A day at the Winter Efteling

Brendon's work had a family day outing to the Winter Efteling. It was fun but freezing. Owen was bundled up and snug in his "voetenzak" and was probably the most comfortable of us all. We went to "fairyland" and on a ride amongst the tree tops. He enjoyed all that was on offer and at lunch time even managed a 20 minute nap in the restuarant while the parents tried to warm up.

Owen starts playschool

Today Owen started "peuterspeelzaal" just a short drive away. He attends it twice a week for 5 hours per week. It is lead in Dutch so it should be interesting how Owen adapts to this new stimulation. The start at 8.45am and finish at 11.15am. The morning includes structured playtime, free playtime, if the weather is good this they go outside, a snack is included in this time.

Sled Time

When we got back from the UK we borrowed a sled and Owen enjoyed some sled time. The compacted iced road was perfect for this activity. The Mommy even got to have a ride with Owen and the Daddy was exhausted after having to pull us both along.

Christmas in the UK

Brendon, Owen and I have taken 2 weeks holiday and have driven over to spend Christmas with Lynese and Douglas. The day we left Holland it started snowing and by the time we got to the UK they were having a disasterous time with ice on the motorway's and in particular the one that we had to travel on. Owen and I went to sleep once we exited the channel tunnel and by the time we woke up I was surprised to see that we had only gone about 15 miles!
We arrived at Douglas and Lyneses to see that Downham was also covered in snow. We enjoyed some time outdoors in the snow which Owen loved. He loves playing in it and armed with a kitchen spatula ran around digging in the snow.

Christmas morning was very special. Owen slept late until 7am. We had breakfast and then Father Christmas arrived to bring Owen "Bertie" bus. We opened all our presents and all 5 of us managed to ablute and be in the car by 9.30am so that Douglas could take a Christmas service. We left most of Owen's toys in NL but were happy about that as the Granny's and the Grandpa gave him so many lovely gifts. He enjoyed all of them. At the Christmas service Owen enjoyed playing the organ, rearranging the Christmas tree and singing after everyone finished singing the hymns.

Owen gets a new room

They say that when one is pregnant anything can happen. When I was near the end of my pregnancy with Owen we decided it was a good idea to do a loft conversion complete with a window extension the breadth of the house. This time it was a little less drastic but the energy exerted on Owens room left me deciding that it really was not necessary to redecorate all the 2nd floor bedrooms.

Initially Owen's room was going to be painted blue with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. After painting 3 walls blue I suddenly decided that Brendon had to run to the hardware store to fetch 2 litres of white paint to paint the 4th wall. It was 4.30pm and the store closed at 5.00pm. It had to be done that same day! In between the 1st and 2nd coats of paint Brendon had to make a business trip to South Africa and Owen ended up sleeping in the new baby's room that looked more like a storage unit than a bedroom. He enjoyed the change and the chaos of every day living on the 2nd floor!

His bedroom eventually got finished and he loves his new bed and new colour scheme.