Here is a picture that we took yesterday of the three beautiful girls
At the Children's Konninginnedag there were a lot of different games. Here Liva is at the ballon Obstacle course and as it can be seen she is taking it very serious.
For the special children’s Konninginnedag Joop found it most appropriate to dress up as a princess
As Liva had her birthday while we were in China and Lieke and the kids needed to return from the Netherlands before we could celebrate Liva in Yemen, it has taken a while for us to get our act together and have the birthday party. But this weekend we finally had the party. As it has been a tradition since we were in Mexico, we had a Piñata and on the picture above the Liva and Joop are in the middle of filling it with candy. The party was great with 31 kids and their parents.
Back in the Hotel Liva got celebrated with a cake that her mom had bought in the Hotel Bakery
In the morning we had Dim Sum for brakefast in the chinese restaurant in the white swan
While we were in China Liva turned 5, and she talked to Oma and Opa on Chris' phone.
While in Guangzhou we stayed at the White Swan Hotel and we grew quite attached to the "function rooms" of the Chinese restaurant as they gave us a possibility to be "alone" with the kids. This is from the best of the "function rooms", which not only had a table but also two sofas and a television.
We are in Hong Kong these weeks and of course had to go to the newly opened Hong Kong Disneyland. The kids had a wonderful day with their Hong Kong based cusins.
A few posts back I talked about the wonders of Google Earth. If you have downloaded Google Earth and want to take a small trip around the world to visit all the places were we have lived and worked, all you have to do is to click on the link below.
Download Google Earth file
When you have downloaded the file, all you have to do is go to the "Temp. Places" folder in Google Earth, open the file and press the "play" button.
After Joop's birthday it was off to the Netherlands and Oma and Opa for Lieke and kids.
As I wrote earlier we only had a couple of days together in December, but we managed to fit in the 3rd birthday of Joop, both with the traditional morning celebration (see picture) and with a party later in the day.
And finally, Joop and Sinterklaas. After hearing David Sedaris "six to eight black men" she is of course just happy that the former bishop of Turkey is not pretending to hit her with a small switch or take her off to Spain.
To hear David Sedaris' piece on Sinterklaas please press the play bottom (as it is not our film I have no idea who the kids are - I just love the David Sedaris piece):
And here is a picture of Liva in a deep discusion with Swarte Piet - I guess they are discussing candy or maybe how you get all the way from Spain to Yemen in a steamboat.
Now I have finally remembered to bring a few digital pictures to work so you can get some updated pictures of the kids. These pictures are from Sinter Klaas here in Yemen. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate as I was in Denmark that week but according to Lieke and the kids they had a wonderful day. The first picture is of Liva and Lucas, one of Liva's best friends from Arabic and Dutch School.
With the new services like Google Earth you can by now see pretty much any distination in the world – even where we live. So below is a screen shot of our house in Yemen. To find it on Google earth all you have to do is to go to destination 15º19’26.41” N 44º11’48.41” E
After Christmas and New Year in Europe we are now back in Yemen again. We have of course returned with a lot of pictures but I have unfortunately left them at home, so you will have to live with this one picture of me in full swing at work – it was made for our newsletter. So you will have to wait until after the weekend before you can view pictures of the kids from our holiday in Europe. Here in Yemen we are slowly getting used to the life again – the crazy traffic, the always present qat chewing men and the 4 o’clock morning prayer. It has been a bit of a tough transition for the kids – it took them a while to get used to getting up in the morning after sleeping late all the time they were in Europe. We are enjoying to be back in the sun again. Though Yemen has become quite cold, with night temperatures in the house down to 8c and outside down to 2c, the middle of the days are still quite pleasant with temperatures reaching 20c.
It was very nice to be back to Europe for Christmas. Lieke and the kids already went in the middle of December and therefore had much time with Oma and Opa before we drove up to Denmark just after Christmas. Though we again had a much too tight schedule we managed to see all our family and many of our friends; spending Christmas in Vlijmen and New Years in Skødstrup.
Back in Yemen we have returned to work again. Lieke has had a bit of a tough start with both a bad cold and at the same time a heavy workload with all the budgeting for the new year.
I will try to remember to bring some photos one these days so we again can get this blog moving
It was very nice to be back to Europe for Christmas. Lieke and the kids already went in the middle of December and therefore had much time with Oma and Opa before we drove up to Denmark just after Christmas. Though we again had a much too tight schedule we managed to see all our family and many of our friends; spending Christmas in Vlijmen and New Years in Skødstrup.
Back in Yemen we have returned to work again. Lieke has had a bit of a tough start with both a bad cold and at the same time a heavy workload with all the budgeting for the new year.
I will try to remember to bring some photos one these days so we again can get this blog moving