I Love Spring!

Being Dutch, I make sure we always have spring bulbs planted. These were the first to wake up.

 

I wish it was warm enough to plant the bulbs for this summer, but we still have occasional frost at night. So instead I planted broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas and some container tomatoes, so that I can take those in when they forecast a frost.

 

Also planted a bunch of herbs. I love cooking with fresh herbs!

 

And my garlic sprouted! I planted it last fall, on a cold, windy day when I was sad about gardening season about over. But now the planting pays off and I have baby garlic plants to show that yes, spring is here!

 

Meanwhile the kids are enjoying the good weather.

 

It is nice to see my kids climbing trees, just like I used to do all the time when I was a kid.

 

Clones

 

No idea why people sometimes ask whether I clone my kids...

 

A few days ago I was at the dentist and was laying there, in the awkward 'Unable to reply anything to the questions he is asking' position, when he went like "Wow! You have the exact same mouth as your daughters! Same teeth, same jaw, it's amazing!"

 

I guess I wasn't sure what to reply to that anyway, so maybe it's good that I was unable to do so.

 

And the same t-shirts in this pic? Jane had one, and then Kate found the exact same on in the thrift store. A bigger and better one, so she gave that one to Jane and got Jane's for herself.

 

My Mother and Me

Picture taken just before my mother flew back to the Netherlands.

 

I miss her every day.

Fox!

Look who visited our backyard?

 

Of course, I couldn't get my camera fast enough to get her front view, but happy I got to take a picture anyway.

Musical Family

I grew up playing the violin and I always hoped my kids would enjoy music as much as I do. I have been very blessed that indeed they do and we have a wide variety of musical talent and tons of enjoyment in our household. Everyone was eager to show off to oma.

 

Kate plays some guitar, some piano and is a percussionist in her school band.

 

Erik is a percussionist too, and in addition plays cello.

 

Jane is a great piano player and used to be a percussionist. She is a wonderful singer too.

 

Sylvia is learning how to play the violin.

 

Although she doesn't really like to practice. Dawn is learning it too, but she is way more willing to practice so progresses much faster. She plays piano too and loves to sing and to play guitar.

 

Actually all of them like singing and have great musical sense. My dream of a musical family definitely came true! Life is good!

Home Made Pizza is The Best!

One of our standby meals: home made individual pizzas. Perfect because no one agrees on what is just the right amount of tomato sauce or cheese or what else there should be on a pizza. One day ask Jane about pineapple on pizza, she will explain that that totally is Not Correct at All!

 

Two days ago I was going to make pizza dough and I had run out of yeast! The horror!!!! Luckily went shopping yesterday and I already know what we'll have for dinner tonight ^^

Will bake bread too. Life is better with yeast. Hmmm, maybe I should make a sour dough starter again. Robert has long passed away but I think I am ready for a new one.

Spring!

It has been cold and snowy and not really spring like most of the time, but some days we can tell that yes, spring is here!

 

This week is vacation week, so we are enjoying a week without schedules and with less than usual number of commitments. We even are doing boring stuff like cleaning up living room! (let's see how long that lasts ^^)

Refreshing Rest...

While we were sitting on the deck, enjoying the sun...

 

Brady decided it was way too hot and he needed some cooling down in the pond. Well, on the pond I guess. Will the ice ever melt?

Finally SUN

The whole time my mother was here it was cold. And freezing. And just not pleasant weather. The whole 'It might be spring, but the weather doesn't care and does its own thing' April fun.

 

But the last day she was here we finally managed to sit on the deck and soak up some spring sun.

 

Kate was happy that she could show off her balance beam routine to oma.

 

 

Another rainbow showed up while she was doing it.

 

It was so nice to be outside after being stuck indoors for most of the time.

 

After all that sun shine we sure were ready for pizza.

 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

 

I don't know how the rainbow happened, but it was a cool surprise when I downloaded the pictures. I assume the lens must have distorted some of the sun light.

Project Clean Fridge

Last day with my mother. We had 'fun' cleaning the fridge. For a certain value of fun that is :p

 

Now she is safely back in the Netherlands and we all miss her.

Another Hike

Even although the weather is coldish, we still manage to go out on shorter hikes.

 

There still was ice on the trails. Will it be spring soon?

 

We went to our local marsh which used to be a beaver pond. The beavers have long moved out.

 

Brady didn't care that it was cold, he just wanted to be in the water.

 

Today we did some shopping and picked up things that oma wants to bring home to the Netherlands.

 

At night we had dinner at a local Korean restaurant. My mother had eel, something we used to eat tons when my father was still alive, but now she doesn't really eat it much anymore so that was a treat.