This week I saw/DWZI.......

....de avondvierdaagse. En wat is het allerbelangrijkste bij de avondvierdaagse? Het citroen-pepermunt likding! Ieder jaar vaste prik, tot groot genoegen van de kinderen en voor de meeste ouders een gruwel. Vanavond moeten we nog de laatste respectievelijk vijf en tien kilometer lopen, om dan achter de drumband aan weer te eindigen op het schoolplein en traditionele bloemen (duizendschoon!) in ontvangst te nemen.

...the 'Avondvierdaagse'; four nights we walk for five or ten kilometers in the environment of our town. At the end the children get a medal and basically that's it. One of the big assets of this 'avondvierdaagse' is de lemon-mint hankie-popsical. A strange pleasure, children love it and parents don't, but it isn't 'avondvierdaagse' without it. Tonight we walk the last five and ten kilometers and than a brassband will lead us to the schoolyard were we will collect a medal and the traditional bouquet of sweet william..

Indoor fireworks

This was a project Casper started a couple of weeks ago. It seemed  so easy to start with, just twelve easy peasy units to fold. But to get the whole thing together was a real pain-in-the-ass kind of project. We both ended up with a bad mood. I couldn't get it out of my mind though. Et voila!  Once it's finished your can twirl and fold in your hands and it looks a bit like firework. Don't try this at home, unless you're in for loosing your temper. But I know some of you will want to try anyway, so here's the link.

Midsummer's night dream

Last weekend Lauren had a ballet performance. "A tissue moment", according to another mom, and she was right. I was so very proud of her and impressed by the balletstudio who organised such a professional and entertaining evening. She had to bring a little gift for every girl from her ballet class as a way of saying "break a leg" (toitoitoi in Dutch). Together we folded sixteen origami cranes. This made me focus on origami again. I've made a midsummer's night scenery. Why not try one yourself, it's really not that difficult. I found a diagram for the big one here and a video for the smaller one  here via How about Orange.

This is how it ended up at my season's table. I've made some dragonflies to go with it. These are basically cranes with their flies cut a little bit. On the pictures below you can see how the petals are held together by a little string. I took a little extra to make it look like stamen. Good luck on your attempt!

This week I saw/DWZI

... Barcelona met Casper, onze oudste zoon. Een geweldig cadeau, voor ons allebei. Hij vloog voor het eerst en zag een "wereld van watten". We hebben veel gepraat, veel gegeten, veel gelachen en ons de blaren op de voeten gelopen. Gaudi was  in het bijzonder het doel van onze reis en hij stelde ons niet teleur! We genoten van La Pedrera (Casa Mila) en Casa Battlo, dwaalden in Park Guell en waren het er roerend over eens dat de Sagrada Familia adembenemend mooi was. Zestien jaar geleden was ik er ook, maar toen reden de vrachtwagens nog door de kerk. Ik had niet kunnen vermoeden dat het zo mooi zou worden. Casper heeft een poging gedaan het in een foto te vangen, maar dat valt nog niet mee.

Barcelona with our eldest son Casper for his twelfth birthday. What a gift it was for the both of us. He was enjoying his first flight. A bit nervous on the beginning... A world of cotton wool, he called it, which in Dutch nicely alliterates ('een wereld van watten'). We talked a lot, ate a lot and most of all, laughed a lot. Gaudi was our special goal and the architect didn't disappoint us! We enjoyed La Pedrera (aka Casa Mila) and Casa Battlo, wandered around in Park Guell and agreed on the fact that the Sagrada Familia was breathtakingly beautiful. Sixteen years ago  I've been there too, but by then the interior of the church was still a work in progress, I could not have imagined that  it would turn out so beautiful. 

En dit zijn de mensen aan wie we al dat moois mede te danken hebben. Kun je je zo'n werkplek voorstellen. Nooit meer zeuren over ergonomische bureaustoelen....

And these are the people who make it so beautiful. Can you imagine a workplace like this. Don't ever complain about your office chair not being ergonomic...

Barcelona!

Today it's Casper's birthday. Twelve! Keen on traditions as we are -OK, maybe just I am- we came up with a new one. For their twelfth birthday, one of us takes the birthday kid to a European city of choice. What a joy it was this morning to see his face lighten up as he opened the little booklet I made for him. "This is a flight ticket, right?" He didn't get to choose the destination, but we were sure he would have chosen Barcelona. Ever since he found a book about Gaudi on our bookshelf, he's dying to see it for real. And guess who's the lucky parent...