I showed off

My techniques on the MLS Blog today, wow it took me a while to think up what to do, but once I had the idea it was a sinch to work out.

So many things on the news today making me sad (the war going on over in Georgie) and the news about Isaac Hayes who died, he truly was a talented soul man ! So here's a little tribute :



Thank goodness there are also happy things in the news, like a silver medal for Holland in Judo !

And my boys having a great first day @ school was also a happy thing today. Here they are with the taking of the obligatory 1st day pics :

My Life an update

So I haven't been updating much more than the occasional lo so I wanted to update you on what's been going on in my busy little life :

*Been scrapping regularly but at a VERY slow pace
*went to a Bon Jovi concert
*Got tickets to go see Meat Loaf
*Did NOT go to Kylie :(
*actually watched 2 whole euro soccer matches
*And how could I not share out that Michael got his 2nd swimming diploma (B) and for some miracle he changed his mind and will be going for his C
*Colin who only recently started judo got his yellow badge, totally unexpected !
*caught up on EVERYTHING from Greys Anatomy
*Started watching Army Wives online
*Went shopping with DH and he actually bought clothes (ok 2 items but hey who's complaining)
Been buying a few cute outfits here and there
*Discovered the BESTEST brand Sally Hansen (nails, hands & feet) and boy do I recommend her creams for hands & feet !!
*jogged and went to the gym
*Enjoyed a BBQ to celebrate 2 colleagues graduation
*Had fun @ 2 peanutball tournaments
*Had dates with Revlie, Daphne & Flo no time for scrapping though just tea and cookies
*Went to Derek Ogilvie, wow he's a charming & funny guy
*Missed 2 weddings due to a logistical problem and a tummy bug
*Went for a retailers day to take mini workshops from Donna Downey, Lance Anderson (Rusty Pickle), Layle Koncar (Scenic Route), Jeannie Jamovich (Making Memories), Jennifer Moody (Deluxe Designs) and Karen Burniston.

*Update my playlists on http://www.playlist.com/ I'll share some of those lists with you in the future

*I won a scrap collection pack from Scenic Route and RAK from Hambley this month YAY lucky me !!
*Bought a trampoline for the boys (sssshhhh don't tell they won't see it till after our trip to disney)
*Getting my garden into shape, looking fun and comfy for the summer, will share some pics when it's done
*Watched more movies; Just Like Heaven, Stardust, Transformers (wow) and ehm the other one I can't remember so that probably wasn't that good LOL.
*Oh and I think we had a few kiddieparties that we went to here and there

So my mom is going to the states next month and I'm making a list what she needs to bring back for me, so far I've put this on the list:
A pair of basic UGGs
A pink baseball glove :D
THE martha stewart scalopped punch
A McGill tab punch (the round tab)

Anything else I should put on the list ?

We're going to Disney next week for a couple of days (well 5 to be exact) so we've organised a house sitter and hopefully a house painter too. The boys (and us 2 big ones) are so psyched we can't wait. Now everyone is amazed we are going for so long but this way we can see everything and do everything in a relaxed pace and more than once (or twice) if we want to :D
Now all I have to do is prepare my packing list and do shopping for it ...

Can I bring anyone back anything from the Magic Kingdom ? Some fairydust maybe :D

Back to Life

You might have wondered where I've been well all over the place I guess mostly just enjoying my 2,5 week vacation from work. And this was the first one I really had the feeling I had some time off as usually I'm working hard for MLS and didn't really have time to enjoy the vacation. And I still got lots done so that was great !

We went to the zoo, Delftse Hout, parties, mothersday, enjoyed time in our garden, lot's of peanutball games, purged the attic (again but this time DH's area), adopted some tadpoles (with thanks to Flo & Rutger) the boys are so enjoying them.

We also watched lots of DVD's we had lying around; didn't really enjoy Norbit, the matrix 3 or Blade 3 mixed feelings with snakes on a plane as I jumped up and moved the couch back 10 cm .... But I loved School of Rock, American Gangster, the chronicals of Riddick "yummy" (yes I'm sorry I think vin diesel is cute), 300 (wow) and xmen the last stand.

I started back to the gym again and running (very carefully) and even scrapping a little but having troubles getting things finished, starting is no problem but finishing a lo ......

Some photo's I really like from the holiday (wow it almost looks like the summer holiday doesn't it ?):

Right now we are preparing a party @ MLS , will give you a heads up on that over the weekend !

Did you have a good holiday ? Any movie/dvd tips ?

I wanted to share some things with you my friends (pic overload)

About my boys, haven't chatted about them in a while and I'm doubting wether to do this on their blogs or just continue here but for now here's the deal in the life of Michael :

He got his 1st Swimming Certificate after 2 long years of swimming lessons.... (Now 2years might be long and let me tell you it was, he switched teachers after 1 year and that was not a good idea, she wasn't the right combination of strikt and fun, she was way too sweet and a softie). So this saturday he's starting @ a new swimschool for his next certificate. Here are some pics of the final moment and his prezzies afterwards (wel after we had dinner @ his favorite restaurant Burger King LOL) some books from Geronimo Stilton which included Fantasia, Fantasia II and the smaller series. He was stoked as he loves reading !

There was a soccermatch between schools and although they took the 2 best players in his grade and moved them in the team of a higher grade, they lost all games they had so a lot of fun ! Here's a recap

now here's the deal in the life of Colin :

He's started judo classes and he's having a ball, I'll share some pics soon ! It's really a perfect sport for him as he's quite the touchy, feely, holding everyone kinda type but also because he's quite a restless boy who has trouble focussing his attention especially when he needs to listen....

His favorite thing to do over easter was play a game called toktoktick (sorry don't know how to translate it but it's basically a crashing of eggs and the one who's egg breaks after one time loses) with boiled eggs.

He likes to position his fave cuddly toys in a row around him, this time he made a row over his belly ;)

And I'm making a lo very soon with this photo



Something Colin calls Rocky Rock but he really means Rock & Roll (yep DH is trying to teach him the signs for their first rockconcert)

We had fun in the snow over easter

And the boys made us dinner, they picked the recipes and helped prepare it. It was so much fun we will be doing this more often !

Oh and here's something from my life. I'm sure we all feel this way, we don't like a lot of our old lo's but it's the road we travel to "get" a certain style so we leave them bcause if we should want to redo all our old lo's we would never get any scrapping done. But sometimes it's just so wrong in so many ways (i have about 3 of those) and this is one of them :



And now (thanks to a pencillines sketch) it looks like this :



:D

ps. did you see the cool dutch dare that went online yesterday ? Unfortunately I didn't have the time to participate in the last few but I hope to get into the swing of it soon !

Long Update

Thinking back I've had this crisis around the same time last year too... And I want to thank all my (blog & irl) friends for getting my spirits up through your comments and chats and especially Liek for her sweet happinez sentiment and Flo for the hugs. BUT the biggest surprise was this card and besides being absolutely fab it was so unexpected (you see I'm the kind of person that sends cards and gifts regularly but rarely receive them in return) that it blew me away. Thanks so much Ingrid, this was the cherry on all the sweetness I have received in the last 2 weeks.

I have thought long and hard and decided that things can only get better and I have to make some changes in my life to make them better. So I've asked my mom for some assistance and she is helping me out with the shop for a while, just getting things organized that I'm not getting done in the 2 days and 7 nights that I have off from my regular job. Want to get my healthy slimmer self back again so I've returned to the gym to get back into shape and give me some relaxation & energy and I've even made some time to scrap this week....

So as for an update from the last 2 weeks, here we go !

DH's been really sweet to me lot's of cuddles and backrubs :D and he got me the cd "Rockferry" by Duffy and I LOVE it ! Not only this song is fab but the rest is cool too, totally my style reminds me of Carmel.




A sweet scrapper in the US (thanks Wendy!!) helped us out and ordered this


and mailed it to us so we too can scare the world with our funny video's. Watch out LOL. It arrived right on time BECAUSE Michael is swimming for his A certificate after 2 years of lessons, we are so happy (and so is our wallet) and we will be having a little party, we bought him some cool books from Geronimo Stilton (Fantasia and some of the smaller series) and we are going to Burger King for dinner.

Colin started judo lessons and is having a ball, we got him the suit and everything we think it is the perfect sport for our bouncy ball who loves to grab and hold people hihi.

We've been trying to make a new banner but so far nothing has been good enough so we are still working on that (well DH is ...) so you'll have to wait for that.

The boys cooked dinner for easter and it was fun to see if the recipes they picked were to their taste (well not everything was LOL) but it was a good step towards awareness of other menus besides pancakes, fries and pizza which they choose when they can decide the menu ....

Oh and I yesterday I went to a workshop @ SDJZ given by the lovely Jo-Anne and Lucy and had a great time, they had a fab mini-album that I'm finishing off this week it's so cool ! We totally surprised Lucy by coming as she didn't know and sitting between the fab Monique and Corinne was fun ! I will show my lo soon too !

Grade 1 & 3 (long story ...)

The M&M's returned to school on monday and I'll try to give you an impression of how this went @ 7.00 mondaymorning.



C yelling from his room:
Daddy where's mommy ? (I was out for dinner the night before)
Daddy's @ work, Mommy is here.
Oh ok, hi mommy.
Do you know what kind of day this is Colin ?
Is it school day today ?
Yes it is.
Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppppppppppppppppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (arms in the air) I'm going to school.

And for the next 45 min. he was jumping up and down screaming "who let the dogs in" LOL.



M:

Michael wake up sweetie !
Hhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmpfffffffffffff.
Me opening the curtains, come on wake up. aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhpffffffffffff.
(By this time Colin was already dressed, I had to look twice I was so surprised.)
Come on Michael wake up !
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffff....
Michael I am going into the shower, and if you're not up and dressed by the time I come out you will be going to bed earlier tonight, obviously you are going to bed tooo late if you cannot manage to get out now (he gets to go 15 - 30 min. later than his brother) .

And there he was with me still in the shower but fully dressed :)


Some random stuff they said before, during & after school:


The teacher sure reads slowly, i kept having to go back to page 1 and 2 ......
If the teacher says a bad word I will tell you and daddy about it !
I only have to learn how to write in a pretty way, I don't have to learn anything else.
Is it time for our lunchbreak yet ?
I like grade 3 better than grade 2 !
When are we allowed to go to bed ?
What are we going to do now ? Is it lunchtime or are the mommies outside ?


Some pics :







So now you're totally in the loop on the boys getting back into their routine, now me hmmm different story ............ How are you getting back into the swing of things after the summer ?

Wonderful Imaginations

Isn't it great that kids have such great imaginations ? And boy do these parents have tooo LOL.

Theme of a summerparty @ Colin's creche was fairytales and we had the hardest time thinking up a "costume" for this. He changed his mind a few times big bad wolfe, one of the 7 goats, Little Poucet (which we were hoping since it was the easiest to realize ) but decided for the latter the night before (yeah). But... next morning guess what happened, yep he changed his mind again. He was going to be one of the 7 goats .... So how do you make a goat with about 1 hrs notice you might ask ? With imagination and some special make-up .... check this out !

Oh and then in the afternoon, we had another rush job as Michael thought it would be nice to dress up too. So when he said big bad wolfe, I suggested the puss in boots and he went for it (thank god because it was an easy one to realise), so again a little imagination and special make-up ... check this out !

Very long update and some photo's too .... part II

If you're interested in part II of what's been going on in our lives then read on, if
not click away now and don't look back.

Michael got his 3rd ribbon at his swimming lessons only one more to go and
then he can go for his diploma which we expect after the summer. Here's a funny pic of him, the ribbon and a matching balloon.



The boys had their pic's take at school, and even though colin was a bit ill
they took a good pic of them both !

And of course here's one alone :



The whole class:

can you believe he stuck out his tongue on the class picture and is so proud of it LOL.

Went to see Revlie, Ruben & Sanne with Corinne, wow talk about deadlines. I finished up
her scrap pressie literally seconds before we had to leave :

She can add her own fave photo of Ruben to it herself and it's finished.

That about sums up part II all up for the last 2 weeks ........ I warned you it was
a lot ! And I will be sharing some more pic's this week of how a little imagination & some normal clothes make some nice dress up gear for Colin's creche party!