Kids' Skiing lesson

While it's still the height of summer here, complete with temperatures in the high 10s, and occasionally consecutive hours of sunshine, we've found our refuge in Snowworld. At least for the little while that Kirsten and Finn had their first ever skiing lesson.

Snowworld is the Netherlands' own Dubai-esque indoor skiing wunderland, snow and all. It's a 30 minute drive from where we live. It's got three pistes, and five lifts, and is -5 Celsius. Not quite Austria yet, but certainly a big hit with our tropical offspring.

Kirsten was lucky enough to be the only one in her class, so her instructor guided her up and down the hill, trying out a real skiing skill or two. Finn's class was twice as big, and both boys ended up jumping, throwing balls, and giving high-fives to their instructor, all the while staying upright and going down the baby hill.

What impressed Kirsten most that day was that she crashed into a snowboarder. What did Finn like most about skiing? The sled ride at the end!

Milestone!

Or actually the first of many many milestones. Today Finn decided it was time for his trainerwheels to come off! So now he's racing around after his sister through the carfree area on our block. Kirsten found out the hard way that the leaves that had blown down over the past two rainy days are too slippery to ride on, but at the same time she showed Finn how to get back on the horse, even if it still hurts. A good and timely lesson: he needed it less than five minutes after.



So we hit the biketracks straight away.



Ironically we spent the first weeks over here in NL madly chasing enough suitable bike child seats to get our family around in. Now we're finally more or less sorted for that, we have two kids with absolutely no intention whatsoever of ever jumping in one of those again. But then again, let's just wait until we get some headwind one day, surely they'll be back hiding behind mom and dad's backs ;-)

Whichever way, we'll be on our bikes passing many more milestones.

Farm life in France

Last week we were lucky to enjoy a relaxing week at Just's Uncle & Aunt's farm in the middle of France, the Auvergne. Jan and Thea rear piglets, they have downsized the number of sows in their retirement to about 24. But have sheep, chooks and loads of veges and fruit to keep us all busy. And all the animals needed to be fed!

The daily program was so:
Kirsten and Finn were up early every morning, before Jan and Thea usually, ready to feed the pigs (or ride the quad!), then it was time to herd the sheep to the next paddock, feed the dogs, cats and rabbits.
Next coffee time!
Then off to the vege garden to pick some for dinner and some to preserve or freeze. In the meantime they stole apples, strawberries and plums. (What a treat!).

In french style, time for an appertif before lunch.
After lunch, chill time (you need that after the appertif) and before you finish preparing the veges/fruit.
Not long after chill time is it coffee time before it's time to feed the pigs again, bring in the sheep and collect the eggs.
Then dinner and another appertif! (I'm sure there was another appertif before dinner too????)


All in all, we all had a fantastic time.















There was heaps for the little farmers to do, after they'd done their farm duties. Jan and Thea have 10 grandchildren under 10 who are regular visitors, plus all the relatives that visit from Holland. Perfect for our 3 munchkins, and Just and I!

We drove to the farm, about 800kms, which even on the freeways still took about 10 hours there and 11 hours back. The french had just started their summer vacations and on the way back there was 650kms of traffic jams!!! Can you imagine? A bit like a bumper to bumper trip from Townsville to Rockhampton but then 3 lanes wide!!!! Fortunately the Parisians were heading south and we were heading north.....phew.

Varend Corso flower boat parade

A couple of weekends ago, the regional area we live in, called the "Westland and Midden-Delftland" celebrated a boat parade, "Varend Corso". The largest industry in this part of the Netherlands is the greenhouses and the flowers and vegetables they produce. Each year, 49 boats this year, are decorated from local businesses using local produce and they parade through a series of canal systems in the area.

Some of the displays are amazing. The theme this year was "strange bird/s", which you can see in a couple of the photos.

Fortunately the good weather held up for us, and we could view the parade at the waters edge in Oom Carel's boat moored in front of his house. The kids had a ball and Mara even enjoyed a dance!

We have heaps of pics.......here are a few!

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!

Duinwandeling / Hiking in the dunes

Vandaag zijn we een paar uur wezen wandelen in de duinen in Hoek van Holland. Natuurcafé en klimaatcentrum De Zeetoren organiseerde een duinstruintocht voor kinderen van 6-12. Flink rondje wandelen en de gids liet steeds van alles zien over de natuur in het duin: van schelpen en slakkenhuizen tot St Janskruid en zijn rupsen. Maar het allerleukste was natuurlijk praten over- en bestuderen van konijnenpoep! Lekker met een vergrootglas naar konijnenkeutels kijken.

Finn wilde van de gids weten of er daar ook slangen waren. Nee hoor, Finn, al zijn er elders in Nederland wel adders en brilslangen. En Kirsten zag warempel nog een konijntje uit de struiken komen.

Gauw terug voor limonade.

===================

Today we went hiking in the dunes of Hoek van Holland for a few hours. Cafe and climate extension centre De Zeetoren (Dutch website here) organised a walk for 6-12yo. It was quite a hike and the guide pointed out lots of interesting nature facts about the dunes, from the shells and snails to the St John's wort plants and their catepillars. Of course the best bit was studying the rabbit poo! Wow, you should see it through the magnifying glass!

Finn asked the guide if there were any snakes. Nope, Finn, not here, but there are elsewhere in the Netherlands, Adders and Glasses snakes (sort of cobra ones). And Kirsten was sure she saw another rabbit coming out of the grass!

Soon enough we were back for a cup of cordial.

Blog started.

Not-so-early adopter, I know, but with a recent number of small personal revelations, including the iPod touch in the home wifi network, I'm now re-attaching to the modern world. Having said that: part of me still feels somewhat like Dylan Moran as he expresses at the start of this interview.

So to write down (and share) some of what we see, do and find on our travels, this blog.