Belgian coast: part 2

The kids did a gymnastics summer camp just before we took off to Belgium. Since then they don’t stop trying out the new tricks they have learned, both on appropriate and the most inappropriate places.

Climbing traffic poles.

Straddle sit on small wooden traffic poles.

Handstands in the sand.

Handstands on mummy her shoulders.

Boxpslit on dad his hands.

Boxsplit in the sand.

A trick on mummy her neck.

We enjoyed our trip and said goodbye to the beach with a ‘sunset-picture’.

The Belgian Coast

We went a couple of days to the Belgian Coast. Our nephews were staying there as well; after a year of communication through skype we could finally really play together again.

Some typical ‘Belgian Coast’ (iPhone) pictures:

Dipping in the cold North Sea.

Making paper flowers.

Skin boarding.

Building sandcastles and getting excited when the sandcastle gets destroyed by the waves.

Playing in the sand.

Riding Go Cars in a line with all the nephews.

Catching crabs.

Eating NorthSea shrimp we caught with our little net (we only managed the catch 12 so the amount of shrimp in the NorthSea did not really get affected by our attempt to catch shrimp).

And last but not least a pictures on the ‘golfbreker’.

Visitors

We had a great start of the month April, we did a city trip (you will need some patience to read more details and see the pictures of our trip); followed by a visit of grandmother and grandfather, what a joy!

Oma, as usual impressed by the amount of colors in the workroom, commissioned me to make two beach bags. She listed that the bags have to be big enough to accommodate two towels, a magazine or a book, and some sweets or biscuits and if possible a compartment to stow away keys and glasses.

It took Oma 15 minutes decide on the fabric combinations; but according to me those 15 minutes were well spend as her choice is marvelous.

Lack of time made me decide to take the same pattern as we used here. The size of the bag was changed to make sure it was big enough according to Oma her wishes and we finished the corners differently to give the bags more volume. 

Nevertheless we still followed the work description from this book.

And … we even made Oma a compartment for her keys and glasses. We can’t wait till we spend the summer holidays together at the Belgian coast.

The green and red fabric are Kona Solids from Robert Kaufman bought @ Classic Quilts & Quilting.

The Atomic from Michael miller was bought @ Vermiljoenshop.

Feeling groovy from Michael Miller was bought @ NanaKidBoutique in Abu Dhabi.

Beach Wedding

Our kids’ school finishes at 2pm, till that time there is a little time for myself but afterwards the driving around starts: after school sport activities, visiting friends, going to the dentist,…

Thursdays –for us the last day of the schoolweek, as our weekend is the Friday and the Saturday- are especially busy for ‘driver mummy’.

Thursday afternoons I have to drive 3 times to the gymnastics club. The first time I drop our four year old and one of the boys. As they are under 7 years of age I am expected to stick around during the class. So usually I take some needlework that needs to be finished: attaching buttons, repairing a seam, attaching darts by hand,…

Not last Thursday! I allowed myself to relax with a book. Just before starting to read I consulted my Iphone todo list and I got a small panick attack when I realised I did not yet start making the dress for the wedding planned the day after at 3.30pm.

The cover of the book I planned to read, was instantly transformed to a piece of drawing paper and the dress was designed during my kids’ gymnastics class.

After two more trips to the gymnastics club driving and dropping the rest of our tribe I drew the pattern and cut the fabric. The Friday morning I started the needlework on the darts and pleats by hand, while I was watching my daughter play a rugby game. Returning home I assembled the dress in about 2 hours. Nevertheless there was no time left before the ceremony to finish the arm openings, nobody really noticed as I covered up the unfinished parts with a vest. 

I finished the inside of the collar and arm openings between the ceremony and the dance party!

The sleeves I initially planned to attach were eliminated after I calculated how much time there was left to assemble the dress. The finishing was minimal (no liner, but biais binding to hide the borders!) nevertheless I was happy with the result.

The kids enjoyed, especially as they loved the little parasols they got, as well as the ‘pull-a-little-brother’ game they played just before driving off to the wedding.

The newlyweds, well they were only looking at each other!

Any attempts to take a picture of our whole tribe ends up being catastrophic! At least one person always looks the wrong way.

In February we have another Beach Wedding, remind me that I do have to start a little earlier on the making of the dress, so I might actually be able to add some sleeves.