Catching up a bit

So, it's been ages ago I've been writing a blogpost. Of course I would like to say I will do better from now on, but knowing me, and how hectic life sometimes can be, I might not be able to keep me to a regular schedule, so, we will just see where I get....

Not surprisingly lots of things have happened over the past year.

Of course there were all the family birthdays, but I won't bore you with those.....

On my postround (every tuesday and friday) I followed the life of some toadstools:

I won't get into details, as that would really be too much, but I might be able to show a few highlights.

One of them was the TonnerconUK in October, I have been writing about it in detail on my dollyblog: TonnerconUK 2015 

In April it's our king's birthday on the 27th and that is celebrated nationwide, one of the things I always love are the fleamarkets all over the country. (I usually stay close to home though, as there is so much there already)

As the birthday of our king was during schoolholidays, the school of our youngest had the celebration on the 22nd of  April, with a so called foxhunt, children have to search for adults which are dressed up weird, and the adults will give them a letter...

So I dressed up and took the  djembeh with me......and just enjoyed sitting in the sunshine in front of the home of one of ourfriends.....

That evening I was trying to sew something and I just couldn't get things right, so I decided to leave it for the next day. I only found out I was really ill, and although I tried to go to the fleamarket in front of our home on wednesday, I really didn't do well at all, and went back to bed again. Finally on tuesday the 3rd of May, I went to see a GP, our own one was on holidays, so I went to another one, and he told me I had pneumonia. No wonder I just didn't manage to do anything...So he put me on anti-biotics, and I started to recover. When I went to my own GP after my anti-biotics were finished, she told me I also had a serious vitamin D deficit, so I got meds for that as well.

The 14th of May we had a family day, with family from all over the world, Scotland, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and of course our Dutch branches......

The 18th of May my eldest had her first exam English, the theoretical one.

And on the 27th of May, I went to the UK again, this time the Pippa convention was near Oxford.

I really had a wonderful time there, but due to lack of energy and the Daisy convention coming up (the 2nd of July), I didn't manage a blogpost about the Pippa convention yet. (it's still on my evergrowing to do list....)
And on the 31st of May my youngest had her first visit to the orthodontist, and she had the braces on her upperteeth placed the 20th of June..
On the 11th of June my eldest had a 'concert' with the violinschool. She was nervous on the big day, but of course it all went well, and she might be more relaxed the next time.
The 16th of June was the schoolouting of my youngest, and as they needed some more parents to go with the kids, I was allowed to come along. We went to the VOC ship:

 and to NEMO in Amsterdam:
https://www.nemosciencemuseum.nl/en/

The 25th of June was the balletperformance of my 2 youngest girls. After 10 years of balletlessons my middle one decided it would be the last time for her. (which really is a shame, is she got quite good at it)
Uitvoering 2016 Balletschool Barbara Bunskoek

The Daisy convention was in Edinburgh this year, and I took my eldest daughter with me, we really had a lovely time, and she was able to practise her English (which was already really good) a bit more before her exams (the 21st of July. Needless to say she passed her exam with the highest possible grade!

And then it was finally time to go on holidays, to Belgium this year.

As you can see, we had a stay in style...... we were travelling on monday, so we only had a look around at the place where we were staying that day.
Tuesday we went to the city of  Namen/Namur:

On wednesday I wanted to visit :le petit chapitre, a museum in Fosses-la-Ville, with lots of doll in national costumes, but when I got there, it was closed, although there was no mention of that on the website.  It really was a charming little town, so instead I took some pictures:

And to the lake of Bambois (Lac de Bambois lacdebambois)

It was hot, and crowded, so we didn't stay very long there.....

Next day we went to the Hergé museum:

When we came back the girls wanted to go for a swim, so I dropped them off at the pool, and went exploring the town of Gembloux (which was the closest town to where we stayed)

Sadly enough we already had to go back home again on friday, as schools were starting back on monday.

We came home to a sick kitty, he still needs some extra attention, as he lost a lot of weight.

And now we're nearly back into the usual routine. DD11 and DD13 (well, she will be 14 tomorrow) are back to school for 3 & 2,5 weeks and DD16 will start studying again this week, up to the next exams in the summer of 2017...

So this tuesday I thought to write a blogpost, and I took some pictures for it

my usual breakfast

I baked a bread:

And I did my postround, I saw raspberries going to waste in the frontyard of an empty house, so I picked a couple of them:

And on thursday I signed up for the gym:

Also I got a lovely prize from Lynda, one of the members of the Ellowyne Wilde group on Yahoo, as I got picked as the winner for theme of the month. I had been eyeing those t-shirts ever since the Tonner 25th anniversary convention, so I was really over the moon I managed to lay my hands on them!

I had already been considdering making my own version of it, so as a result I had been researching how to make dolly t-shirts and trying out several different ones:

The first one I made was a souvenir shirt for the Daisy convention attendees of this year.
Of course I will be making more with logo's of the previous years as well:

I also tried to transfer prints on the darker t-shirts, but it is less suitable for it, it seems:

The one with the Harry Potter logo turned out well, though

so I did some more transfers on lighter fabrics:

I also did one for Agatha. (it will also fit Patience and Maudlynne, but will have to take pictures of them later, they might end up in my dolly blog)

So, I'll be back to sewing t-shirts for the rest of the week, I think.
But first I'll have to do some birthday preparations, as DD13 will be DD14 tomorrow....

Autumn holidays

Yes, I know, I haven't been blogging for a while, I guess all my duties kept me from it.
On my last update I wrote about DD11 going on schoolcamp. As far as she's been telling me, she had a great time. Of course, on the friday afternoon when she was on schoolcamp, there was the foxhunt. (It's a game where people dress up as characters, and groups of kids have to search them and ask for a signature, the group with the most signatures is the winner)
Well, I dressed up as an old lady, and I really had a great time. The best part of it, was of course when DD11 came behind me and asked me if I was a fox. So I turned around, and the moment I smiled at her, she recognised me! Her reaction was so much fun to see, I wish I could have made a video of it. Priceless!

Me dressed up as old lady

All the 'foxes', teachers and children after the foxhunt

As you may have figured by now, everyone had lots of fun.
(ha, how much fun can it be to tell teachers in a loud old ladies voice that kids don't learn that much at school nowadays, and that teachers can be plain stupid! no pun intended of course ;-) ).  One of them was kind enough to get me a cup of coffee, which I really appreciated.
All to soon it was time to get DD8 from school, and collect the luggage of DD11 and her friend at the other school location.
Finally the autumn holidays had started! Of course with 3 girls around there's not that much playtime, but over the weekend I managed to finish an outfit for Ellowyne, which really made me happy, as it had been bugging me for months, that I still had to sew an apron and craft a hat.

Serious Intention Ellowyne, wearing my version of the steampunk 'Like Clockwork'outfit

On monday DD11 went to a friend for a sleepover and I could collect her on tuesday late in the afternoon.
DD8 slept in DD13's room, who read her a couple of chapters of Narnia before going to sleep.
As we it was really quiet withouth DD11, DD8 asked me if we could bake together.
She took her magazines with recipes downstairs, and put them all on the kitchen counter:

We finally choose to make chocolate lollipops

She started with putting some sugar decorations in the ice cubes holder

After that we melted the chocolate, and then she added the little sticks.

After that it was time to put them in the fridge.

adding the sticks

the result

As it was tuesday, it was finally time to check on my apple vinegar, as it had been 2 weeks ago I had started preparing it. After seeving it, here is the result:

When the lollipops were ready we went to my parents, where my sister was with her DD's. They enjoyed the  lollipops too!

 

my little princess, very proud of her own 'baking'

Another thing I saw on tuesday was a bud in the plant that DD13 had been cultivating.

On wednesday it came to full bloom:

On thursday DD8 & DD11 wanted to bake rainbow cupcakes, which was a fun project that took us the best part of the morning.
But, they were very yummie!

And on friday morning I really had to get ready for our weekend away, and DD13 had to deliver a round of newspapers, before we could go.
But finally we were on our way and arrived at the campsite in Arcen in good time.
.