KissKus

Sinterklaas

He's arrived safely again in our country. Let the spoiling begin!

I wrote about this Dutch tradition before here and here and here.

Kip in de hoed

Today's dinner was Kip in de hoed (literal translation: Chicken in the hat).

The recipe (in Dutch) can be found here.

Three out of five of our family members think this is a delicious dish; Simon has even requested this as his birthday meal for two successive years.

I've been making it for at least 10 years, maybe more and it always works out. The combination of chicken and cherries may sound a bit unusual, but -unless you are a vegetarian- it's worth a try!

Sint Maarten

We celebrated the Dutch traditional feast of St. Maarten today (which should actually be celebrated on 11/11).

The kids had their laterns ready and were eager to get started. It was their first time celebrating. Where I grew up this feast was one of the biggest events for children, but where we live now it isn't so much.

I thought my trio was just so cute singing their little song for a treat :)

After 90 minutes we all had sore feet and a satisfying amount of sweets. Of course, at home it was time to check out all the treasures.

There was also another celebration today: it was our 12th wedding anniversary. So much has happened in the 17 years that we've been together, but I really believe that our bond today is stronger than ever <3

Sweets

Judging by these photos it seems as if we are eating ourselves a way through this summer that feels an awful lot like autumn... and I must admit that that is a little bit so :)

Out and about

Some photos of a few fun days that we had recently. Just for the record, we went here, here and here.

A summer evening

Friday evening we went out to celebrate the children's excellent school reports. Tradition is that we go to Weesp to have ice cream.

It was a beautiful sunny evening.

Nr. 1, 2 & 3 stood still long enough for this photo (only just)...

And then we had ice cream!

Nom nom nom :)

No kids Wednesday

The kids are away for a few days, so in between work we are free to do whatever we want. Today we went to Den Bosch, which is a great city in the south of Holland. Just a little shopping, roaming around and some good food: nice!

Sunny Queensday

What a great day. A perfect Queensday.

The weather was so unbelievably nice! We haven't had a very good spring yet and I want more of this warm, lovely sun, please!

The free market in our town was massive and we all had a really good haul.

Some of the vintage fabrics...

I hit the ribbon jackpot <3

Not pictured are books, a teapot, a tray... etc etc

When we were tired from the free market we went back home where we spent hours in the sun: reading, eating, drinking. Dinner outside in the garden... yes, a perfect day.

Here, there, everywhere

Busy days in our household. Lots of things going on, mostly good. Some not so good, but mostly good...

We've been out and about and a certain little someone is about to celebrate his 4th birthday. Big stuff!

Drifting ice

The children and I took a nice little trip to see the spectacular drifting ice. It was only a 45 mins drive, but it seemed we had landed upon the North Pole. The children loved it, Simon especially. It was great to see them have such simple fun. What a trio I have... I'm one lucky mother <3