More Surprises

Steve got a Pokemon ball (made by Robin)
Robin got an electric keyboard (made by Bri)
Chris got a portrait of himself - complete with iPod headphones that cone out (made by me, Andrew).
Before that we'd had a nice dinner together at our place - on a dreary winterish evening.
Changeable weather ver the weekend - where I took part in Robin & Chris's swimming club Njord's club swim champs on Sat afternoon and Sun morning
2 x thirds (of a field of 4) in the 50M back and freestyle. Hopeless in the 50m breaststroke. Maybe room for a New Years resolution to improve my breaststroke then (never had it taught at school for some reason).

Sinterklass Surpises

This year we decided to do a traditional Sinterklaas tradition of making "Surprises" for each other. In Dutch you pronounce it "surpreeze" . Basically the idea was we all had the same budget to buy a present. Then we drew lots to see who we got to buy for - then you go out a buy the gift for them - and you make a novelty package to put the gift inside - and that is the surprise. You do not know up front who is buying your present for you. Below is my one - a Kiwi on a block of Dutch cheese mode by Steven (with a bit of help from Mum)
Anton and El got a book (full of sweets and puzzel books) from us all.
Bri got a lipstick (made by Chris)

Back Online

Now that we are finally back online courtesy of XS4ALL we can start getting caught up on things internet. Also discovered Flight of the Conchords fragments on YouTube so that was cool to show Chris (although he needed some subtitling sometimes...)

NZ Posters on Chris' Wall

Got the Tga and Wgtn posters from Kahu Publishing (we got them at the Post Offices) framed and up on Chris' wall. A bit better for a teen's bedroom.

Robin

Here are Robins new braces - and if I did not know better - I would have said this was Dave


Robin as proud owner of his Haka towel (with Ka Mate Ka Mate on it...a bit dubious in terms of cultural appropriateness but we'll get over it). Bougth it at AKL on the way back.

Snow 23 November

I thought I would grab a couple of shots from last Sunday morning to show the snow in the back yard.
The hornbeams are now completely brown & look amazing when the morning sun (!) shines on them.

November Shots

Finally got to upload a few shots from the memory cards - after also upgrading to a 2GB memory card for my old Canon.

These are from August (I think) when Chris collected his first Certificate in English from his Cambridge exams.

Of course the requisite shots from Steve's 9th birthday
I think Robin was quite keen to get his hands on Steve's birthday cake!

Finished Skimboard for Steve

Back in the old routine

This weekend was the first one back in the old (sports) routine.
Steve had a friendly (i.e. non-competition) football game at 09:30 . It was rainy windy and generally miserable. Not a bad game - though they lost 2-3. Steve spent most of the 2nd half being very cold. So it was hot bathes for us when we got home - just to thaw out.
Later in the afternoon off to water polo with Chris (I brought Robin along too as we're trying to get him interested in the sport too - we think it might be better for him than water polo). They won 8-1 - Chris made a couple of goals as well as some key assists.
Robs has no football for 3 weeks due to cancellation of a series of friendlies.

Xmas Tree & Last Day

The boys by the Xmas tree in the corner of the lounge - not quite sure when Bri took this photo. The tree has since been converted into a bare trunk and lots o' twigs in the green rubbish container
Robs & Steve dressing up and making a lot of noise on one of the last days of their holiday. Bad hair day. On the last Sunday afternoon (sunny!) we went for a long walk again - at the Malpie under Valkenswaard - great to get outdoors again with them. Thats the big problem with the winter school holidays - the weather is always rubbish and being cooped up inside with 3 energetic boys is wearying.

More Snowshots

Still trying how to add photos direct from Picasa to existing posts in the blog.
This shot was at about 08:30 or 09:00 the others are later in the day.

Ah'm Dureemin Ahv A Whaaat Churistmaaas

Or my best phonetic spelling of Bing Crosby's croon.
A few shots of the snowfall the week before Xmas here. By Xmas eve it was all gone again and grey and rainy again. Bah humbug.

Champion & Mad Scientist

Here is another photo of the football champ from their small party to celebrate their championship win in December.

Chris Robin and Steve all got a crystal making set (complete with safety gogs) for Sinterklaas. Here are Chris and Steve working hard on mixing up the solution just right.

December - Sinterklaas!

Some photos from Sinterklaas (Dutch Christmas for those who do not know) on December 5. The boys v happy with their sack of gifts.
Reading the poem from Sint (Sinterklaas) and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) - his knave. Traditionally this is a kind of rhyme saying how Sinterklaas thought that they had been good after all and how he had managed to think of some nice presentd for them all. Internet has some great poem generators - a big help to parents everywhere ;-).
Also around Sinterklaas, Steven's football team won it's competition in the first half of the season before the winter stop over the Christmas/New Year period. So cause for a small celebration in the club canteen.
All very happy with their trophies.