway, there was no problem whatsoever with saying goodbye or anything like that. She just sat there, looking around, waving at us, and that was that… Lorelei got used to school :-).

Apparently she did quite well during the school day as well! Today I took her for the second time… I can hardly believe she is going to turn four in less than two weeks! I am going to miss her being home on Wednesdays… (although it does give me an opportunity to blog ;-).

Sleep-over Guests

This is Warner. He is Tobias’ girlfriend Cathérine’s little brother. His is a bit older than Lorelei and just a week-and-a-half ago he came over and spent a couple of nights with us (and so did Cathérine). Tobias and Cathérine had had a sleep-over before, but Lorelei and Warner were not part of it at that time. Both Lorelei and Warner were somewhat upset about that, so, we promised that next time they could have a sleep-over as well. Well, this time it was a good one, because the spent three nights with us (while their parents were away :-)).

We had a nice time, because they all play so well together. And, they mingle as well. We spent quite some time at home and basically they all played in their rooms a lot. We also went to a playground and all four of them played together. It was really nice, both for us and the kids!

Lorelei was so excited and a bit sad when they left. She said the next morning: “When can Warner come again? Tomorrow?” :-).

Egg

I was not there so I did not experience this moment first-hand, but I love this picture. It was taken at the Blijdorp Zoo towards the end of the summer vacation. Lisa went there with a friend and the kids and they had a great time. Lorelei was talking about this egg when I got home and she laughs when she sees this picture. I do too :-).