Family Night

Once a month, we have our Family Night, a night full of games (card games / board games), trash talk, love, and junk food. It is a fun way to get together as a family, instead of all doing our own stuff. It is not always easy with bouncy babies or toddlers, but I feel it is a positive experience for all.



Last Saturday, we played Killer Bunnies. Yes, I know. Normal families would play monopoly, but we end up with weird games like Killer Bunnies or Munchkins. I have been looking around for other family night games, so would be in for suggestions if anyone has good ones. It has to work for the range from toddler to teenager. We have gone through quite a lot of games over the years, but would welcome more suggestions.

May your family be full of love as ours. Happy Love Thursday!

Sinterklaas in Pictures

Last night, we celebrated the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas. The door bell rang, and to our utter surprise and delight, there were lots of presents!



Sylvia got to open the very first present:



We had run out of wrapping paper, so some packages were wrapped very nicely and creatively.



Jane was very happy with her new notebook:



A good time was had by all, everyone got something they really wanted.



Of course, the kids ended up going to bed way way later than normal, but they were having so much fun with their new toys and games.

One December holiday out of the way! I felt very organized this year, we had everything bought and wrapped so early! I might turn into an organized person still ^^

Next Time...

This morning, at the breakfast table, Sylvia announced: 'Next time, I am going to be a squirrel!'



Does this tell me that we pamper our squirrels too much? I just filled the squirrel bird feeder with sunflower seeds yet again.



Yes, this is what we often see out of our kitchen window...

Weird Things

Finally a meme. I have been tagged once before, but life was too overwhelming back then, so I never followed up. Rebecca tagged me to share six weird things about myself. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Six normal things would have been a way bigger challenge ^^

1. My biggest current weirdness must be go. Come on, how many housewives do you know who are totally and majorly obsessed with a silly board game like go?
2. I hate talking on the phone, or actually calling places. I am okay with talking to friends, but have a major case of phone phobia for other phone calls.
3. In the same line, I don't own a cell phone and am not planning on getting one either. If I am away from my home phone, I will be very happy to be unreachable, thank you.
4. I prefer being barefoot, will go barefoot whenever I can get away with it. My summer concession to society is flipflops, but I only wear them when I really have to. Most of my neighborhood walks are done barefoot. Heck, I have hiked 8 miles through the Catskill Mountains on my bare feet and was fine.
5. I only drink tea and water, mostly tea. No soda, no coffee, no alcohol. At least, not more than once or twice a year. Because of not drinking much coffee, one cup has a major effect on me and I will go hyper for hours. Same for wine, one glass can get me close to drunk.
6. I always stay up way too late, just because I enjoy the peace and quiet in the house when all the kids are asleep. And yes, that might be the reason why this post is written close to 3am ^^And once I go to bed, I cannot fall asleep unless I am reading a book. Even just one page will often put me to sleep, but it's a lot harder without reading.

Now whom to tag? I choose

• kmom of more than ten, who has been way too quiet lately
• mabear for the same reason.
• Wendy, because I always enjoy reading about Dillon.
• Jody because she is the only other one ever to have tagged me, even if I never actually made that post ^^, and
• Annelies, so we can spread this meme to the Netherlands.

Sinterklaas Kapoentje

It is that time of the year again. We celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th, and the kids will put out their shoes on the nights leading up to that (starting at Dec 1st)



After putting out the shoes, we sing a bunch of Sinterklaas songs, to make sure he won't miss our house. Sylvia has been funny about it 'You sing for me, mama!' Tonight she finally was willing to say Sinterklaas Kapoentje ^^

In the morning, they find some candy in their shoes. Sylvia has been utterly delighted by that. Usually asks me a few hours later 'Can I have some more candy in my shoe???'

Would You Like Fries With That?

Yes, it's official, Cees is a McDonalds employee.



The first weekend, he had to sit and do a computer led instruction video, which according to him was 'very slow and very boring'. He complained that there was no way to make it go faster. Guess he isn't very good at hacking computers yet.

Two weeks ago, were his first real working days. He started off well, by throwing up when he was at home, but still going to work. After an hour, he called us that he had gotten sick and needed to be picked up. When at home, he shared the information that he had thrown up already earlier that day (he hadn't quite told us about it before that, I guess he did not want to have to cancel his first real working day)

That Sunday went better, he worked for three hours. His description when he came home 'It was fun for the first half hour, but after that, it was really boring!' Welcome to the world of McDonalds ^^



Last weekend he worked for three hours on Saturday, doing the register and got really tired of the standing around. On Sunday, he worked for 4.5 hours. Those hours do not entitle him to a break, you can't take a break unless you work for at least five hours...



When he came home, he was happy to sit down and read the newspaper. Only things missing here, are the bunny slippers and the pipe.

Reading the employee manual has been enlightening. He is not allowed to grow a beard, or climb on the roof. He can't prepare fries, but is allowed to bag them. He can not come into work when he is wrinkled and sloppy, he needs to have good personal hygiene every day. (Especially that last one was hilarious to me, since he is the kid we have to threaten with cruel and unusual punishment to get him to take a shower)

He is allowed to get discounted (50 % off) food during his break, or within half an hour before or after his shift. He will have to eat it in plain sight in the restaurant though, god forbid he would share some discounted fries with a friend!

He has been asking me what I made when I was still working and calculated that I made 25 times as much per hour as he is making now. Such is the power of a college education, kid ^^

Big Mile Stone for Erik!

Happy to announce that Erik lost his very first tooth!



He is proudly showing off the new gap in his mouth. He has been carrying around his tooth, and talking about it for quite a while. I hope it won't be lost by the time he wants to put it under his pillow.

Quote of the Day

Tara made bunny ears behind Kate's head while she was eating, which caused a LOUD screaming 'MAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tara is making bunny ears on me!!!!'
I was sitting on the couch, putting up my stupid leg, reading a go book and absentmindedly replied: 'Kate, Tara is your lesson in this life about not caring what other people do.'
Kate angrily replied 'OH YEAH????? What about YOU not caring what other people do??? What about if a robber came and took out everything in our house, would you care?'
I got a fast 'Not really' in, which she countered with 'Ha!!! He also took ALL your clothes, and now you will have to wear only a lion cloth! How would you like that?'



At that point, hubby replied from the other room 'Oh, I would love to see mama in just a lion cloth!' Kate made things even more severe by now telling me that the robber also took the lion clothes and I would have to wear GRASS now! 'Heck, the robber is taking all the grass!!!'

By that time, she had forgotten all about the bunny ears. I consider this a successful exchange :)

Quote of the Day

Sylvia: 'KATE!!!!!!!! Stop peeing in my bath room!!!!'

When that didn't have the desired effect: 'Mama!!! Kate won't stop peeing in MY bath room!'

One of Those Days...

I never did anything uninterrupted for more than 3 seconds, which it totally driving me crazy. I need some grounding very badly, but I barely have time to sit down and just breathe.

Rain, rain, rain, very gloomy weather. It affects the kids, and it affects me. It is barely past 4pm and dark already, I am sooooooooooo not a fan of short days and long nights.

Jane's hibernation project has been delayed till after Sinterklaas, which is December 5th. I guess she didn't think it was worth it to hibernate for only a few days. After Sinterklaas she can hibernate for at least two weeks till it is Christmas.

News on the career front: after Cees's successful first days as McDonalds employee, Tara just told me that she is thinking of becoming a hair dresser. I KNEW I should have hid the scissors more carefully when she was a toddler ^^