The day before Diederiks bithday he had his birthday party at kindergarden. He had made his own muffins the day before with pink icing and Winney the Poo on top. He was very proud and loved getting all the attention. On Monday he will start his new group with the children aged 3 to 4. Both Zep and Fay his two bestfriends have alreday moved to that group so he can't wait. The same day the will also be celebrating Carneval and all the children will be dressed up. Next birthday it will off to School!!!

Morfar and Marina came over to visit us from Riga.

It was very nice having them here. Although Marina, Diederik and Oscar don't speak the same language but the played and communicated with no problem. Morfar was just like one of the boys.

Diederik and Oscar are both very "ondernemend" as they say in Dutch. I just looked it up on the Dictionary and this was the explenation: enterprising) marked by imagination, initiative, and readiness to undertake new projects.

Our computer broke down, we are actually amazed it didn't earlier considering how many times Oscar and Diederik has "made" it fall on the floor. We now finally have a computer again and it's lovely. Below are some photos summarizing January. Anna, Erik, Sebastian and baby Emil came to visit us over New Years and it was great having them here.

It got very cold and we were able to ice skate on the lakes. Since Dutch people are so business minded, there where, within one day of the ice existence, cozy food/snack tents and lounge chairs to be found along the side of the lakes. In Sweden you'd be happy if you found a stone to sit on to have your home made picknick. Allthough there you could probably skate for an hour before you even met someone else so business wise it wouldn't make much sense.

Diederik enjoys baking as you can see, the great outfit he got from his girlfriend Fay.

We didn't go to the Zoo, instead Diederik and I went skating, while Jan Mark and Oscar where socializing with the rest of the neighbourhood. We took really nice pictures to show you but realized after we finished skating that there was no SF card in the camera...typical! After that I found an extra card in my camera case and we took some photos of the boys playing with the trains inside the "temporary ice skating rink restaurant".

Good Christmas morning!

I woke up with a smile on my face this morning to Diederik singing "en socker bagare har bor i staden..." och "vi komma vi komma fran pepparkakeland..." (Swedish x-mas songs) It was so nice and it was 7.30 am! Nearly two hours longer than normal.

Yesterday we had 13 adults here and 4 children and not to forget Santa who came to visit us. It was a lot of fun and a lot of food!

Now we are off to the zoo but here are some pictures of yesterday whishing you all a great Christmas.

It's been a great 2008. Jan Mark has learnet a few new Swedish words, been pretty sporty playing field hockey. Oscar started walking although he loves holding on to me and Jan Mark like a little monkey. He can say a few words, tack, Didi, Dalla, kaka, nej, open, Pippi, etc and build lego towers. He is a great footballer too. Diederik did a poo on the toilet today! He loves swinging on the swings, racing with his friends on his tree wheeler, lay puzzles and he also likes playing with lego a lot. I fulfilled a dream, and am now a very happy Independent Professional Coach. And not to forget Dallas, he has accepted that he is the lowest rank of the family, but is happy with that. He is our live vaccum cleaner and his realtionship with the boys is much better since they freqently feed him goodies.

We wish you all a great 2009 both personally and professionally!