Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Design Mom in Amsterdam

Posted by Lotte on Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Filed under: ,
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On Monday I had the pleasure of meeting up with Gabrielle from Design Mom and her wonderful family in Amsterdam. They were on a spring break trip (they uprooted their family of eight and swapped Colorado, USA for Normandy, France for a year; how great is that?!) and I had offered to show them around town for the afternoon. We met outside the Van Gogh museum (six young kids and a trip to an art museum, I know what you’re thinking, but they make it work and man, those kids are a happy, well-behaved bunch!) and walked over to the Vondelpark for some strolling, playing, lounging, and lunching.



After showing them some Dutch stores (Hema!, Sissy Boy Homeland!) and a cupcake bakery for a taste from home, we parted ways. Our encounter left me eager to expand my family (patience my dear, patience!) and inspired to try some city tripping with my own little brood. My only regret? Forgetting to bring my camera!

note: photo courtesy of goamsterdam.about.com 

One year old in a flash...and memories

Posted by Lotte Filed under: , , ,
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This week has been filled with emotions from both ends of the spectrum for me.
Today marks the second anniversary of the birth and death of our second son, our little boy Ben, who was born when I was 23 weeks pregnant. In the weeks leading up to today I felt a little anxious about this day because I never know how I'll feel. But then today arrived and really it hasn't been bad at all. Aside from feeling incredibly sad for having lost him, on this day I mostly feel blessed for having had him in our lives for 23 whole weeks and in our hearts forever after. Our family is also so sweet and never forget to call us or send a post card, which we appreciate immensely.

The other thing that’s been on my mind lately is the impending birthday of this little fellow:


We’ll be celebrating his first birthday a month from now, and I can hardly believe it. Obviously I know time flies with young kids, but it quite literally feels like I had him only yesterday (well, maybe last week). Is it always like this when it’s not your first child? It’s a little scary to me and I’ve been having visions of them flying off to college tomorrow (well, maybe next week). And that’s when I happened upon a blog post from Ellebellecreative who threw her second daughter a birthday bash with the befitting theme “One Year Old in a Flash.” 

photo courtesy of Ellebellecreative
Doesn't that look super fun? The entire birthday centered on photographs and memories and it has me totally inspired. Think time capsule, photofetti, and lots of pictures of this little big man’s first year:

Love him!
So, two birthdays on my mind this week, one happy, but with a little melancholy thrown in, and the other a mixture of sadness and gratefulness. In the end, though, both are about love. 

Easter 2011

Posted by Lotte on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Filed under: ,
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Okay, so I'm a bit late on this, but here's what our Easter looked like this year. We died eggs (the day before): 
Who left my camera in manual mode?? I took at least 10 shots before I found out...
That's more like it
I suspect I might have been more into this than Abe and his little friend were. They didn't like the waiting part much (I just kept gawking at those colors!), but that's a three-year old for ya.


On actual Easter Sunday, we hosted a simple brunch for our friends and their daughters. I always like having them over because they balance out our all-boy family nicely. 

I did some baking that morning. This is super easy to make!
After brunch, there was a full-on Easter egg hunt in our little backyard. It was actually the first time that Abe participated in an egg hunt, but both he and his friend had an awesome time and were proud to show off the results.



After finding all the eggs we hid for them (I counted...) they started painting them. As usual, our little girl guest had a little more patience for this than my rambunctious boy did. 

Abe was pretty content letting me do most of his painting for him.
So this egg hunting business is sure to become a new family tradition for us! I can't wait till next year when little Tijl is able to participate (poor baby slept through the entire thing!) as well. What are your family Easter traditions?


Family BBQ

Posted by Lotte on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. Filed under: , ,
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I'm so happy that spring has arrived. Everything just looks better with a little sunshine on it. Granted, it also makes me want to clean house like crazy, but mostly I just enjoy the sunny warmth on my skin and watching the kids happily play outside.

This weekend the weather was especially lovely, which prompted my dad to organize an impromptu family barbecue in his back yard. Everyone was there and we had the best time. We even managed to squeeze in a (long overdue) family photo:


I can't wait to see what our family photo will look like five years from now. My sister is expecting her first baby, but maybe there will be more additions? I love big families.

This weekend also featured a pretty big milestone for our oldest son Abe. He rode a bike without training wheels and nailed it right off the bat! I always thought this would take forever to learn, but really he just got on Saturday, and after two laps of dad running along with him he was able to do it all by himself: starting, riding, and slowing down and stopping. I'm so proud! He's three months shy of turning four and has been riding his running bike since he was two, which helped him develop his balance enormously. He never owned a bike with training wheels so I can't proclaim that "the training wheels are off," but they are :)




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