KissKus

Flashback

We had a pretty full schedule in England.
Breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, sleeping, shopping and bus rides took up most of our time.
We did manage to squeeze in a few other activities as well.

On Thursday we hung out in St. James' Park and hit the shops in the Piccadilly District.

On Friday I met up with Monica which was lovely. We hadn't sent photos beforehand, but I managed to find her by recognizing her brooch... hurray for handmade crafts! We swapped gifts and she gave me some gorgeous fabric and also one of her beautiful brooches, which is the first one in her post.
Unfortunately, neither of us has any photographic evidence of our meeting, but we had a great time shopping and having lunch.

The rest of that day was spent in the centre of Oxford and we cycled a bit on our rented bikes. We also went to the Pitts River's Museum, where you can find the most unusual things displayed. If you're ever in Oxford it's a real must-see.

We had dinner at my sister's boyfriend's College. As of this summer my sister will move in with him, so it was nice to see where she is going to live.

On Saturday we went to London again, where Michel and I spend some time alone in Harrod's and The Victoria & Albert Museum.

The museum is huge and packed with interesting things. Since our time was limited, I thought it would be a smart idea to just concentrate on the Textiles, but when we finally arrived there that section was closed :((
It did give us some more time at the keys and tins sections.

We then rushed to Hammersmith to experience the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. It was all great fun and very exciting. The atmosphere reminded us of our Dutch Queensday. Unfortunately, Oxford lost the race, which we were told by text messages from The Netherlands.

After a pancake feast and a delicious Easter/English breakfast it was time to go home.
Where the Easter partying continued. First at the one set of grandparents....

...and then at the others.

Simon discovered the best hiding place for the chocolate eggs he found: inside the seat of his car.

Well, so far the flashback. Now I'm all up to date and ready to look into the future again :) And Michel and I have something very exciting to look forward to in our very near future (a couple of hours); we'll be going to a lecture in Amsterdam. No irony there, because it will be held by Ian McEwan, a writer I very much admire.

Have a good weekend all!

In our element

As I was looking through the photos I made in England, I noticed how we all really seemed to be in our element.

Three sisters sniffing up some culture outside The Royal Academy of Arts:

Shopping:

Having COFFEE!!

Or hot chocolate:

Cheering on the Oxford rowers (whilst catching up with some essential reading... yes Laura, that is NOW that you are reading!!):

Cycling:

Soaking up the sun in St. James' Park:

And the happy reunion at the airport:

Back at the nest

Enjoying the small things of home...

An explosion of life in the garden

A moorkop and tea in my new favourite mug (it's my birthday today :))

Spending time with the children...

...having lunch (doesn't it look REAL?!)

All in all, it's good to be home!
We did have a fantastic time in England though, which I'll tell you more about soon. However, first I need to have more cake...lots more cake!!

Some of you asked what on earth that is for lunch... well, peanutbutter poo of course!! Michel made it for lunch (don't ask me how!) and the children loved it. No actual yukkiness was used making this (I hope!).

Almost ready to go

Tomorrow we'll be off to my parents to get the children settled at their temporary home and then early Wednesday morning we'll be on our way to lovely England!

We're *almost* ready to go...

That is except for the packing (for four people).

And cleaning (the neighbours will pick up our mail, so I can't leave the house a mess!) 

And finishing birthday presents that should have been finished 2,5 months ago.

And you know, shopping, washing, ironing, last-minute paperwork etc, etc.

Meanwhile we're enjoying the children just a little extra since we won't be seeing them the rest of the week.

And we're soaking up as much sun as possible. We 've had dinner outside two nights in a row! This was yesterday's lasagna:

I'm really looking forward to go. We've got a packed schedule full of fun things. On Friday I'm going to meet Monica :))

And I'll be confiscating kindly asking permission to use my sister's laptop, so I'll still be able to blog :)

I *heart* England!

And that's why I've just booked our flight to London!

I'm so excited that it's definite now after lots of thinking and planning... and I'm so looking forward to it :)) I don't know what I like best of everything:

• spending time with my sister (and my youngest sister might join us too)
• going away with Michel
• stay out late, go on long walks, do lots of shopping --> do everything you can't do with kids around
• embrace EVERYthing English

Oh and do you know what more? I might even meet up with a very lovely fellow blogger! Anyone else wants to meet up somewhere in the vicinity of London/Oxford between 4 and 8 April?! It'll be fun! These hearts were designed and cut out by Amber. She also did a bit of sewing until she grew tired of it.

Labels: us, vacation