winter

new year's day walk in a forest of snow... the snow has wreaked havoc everwhere, for everyone including us, but it does have a bewitching effect.







Finally, my first W-H-I-T-E Christmas!

we had a visit from Shawn loli & noah and had a short but sweet time. The snow turned the dunes into ski slopes on the beach!!





Quinten my sweet no.3! he's all sunshine and is born with a tan to match. he loves lady gaga (or my singing it...).

July

We celebrated Oma Vellinga's life who passed away at the age of 92- 1112 kids and 6360 (3 unborn! ;) grandkids & great-grandkids. Much loved, and missed.

Uncles Daan and Dirk visited, and ice cream was the food group of the month.


Neslon is brave, fearless!

Nelson is a picky eater at times, sometimes because the bowl is the wrong colour - but when he loves it, he really LOVES it.

Hola!

Last minute trip to Barcelona to visit Tita Loli and Primito Noah who were on a visit to family there. To say we enjoyed it would be an understatement. 4 days of partying (toddler style, not rock star). 4 days of eating everything that passed our noses. 4 days of being with family. I was kind of hungover from too much of a good time...

Kaemon and Noah thankfully played peacefully most of the time...Kaemon picked up some Spanish, and also some Spanish style

A sample of the fare. Dolores (mama) worked miracles in the kitchen with tomatoes, celery, onion, bay leaves and wine. It must have been a miracle as I tried the recipes, but tasted nothing like hers. My only mission in Barcelona was to revisit the Navajas at the Boqueria.

We hung out with la familia. We siesta'd and partied till laaaate

Muchas Gracias! It's great to have family everywhere!

Flower Power

The small country lanes were crowded with bike-traffic-jams; it was an orgy of photo-taking, as if we'd never seen flowers before. This is our neighbourhood- the famous bloembollen/tulip fields- and it made us go a little ga-ga, hence the bumper photo extravaganza.

Tulips:

...as above...

...as above, above...

That's our transport. Nelson eating tulips, lucky they weren't poppies.

These days we never leave the house with nappies, milk, bubbles, snacks. To do so would be gravely regrettable. Lunch al fresco.

Along with the kids, we brought the KKK: Kick-a$$ Karrot Kake. LUcious cream cheese frosting and deliciously spiced cake with walnuts. Food tastes better in the outdoors, but modestly speaking, this truly was num-num.

...and more tulips

Running through a field of flowers, the classic-money-shot

Hylke's 65th

Cake- modelled on the ANRO asia, a container ship on which Hylke sailed on long ago... I like the water flurry in the wake of the boat the best!

Food-I've never made such neat and tidy nigiri sushi before!

Late edit: Yes there were people at the party, not just food!

Love it when food inspires poetry

Saturday, the steps to a zalig/divine paella. Shawn is the chef, loli the certificate of authenticity. The lemony garlic alioli is over the top flavour but is necessary to complement the full-on, smoky, full-bodied and scintillating paella.  
Sunday, first encounter with Wagyu. I've got good family connections. Abby deals in wagyu. Ian grills to perfection. Wagyu is the nightclub sexy version to the classy Kobe. Kobe gets massaged and is groomed, where wagyu is delectable by pedigree. You CAN cut it with a spoon.
 
Monday. My turn - lazy seafood platter, grilled scallops, asparagus and salmon in a lime & chilli bath.
 
Been eating at home because dining out with 8 adults trying to wrangle 5 kids is not relaxed. But the food has not suffered.

We've Hit Home

Back in Brizvegas, family reunited with a dinner: our view of each other across the table.
 
 
 
 

FINALLY!

The 12 hour journey was not the nightmare expected,we survived relatively unscathed, unwounded and untraumatised. Pretty good considering we had 2 seats for 4 bums.
 
Malaysia is always: warm and food and family (and shopping- we tag-teamed: me first 6 hours intensive credit card action in the Twin Towers KLCC, took a taxi back home, and handed the cab to douwe who promptly jumped in and returned to the point of origin...). Our welcome was complete with sinful chocolate mousse cake. Even though there were 12 kids under the age of 10 present, it was pretty calm and quiet in the house!
 
This year saw a baby boom: here showing 5 of the 6 babies born in the past year: clockwise Zach, Alex, Ethan ([bottom right]eten by whom??!), Nelson and Ryan.
 
And yes................the food photos. Why are there not that many? Not that we didn't eat that much, surely not (the first day we had 4 meals). I ate too fast to take photos. Seriously. Check out kaemon's Giant Paper Dhose (bottom right) at our airport food court breakfast (one cannot waste any meal opportunity in malaysia)
 

All things good must come to an end

For two weeks I had eating company, we had laptop parties and watched movies 10 minutes at a time (tired parents can only handle so much). Now they've gone...but not far!!! lovelove
 
 

My Boys

Two kids are fun...entertainment always