Summer kick off: Blueberry picking

Summer holidays started this week and the first few days were filled with playdates, sleep overs and more playdates. Most people take the first week off to relax at home and then go for their holiday.

Today we went with friends to Nuenen to pick blueberries.

A fun time picking with friends....

Collected almost 5 kilos and it cost 23 Euros. Not bad eh?

Blueberries packed in 250 g and ready to freeze

The blueberry picking gang

May Holiday : Kuwait trip 2017

10 days in Kuwait with family was precious, nostalgic and probably the last time I will see Kuwait. My parents plan to retire in the next year or so. So we decided to meet during the spring break with Mithun and the family too. And it was also going to be my first time seeing Nora my niece.

It was a mad rush in the airport with the first day to the start of the holiday , with the immigration counter looking like a fish market . No lines, no movement , no airport officials. We thought we missed the flight but we made it and 2 minutes later like a bus leaving the bus stop the flight crew shut the door and took off just as we buckled up.

It was beautiful to see the lights from the night sky. Kuwait lit like a jewel in the desert. We landed with my parents , uncle and aunt welcoming us. Other than one of the luggages getting lost all was well. A couple of hours later Mithun , Ria and Nora landed . The apartment was bustling with 4 kids, and 6 adults. And oh ! it was glorious.

It was the boys luggage that went missing. So that meant  they didn't have any clothes to wear, other than the ones they traveled in. So off we went shopping for T shirts, shorts, underpants, socks within a couple of hours after landing. And of course the luggage landed at home in the evening. At least I was finished with shopping for the boys. Now I didn't have to think of shopping at all.

We had a lovely time visiting family, friends. Showing Ria the pearls of Kuwait. The kids got to spend the day in Kidzania , a indoor real life place with shops and places of work, where they got to earn money and make things, buy things. We window shopped and had lunch at the food courts and dessert at the Cheesecake factory.

Of course, I made sure we got to eat all our childhood Arabic food! It tasted just like I remembered.

One of the highlights was visiting my Dad's factory. I hadn't seen the place all these years. Like never. And I got to see it for the first time. It was about 100 km from where we stayed , the spring and the factory is located close to the Iraq border. I have always heard of the different places in the factory, seen the machines on photo. And when I saw the bottle being made and water being filled it was emotional.
I think I shed a tear when we drove out further away from the factory to see the location of the spring water. And when my Dad made the phone call to switch on the tap, fresh spring water just poured down. Unfiltered sweet spring waters of Kuwait!

Before we left I got to sit at my Dads chair at his office, just like any girl would want to do! I have been wanting to do that for years! My boys each took their turn to sit on the chair, as well !

Straight from there after stopping at home for lunch and packing up , we went to the Kiran islands for a couple of days of a getaway. I have never experienced such good weather in Kuwait. We could sit outside on the lawn , with the beach a few meters away. The kids were in and out of the waters and played outside the whole day. The last time we went there I was 5 or 6 years old.

I also got to visit my Sunday School. And as expected , I had to get up to the podium. The kids sang their hearty welcome song to me and the boys. David loved it and was enjoying every moment of the attention.  It was a blessing and an honour to visit the ladies prayer group. They have been there praying for me when I was a child, when I moved to university, got married, during all 3 pregnancies, delivery and as these boys grow up. And now they continue praying for me and my family .

A lot of good memories that I will cherish forever. Farewell to my childhood home!

At Ancy aunty's house for lunch 

Delicious and pretty dessert

Ancy Aunty's spread

At Al Rawdatain spring

At the factory

There was only so much of water bottling technology she could handle

In my fathers chair

In front of the iconic bottle 

At Kiran resort island 

Mum and the boys

At the scientific centre

My mother's spread at home

This is us

Grandparents and the grandkids

With friends and bestie, Mimi

The Chengannur clan with our Ammachi (my grandmother)

Another birthday... double digits grand entry ... Benjamin turns 10

A new era, this first born of mine enters double digits. Benjamin turned 10 a couple of weeks ago. His pre birthday week started with a weekend visit from his uncle. A fun weekend , shooting with Elijah's new NERF gun. My brother, Benjamin and Elijah equally had no more target left in the house. They even made use of David's magic sand as a wall to shoot down. 

Since, the day of his birthday, their school had a " studiemiddag " (free afternoon as the teachers had a course to attend), he spend the afternoon at a friends as I had to work. 

In the evening , we ordered KFC take away and had a lovely finger lickin' time.

During the weekend , we celebrated his school friends party at the movies. A Dutch kids movie "Spookjagers" and pizza for dinner. This year he requested a Minecraft cake and I barely managed to make one that resembled something like it. Those million tiny squares are not easy at all! Nevertheless, Benjamin was happy (perhaps he didn't want to break his poor mother's heart). True to his personality, a sensitive and caring boy. May you grow into a strong man , filled with compassion, love , and kindness .

Birthday time for Elijah

Elijah turned 7 this year on the 13th of February. But by the time we got a chance to celebrate it with the kids it was March 4th. It was the end of the carnival week and we were recovering from an ice skating injury . Well , not all of us but Benjamin. An ice skating accident , with 3 stitches to his shin, he was happy to just put his feet up and read . And read and read and read. The pictures are too gory to put up. I will spare you the awkward moment.

On Elijah's birthday we went to the restaurant and had a family dinner. The next day Elijah was in bed for two days with a stomach bug. A great start to his 7th year. He bounced back quite well. Which was good for me .

For his birthday party we went to the Ontdek fabriek . A discovery centre, a place to do woodwork, make something from waste electronic parts, shape thermocol into animal shapes using a hot wire and many more. It was a good experience for the kids to do something with their hands.

We came home and cut cake and had poffertjes (Dutch mini puffed pancakes) , sausages, fries, cucumbers and snack tomatoes for dinner.

This year Elijah requested a super hero cake. Same theme every year , only this year it wasn't a specific hero but a mesh of a few of them on a cake.

All in all the day went well and we ended the day with the 5 of us watch Star wars: The empire strikes back.

Christmas and New Year 2016

Since we started our holiday break just one day before Christmas Eve, everything was busy and rushed. Even though I was late for getting the turkey, we managed with duck. Since I already bought duck for Christmas Eve, which we celebrated just the 5 of us, we weren't  complaining about more duck for Christmas dinner. We usually have dinner together with another family. But she was sick with the flu and we decided to take all the food to their place. Just as we were getting things in crates and getting all my good dishes, something crashed! Yes , a crate full of Brussel sprouts Jamie Oliver style, two cake trays(thankfully with out any cake in it yet), some non alcoholic beverages for the under 18 , came crashing down, exactly in between the kitchen and the dining area. It was a sight to see. Brussel sprouts , mixed in Crodini drink, and glass , everywhere. The boys tried to keep their smile tucked away, since now they didn't have to eat the sprouts.  And yet look concerned and truly upset. Yeah right!

Well, a smashing start to the Christmas dinner. But ,we had so much fun with dinner and chatting, the evening couldn't have gone better. 

Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas Eve family dinner 

Bobby took the first week off. We had loads of fun just being at home and doing normal things. Staying in pyjamas till 12 pm was one of them. We enjoyed skating(we, as in the kids), went out wth friends, kids had sleep overs and also a movie too . 

End of the year we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, and we attempted to go for the movie "Sing" with our friends. It was too full and we didn't get tickets. So we came back home rented a movie from iTunes , The secret life of pets and had pizza and fries. 

After the weekend we made sure to get tickets before hand it self , and could finally see "sing". It was such a fun movie! I enjoyed every bit of it. 

The second week of the holiday, I tried to find my "list of things to do during the holiday"and stared at it for a while. Attempted a couple of things and left it . Which was good too!

A great year ending and a peaceful uneventful beginning to the new year.

Looking forward to what 2017 has in store for us.

Here is a peek at all the  food I made for Christmas dinner(minus the Brussel Sprout)

Mushroom bake with spinach and pine nuts with cheese

Tomato soup

Duck

Spinach and mushroom pie

Magic Flan cake

Jamie Oliver panatonne cake

Mary Berry Christmas cake

Elijah: The swimming saga ends

In the Netherlands , swimming is a big deal and kids start diploma swimming usually when they are 4. Of course , before this they do baby swimming and toddler swimming. Most kids do this. The basic diplomas are A, B, C. After that there are more diplomas you can go for , if you want to continue with swimming. These basic diplomas are required if you want to swim on your own without parental supervision (parents in the pool with you), or some sort of arm bands.  Especially when recreational swimming, vacation parks having tropical swimming pools, and birthday swimming parties, having a basic A and B is a must.

With Elijah , we went quite fast with this process and he is one of the best students in his class. Diploma A went by perfectly. And then the drama began for his Diploma B lessons. Something happened to make him afraid, unwilling to enter the pool.  I think he didn't make it through the hole for one of the lessons and this sabotaged his confidence. Now this "hole" is a huge thing for kids. Its a rubber sheet with a hole in the middle placed at the bottom of the pool. And kids need to jump, swim underwater , and go through the hole. With each diploma the distance from the jump to the hole increases. We made it somehow to gain the confidence and get Diploma B.

Diploma C lessons went well. After a lot of asking and prodding he finally said even though he does the swimming perfectly and well, he doesn't like it. How is that possible?

And then finally the saga ends , the Saturday before the Christmas holidays began , we , actually him got his final C diploma. He definitely didn't want to pursue anymore. But he was ecstatic and proud!!!!

Now it will be a few years , until I will return to that hot, sultry swimming pool and sit for lessons.