Opening Soon: The 4Ns Playhouse

Hi Sunny friends,

Finally its getting warm in Belgium! The real summer feeling is here!

And with the arrival of these beautiful sunny days the whole Belgium population prepares to live outside! 
Parasols out, beach chairs out to the terrace, picnic tables filled with salads and BBQs, sandboxes occupied, bikes getting 100% used, and of course...the opening of The 4Ns Playhouse!

Yes, we have been preparing for the very-very-soon inauguration of our playhouse.  Interested to see what's happening?  Take a look!

Stage 1: Take the sandbox out

Stage 2: Dig out the needed holes, measure properly and pour 5cm cement over

Stage 3: Let it dry.



















Stage 4: Check if every piece was delivered















Stage 5: Sort out the needed poles and wooden pieces properly



















Stage 6: Put the platform and the poles together and be sure you do this with Opa and Oma's help



















Stage 7: Put the platform up (with the help of Oma, Opa and our neighbor Frank) after placing the sandbox back in place.
WARNING: VERY HEAVY!!!



















Stage 8: Screw properly the loose parts

Stage 9: Check again with the plan on how to put up the rest



















Stage 10: And execute!  Make sure everything is steady and strong!



















Stage 11: Try if its properly made...















Stage 12: Try again...

Stage 13: Mix the cement and fill up the holes with about 30cm cement.  Let dry for about 1 week.

"Mama ik weet het al hoe je dat ding maakt:
Eerst de stof (cementpoeder), en dan witte zand,

"...en dan bruine zand, en dan steentjes, en dan WATER!"

And what did the rest of the crew do? Let's check it out!

Played with Mama-built Lego playhouse inside
(cause it was toooo hot outside for little girls and boys to play)

Eat fries outside when its not too warm anymore

And share with Oma

That's all for now.

We will surely update you with the progress of our Playhouse!


Hugs,

Niels, Nina, Nico and Neri

Pinksteren met Oma, Opa en het mooi weer

Pinkster... Niels asked, "Wat is het eigelijk Pinkster?"

It depends, if its about 29° Celsious and not raining, Pinkster means its time to have fun outside!!!

And so we did!

Bike outside!

Dance and sing outside at the lawn

Pick flowers

Be a victim of Oma's little clip joke

Be cute

Cool down and made soda with ipad

And give the most beautiful flowers to Mama

Mama Mia! Lekker Pizza!

After learning how to bake a cupcake and decorate a cookie, its now time for the third session: 

How to make pizza! 

Not that difficult, anyone can do it!  YOU CAN TOO!

1. Roll the dough out (in our case, we just buy a ready-made pizza dough from the store)
2. Roll the sides inward so the tomato sauce will not run later
3. Spread enough tomato sauce on top and spread the grated cheese

4. If you had too much of the cheese, you can have some... I mean a hand-full ;-)

5.  You could put whatever topping you want.  In this session, we did 2 sorts, actually 3 sorts of pizza. One pizza with ham and cheese, half pizza with anchovies and capers and the other half with bacon strips.  And on all 3 pizza styles we used fresh thyme from our very own herb garden!  The pizza itself already wonderful BUT the thyme made it even SPECIALLY DELICIOUS!

6. And finally, after reading the instructions on the box of the dough, put it in the oven and...VOILA!

Try it out and have fun!

Niels

Beringen Bengelt!

Such a nice weather today, once of the first warm days in spring here in small little Belgium.

And today is a special day organized so all people from Beringen can enjoy together this glorious day!

BERINGEN BENGELT!

Niels saw some famous faces from school and daycare and had a good time playing with them by the Octopus.  We also saw some neighbors. Nina, for the first time, willingly jumped on this inflated octopus house. They fished out some smurfs! Ate for the first time cotton candy!

And after all the fun, we knew it was time to go...cause drops of rain started to shower the party! We just ran as fast as we can to the car and drove home.

It was a nice day, there is time to play and time to go home and rest ;-)

Niels at the Octopus

Nina trying to think if she will dare to play on it too or not

Our neighbor, Ruben

Niels' first ever taste of Cotton Candy

Nina and Papa's first time too:  Nina, first inspecting it

Let Papa try it first...



And if it looks like Papa is OK, then she tasted it herself



Fishing for Smurfs



Nina too!



On the Carousel



And Nina, Niels and Mama trying to slide down the octopus

If next year its nice weather again, we will be back!!!

The 4Ns

Nina, my flower girl!



Nina trying to put her strawberry onto her fork



Trying to eat her strawberry from her hand...
Looks like it didnt work with the fork

Cleaning up

Looking naughty!

Finally, happy :-)

I love watching my little girl!

40 years and counting...

Yup, Oma and Opa celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!

Oma and Opa, married since 27 April 1972

Last 1st of May, exactly on Labor Day, we have set that date to celebrate this 40th year for Oma & Opa together with Meter Vicky, Nonkel Danny, Celeste.

It was such a nice sunny day. Everyone arrived, lively from the sunshine, on time at Papa's old friend Xavier's Sportagon.

The kids went directly inside looking for what they could play with.  There was a room to play field hockey, there was a "springkasteel" in the other room and outside, a mini gold, zandbak and a small playground for younger kids.

And what did we play with first?  Of course the Hockey in the first room!  It was fun, everyone full of energy...Papa playing, Niels and Celeste of course, Opa joined also, I did join, Nina wants to join but she was still too small to play hockey.

Then we played on the springkasteel, Papa as lion trying to catch Celeste and Niels.

After eating such a delicious lunch, we went playing mini golf...was a close match between Nico (76pts), Niels (80pts) and Celeste (79pts).  But all 3 did great!

See how professional they played:

Papa teaching Niels how to hold the club

Niels trying to have the ball in 2 shots!

Celeste in 1 shot!

Nina was not in the photos cause she was not feeling good that day, she wanted to play but was too weak to even come out of her buggy.

Emiel is born!

Welcome EMIEL!!!!!

3,89 kg, 54 cm, at exactly 2.20pm

Baby of Rachella and Koenraad and the baby brother of Ermina and Vincent!

We waited 9 months for you to come, and now we cannot wait to play with you!!!!

Neri, Nico, Niels and Nina