Lebanon

Super excited we took the airplane to Lebanon. The clothes fitted perfectly and the atmosphere was excellent.

We initially doubted to register them to participate in the Lebanon gymnastics competition, but when Belgium was the victim of the terrorist attacks we realized you don't know your destiny.

The traffic in Beirout was a disaster, but once out of the car we really enjoyed the walks, the natural habitat, watching the beautiful old buildings and some stunning views.

We visited Byblos, cultural heritage unimaginable in the United Arab Emirates.

All the blue in the streets of Beirout draws the attention and the kids enjoy the hospitality of the Lebanese!

Lebanon, we will be back next year! You can be sure of that!

Destination 'Abroad'

The kids' first gymnastics competition abroad! So they really needed matching tracksuits to get the team spirit going.

Making the outfits was a race against time. Before departure there was no time left to take pictures of the tracksuit. So thinking we could do this at our destination we did not stress about the blogpost just yet. At our destination the weather seemed just to warm for jumpers so we didn't get the full outfit on pictured so we decided to take pictures back home. In our bathroom the light seemed to be the best.

The girls got a Julia sweater and the boys a Leather Sweater. Oh boy those two patterns are a delight.

Easy to cut and to assemble, and a really gorgeous result.

The girls got a pair of our favorite gym pants, Alasya, and the boys a Randy pants. Overall the boys outfit was more work because we added a small green detail in the seams. Blue, green and white are the colors of the club and the kids looked really cool.

What started of as a 'normal' photoshoot quickly degenerated in a bathtub gymnastics session!

Apparently the bath suits perfectly as parallel bar ...

As a balance beam ...

But also acrobatic gymnastics is an option in our bathtub ...

Hilarious our sporty -and also slightly crazy- kids.

Lebanon, here we come!

As we have already spammed you with the outfit pictures, we will post the pictures of the trip itself later.

Forgotten Jewels #5

Do not ask me why I didn’t post these pictures earlier! 

I should at least have posted them before this book was published as now it looks like I used her pattern without mentioning it.

Nevertheless we based us on a bag seen on her blog.

We made four different pieces, because for our of five are going almost everyday to gymnastics classes.

The picture look really 'vintage' to us, as meanwhile we even changed gymnastics club.

They all choose their preferred fabrics. I personally prefer the lion fabric combination and the flowery fabric.

Luckily all the kids think their own choice is the best, although.... Jade told me next time she will choose the same fabric as Louka!

Double trouble

Gymnastics competition season is on. I planned to show the gymnastics bags we made for the kids to motivate them for the competitions but I will do that later. I first want to raise a concern.

We do not tend to dress the twins identical, their hair is cut differently and we do not usually refer to them as ‘The Twins’. Nevertheless it is inevitable to compare some of their actions especially as they both participate in gymnastics competitions. They are in separate classes at school, but in gymnastics they evidently have to compete in the same level and the same age category.

At the prize-giving ceremony Omar usually ends up lower than his brother on the individual apparatus and so in the overall ranking. Most children don’t like losing but it is even harder when your brother carries the medals home and you can only look and crave to have some too.

On top of that Elias cannot enjoy his wins as he feels bad that his brother misses out on the medals and he feels bad beating his brother. So either way I end up with two sad boys. Even for us as parents and their sisters it results in ambivalent feelings as on the one hand you are happy Elias won something, and at the same time you do not want to praise him too much as that is rubbing it in for the other one.

Luckily they had their last competition today and we can go back to regular training without worrying about this double trouble.