Phase 1 of planting is done.

Last Saturday we accomplished quite a big task. We planted 709 plants, most of it buxus, taxus and fagus salvatica (in simple words: hedges).

If it weren't for our good friends, family and neighbors, we wouldn't have been able to do it in one day. It took 8 people 11 hours to finish the job, but we did it!

And this is the result:


 
 
 
 

Carnival time in Belgium

 


Yesterday Mendel went to ballet dressed up for Carnival, and after that we went to a carnival party at the boarding school that belongs to the school that the kids go to.

Elias wanted to be a clown, staying in character after telling jokes at the talent show two weeks ago.



Mendel wanted to be a princess, but since 90% of the girls are princesses, I convinced her to be "Pipi Langkous" instead. Pipi langkous is a girl from a Swedish movie that was very popular when I was young. While in the States we used to play these movies as well, so she knows her.
Everywhere she went, she got recognized as Pipi Langkous (especially by the moms), so in the end she was very happy with her costume.
(Picture of the "real" Pipi Langkous on the right)

We (the moms) decided it would be fun to dress up as well, all the same, and we ended up wearing bright colored overalls. As if that wasn't enough, some of us used some face painting.

The top picture is the end result.

Elias the stand up comedian

Once a year, the school organizes some kind of talent show.

Every child can sign up to perform "something".
This something is most often a dance performance, singing a song, playing an instrument like the guitar or the piano, and sometimes telling jokes.

Since I am going to organize this event next year, and because I would like Elias to get some experience on stage (he will benefit from it later in his career - whatever that might be), I coaxed him into signing up for this.

This wasn't easy since he feels very strongly about not making a fool of himself in front of all his friends.

But I convinced him that telling a few jokes would be fun. He expressed his biggest concern:"What if they laugh with me?". Since this is the exact purpose of telling a joke, he went for it.

Here are his jokes (remember - these are second grade jokes):

1) What is green and skies?
..... a skiwi

2) Why does a rabbit go to bed so early?
...... because it only needs to bush two teeth

3) What is the difference between a teacher and a dentist?
....... a teacher says "close your mouth" and the dentist says "open your mouth"

4) Jantje goes walking with his granny. He finds a lolly on the ground but granny says:"Everything on the ground is dirty.". They walk on and Jantje sees one Euro on the ground, and again granny says:"Everything on the ground is dirty." They walk further and granny falls on the ground. She asks Jantje to help her get up but Jantje says:"I can't. Everything on the ground is dirty."


Since we practiced for an entire week on pronunciation and speed of the jokes, he brought it like a professional. While waiting to tell the answer to one of the first three jokes, he would count to 3 (and you could see his head bob a little on the counts). Then he answered in such a tone that the entire audience just broke out in laughter. It was awesome!

New lover?

An old college buddy of mine (Patrick) came over to our house to pick me up so we could have a few drinks together. While Patrick, Wim and I are talking in the kitchen prior to leaving, my dear son asks me: "mama - are you a bit in love with Patrick?".

Hahaha... I couldn't stop laughing and asked him why he would ask such a silly question, he responded:" Well, you are going on a date with him .....".

How innocent little kids are, to ask me so frankly in front of Wim!

Btw... my answer was "no" :-)

It's flu season

Why is it that when one kid recovers from a flu (and had to stay home from school for a week), that the other kids gets the same symptoms?
Can't they compare calendar's and schedule it at the same time?

When one kid is out of the woods - the other one goes in...

I am a bit worried about Mendel's integration at school.
She only seems to play with Louise (a friend in 2nd KG) and not with any of her classmates.

I brought this up with her teacher but she seems to think everything is going well, but I hear a different story from Mendel herself (the kids in her class are not nice to her and she never seems to play with anyone from her class).

So I made an appointment with the zorgcoordinator, who was going to observe Mendel for a while.

My meeting with her got postponed when Mendel's teacher got sick, but then out of the blue she did ask me to come in and have a conversation after all(with the teacher still being sick).
The reason she wanted to see me asap was that they ran into something quite unusual.

When they asked every child in 3rd KG, to list the names of friends they play with from their class, every child can name a few friends, except Mendel.
This was a surprise to the school staff, but they were even more surprised (or shocked) that nobody in her class had mentioned her name either.
(There was 1 boy in the other 3rd KG that had mentioned her name, but he has a little crush on her - which she returns).

So - here we are - we know something isn't right. But what?
We are now exploring different theories. Is it Mendel that is very picky when it comes to making friends.
Or is she doing something that really puts other kids off.

I am going to organize more playdates for her, and will see whether the issue gets resolved.

Cross your fingers...

First snow in 2009

 
 

On the first day of school and work in 2009 it snows!

Elias got up this morning at 7am, stood by our bed and announced:"I have good and bad news. The good news is that it snowed and everything is white outside, and the bad news is that the roads will be slippery.".

Wim was working from home anyway, but after the slipping escapades last time around, it's safer if I work from home as well.

Too bad the kids have to go to school but since it is still snowing right now, I hope it will still be a big pack tonight so we can have a snow fight :-)