One month!

Who'd believe it's one month already! We are still adjusting to the long daylight hours, kids going to bed around 9pm, Mara included. Though we don't rise till at least 8, so not so bad I guess. Although it does mean we are up till midnight, getting some child free time (blog time in this case).

Two more weeks of school holidays and then it'll be settling into a new routine.

This last week, we've been to Tante (Aunty) Letty's 70th birthday and Oom (Uncle) Jan's 60th birthday. Fortunately nice weather and we enjoyed a typical dutch dinner- chicken satay and lots of mayonaise type salads. It seemed like there were more bikes there than people! This pic I took at around 7pm, so bright still.

And of course, the biggest news! Mara has taken her first steps! Though she still prefers the hands and feet method of getting around. We are on our way! The film clip I've added is the first'ish steps and we missed the 3 big steps to her big sister! ........see how adding the film goes............


We've been spending some time with Jens and Nils (the kids' cousins), both at their place, at ours and at an indoor playcentre......just like Maze Mania (my favourite!).

Fortunately the weather has cooled a bit and us tropical bodies now have a jacket/scarf on to ride our bikes. What will we be like in Winter? It's good to get a bit of bike riding in now that we have all the bike seats organised. It's about a 5km ride to De Lier, to see Piet and Rieki and a little less to Sito and Jo's place.

There is a big water flowerboat parade on this weekend through the canals in the Westland here. That is in the villages between Delft and Maasland and De Lier etc. Lots of boats get all decorated, so we will be finding a pos at Oom Carel's place where they pass. Then it is party week in De Lier, with lots of activities and a mini show in the village. Hopefully we'll get to see some when we get back from Just's Oom Jan's farm in France where we are heading this Monday. An 8 hour drive- not looking forward to that.

Will report more when we are back from France!