KissKus

It's the season

And I'm loving it!

Birthday crafts

Naturally I did a bit of crafting for Amber's birthday. It wasn't as much as I'd originally planned, but I tried to let go of some of the obligations that I usually impose on myself and I was ok with that (pat on the shoulder).

I didn't make her birthday dress, for instance. My mum did, however, so it was alright to let go off that one this year. Unfortunately, I don't have a proper photo of the dress, since the weather wasn't great yesterday and Amber had to wear tights and a cardigan. It's quite a simple dress, but made from a beautiful knitted fabric and it looked very sweet on her. More surprisingly importantly, she liked it too!

Today she handed out treats at school and with this I also didn't go overboard. I made cakes and decorated them. Not very difficult and they were well received and all eaten.

I did make her her own bunting. Bad photo, I know, but I just can't seem to take a proper photo of bunting. I've been making lots of birthday bunting this year and there is definitely more to come too :)

This last little project wasn't made by me, but by Michel. He always designs all our invitations and does a great job. He is my photoshop hero! Isn't my banner looking a bit dusty, by the way ;)

Now all that's left is Amber's birthday party, which we still have to set a date for, but which has to happen before the summer holidays start. I suppose some more crafting will be in order then!

Mag 'n cheese

Lunch and Sew Hip: an excellent combination.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Bring it on!

At long last the summer holiday in our part of the country started! It feels as if we're the last on the planet to finish school for the summer, but as from today Amber is home and we're all determined to enjoy it.

The fun started yesterday evening when Amber and Simon cuddled up together into one bed. It was one of things they wanted to do this holiday and they didn't waste time. They looked so cute and snugly together! And although they admitted that they chatted for a bit, we didn't hear a thing. Tonight they want to sleep in Amber's bed.... we'll see.

Another thing that was on the holiday to-do list was eating choco-muesli for breakfast. So that's what they had this morning. They were still in their pyjamas and quite frankly, I still am!

We have many more plans for the next six weeks: fun days with all the opa's and oma's, at least one trip to the beach and we'll go to France for two weeks. We're counting off the days already!

The only thing that's not cooperating is the weather... it's like autumn here. So wet and chilly... brrr. I do hope this summer will be better than last year's! It's so funny to think that in other parts of the world summers guarantee warmth and sun; here in Holland it's always a surprise what kind of weather we'll be blessed with. I suppose it keeps things exciting?

As soon as the rain takes a break today I will let the children play outside. Michel made such a wonderful ladder for Simon the other day. He is so pleased with it. His new favourite game is to climb up the tree and to hide something there in the branches. Then Amber or I have to come and see the treasure that he'll pull out which usually is a stick or something.

Look at his little happy face! I will miss him so when he'll start school in September!

Oh, look at these gorgeous flowers that Sarah sent because I attended her wedding! They're beautiful and they bring some much-needed brightness into our house... thank you so much, Sarah!

Chocolate-y breakfast

I thought I'd show you some Dutch haute cuisine today. Just joking of course... as far as I know nothing haute  can be found here, just cuisine!

But I would like to show you my typical breakfast: bread and chocolate.
Let's start with example A:

Vlokken = crinkly chocolate pieces

This is the dark chocolate variety. It also comes in milk, white, a combination of milk & white, orange & milk and banana & milk, but the dark chocolate is our favourite.

Example B:

Hagelslag = chocolate sprinkles

This is also the dark variety, but as you can imagine it also comes in white and milk, thick and thin. I really should have taken a photo of the aisle in the supermarket... the choice is enormous!

Example C:

Plakkiez = chocolate slices

This a new thing, so I thought I would give it a try. However, it's not really doing it for me... Still, the children and I had fun, coming up with three letter words.

So a slice of bread along with a nice mug of tea is my breakfast. Now I would love to know what did you have for breakfast today?

PS Although I'm a chocoholic and I love to eat, but I did not eat all these slices of bread today!!

PS2

The crafts that went with the birthday

There were a lot of things that I needed wanted to make for Amber's birthday.
In my life there is always that dilemma: will I go mad and try to make everything myself, or will I make it easy on myself and simply buy everything? In the end it's usually a mix of both these things. For instance, I can't remember ever having baked a proper birthdaycake. However, I do make it a point to always make Amber's birthday dress.

Another thing that I find important is to think up of something creative for birthday treats for school. Last year I made fabric flowers and the year before that we made boats. I was wondering whether it's a Dutch tradition to hand out treats at school? It's just that I can't remember ever having read about it on any of the international crafty blogs that I read.

Anyway, to my mind the best treats are unique, but also simple to make. This year Michel and I came up with the perfect idea: fish rods.

Now, I would love to tell what I used to make them, but I'm afraid I'm only able to do so in Dutch: soepstengels, rode en zwarte dropveters en snoepvissen. Thanks to Nichole I now know that I used breadsticks, red & white shoestring licorice and Swedish fish. All sweets came from Ikea, so you might be able to get them there.

This was so easy to put together. We made the fish rods on Sunday and kept them fresh in ziplock bags. We decorated a cardboard box with blue wrapping paper and fish stickers (both Ikea). Then we punched holes in the box and all I had to do the next morning was put all the rods in there.

This is how we tried to transport the whole thing to school:

Amber carried it when everything started to collapse on Linus.

It was a huge success with both children and teachers (and parents).

After this there were still some things to make for her party on Wednesday. Of course I didn't start until the very last minute ;)

For the treasure hunt I made oilcloth letters that the children had to collect during the game. I used a cup to draw the circles unto the oilcloth. After cutting them out and sewing them together, I attached a letter sticker... finito!

For favours I made small oilcloth bags.

I used my girliest oilcloth... I actually love the pink gingham myself! Again, the bags were very easy to make, it's just a shame that I had to work on them so late into the night...

I made cupcakes to put in the bags. Although I don't think I can call them cupcakes...my cakes don't even come close to all the wonderful creations that I so often spot in blogland, but they looked cute enough and were tasty as well :)

In the end, this was the result:

Please notice that I re-used the letters from the treasure hunt to create bags with the girls' initials on them... pretty clever or not?!

And that was the end of that... I promise no more posts on Amber's birthday! Oh, by the way, I'll announce the two winners of the give-away in next post. Enjoy the last bit of weekend, everyone!

Girls girls girls

Yesterday we held Amber's birthday party for her friends. She had set some strict rules beforehand: she wanted princess cups and plates, she wanted a treasure hunt and she only wanted to invite girls.
So Michel and I knew what we had to work with.
We divided tasks: I was responsible for the food & drink etc. and Michel for the overall organisation and especially the treasure hunt.

 

We were incredibly lucky with the weather. After a long spell of beautiful summer weather, yesterday was supposed to be the first day of it being colder and wetter. But not over our house! It was mostly sunny and warm enough to have all activities outside.

We started with hotdogs and lemonade.

Then it was time for presents. I came up with the idea of using a dice to keep things civilised. The girl that threw 6 first was allowed to give her present. This worked very well; everyone stayed focused. No yelling or running around... that's my idea of party fun!

After this it was time for the treasure hunt. They read the instructions first... their quest was to find the silver teapot that we needed later for the tea party.

What followed was lots of exciting running:

Solving puzzles:

Collecting letters at the strangest places such as the local supermarket:

And then finally they had to put all the letters in the right order to find out where the silver teapot was hidden:

Under the slide!

After all that hard work it was time for tea (lemonade):

Please notice the princess cups and plates... when I told Amber that I didn't really like princessy stuff, she said: Well I do! And it's my party!" And that was the end of that discussion.

After some more playing it was time to take everybody home. Everyone had enjoyed themselves and Amber was very happy. Michel and I were pooped out (we've had quite a few late nights as well lately), but we were able to look back at a very successful day. Next party is in September, so we have some time to recover.

More photos are on Flickr. I really love these two photos of Simon. He kept a little distance between him and all these girls :)

Next post I'll show you the crafty bits!

Hmpf... I still don't get the photos to show up right since the Typepad-change. Any tips on how to get these photos published properly?!

It was a very happy birthday

Our beautiful daughter is 7 years old today.
Happy birthday, Amber!!

We've had a truly lovely day. The weather was gorgeous, so we could sit outside all day. Family and friends came and brought lots of presents.
Of course we had cake too...

Amber was allowed to stay up for as long as she liked, so she only just went to bed.

I think that seven is a very special age, in between little and big. We can't wait to enjoy this new year in her life with her.

Tomorrow I'll show you her birthday dress! Here's a sneak peek:

In honour...

of Sarah's virtual wedding we are having this delicious cake today.

It really is the best. I'm sorry you have to make do with a virtual piece, Sarah!

By the way, you look beautiful and so very happy! Congratulations!!

See this post if you want to see our weddingcake. My advice is to have cake on every anniversary!
Well, I have to go now... that cake is calling!

How to eat strawberries in 5 steps

1. Buy a good amount of strawberries.



2. Buy a loaf of white bread.



3. Squash strawberries with a fork.



4. Put squashed strawberries on slice of bread.



5. Add sugar.

Enjoy!



(Some silly people prefer to eat them without taking all these steps)