mamas and kids' weekend March

It was a lovely weekend with Sas and Linda and 5 kids. 

The kids played so well, we were treated to several theater pieces in the barn, always a pleasure. 

The boys shot a lot of material for the upcoming documentary on Oyes - the village, the house.

Spring is in the air, you feel it in every breath :) I went for a nice long run, we had good food, lit the fire, talked, read, drank and laughed, what a good weekend is about really...

so good!

Linda took the pictures.

the walk

petting the cat

February update

Hi blog,
Writing you a letter from paradise :) we are on holiday in La Réunion, the house we're at is amazing. Thought about posting a picture, but that must be for another blog.
The Champagne-house: Was good last time we were there, very cold outside minus 13, but the heating had been on all the time so we didn't freeze.
The gate had been fixed by M. Boivin, Michael and Glenis ordered fuel, so we have another 500 liters in the tank.
We brought down two major things to improve the house. a) Liliane and Jean-Pauls bed, thank you Liliane. We put it in the bedroom upstairs, any guest will sleep comfortably there from now on.
We also brought down the VW Golf cabrio. It is now officially our holiday car ;) it just doesn't sell well and we like it so much that we decided to keep it, and here we have the possibility of keeping it inside.

As I write the house is rented again, it gives us a good feeling that someone is enjoying it while we're away.

arrividerci!

End of 2011

A good end to the year! after celebrating with Michel's family in Reet, we hurried down to the house to celebrate with our friends and neighbors once again. 

We had a full six days of relaxation this time around, but time passes quickly when you're having fun... 

Weather was nice, extremely warm for the time of the year, company was good, Michel's friend and colleague through many years Kristof and his wife Mie plus their two daughter and John the dog had four days of Champagne holiday. We had good fun together. 

Madeleine went for a sleep over at Lili's. We went to Troyes for a day of shopping. 

M. Boivin came around to to look at the gate which came down with the storm in November. We are lucky with such a trustworthy handyman around the corner! 

The boys helping out with the fallen gate

Madeleine and John

Madeleine, Valentina, Anna-Lucia, Emil, Louis and John

Mousse au chocolat

a nice walk

Fish-eye Louis

An Astrid Lindgren moment

Bonne nuit Milou

Weekend 18-20 November

Another weekend well spent... returned yesterday from what is starting to feel more and more like home. Nothing special, just relaxation and taking time for the kids and our good friends Jos and Sas, who were there before us on Friday. 

We had a really smooth ride down, only took us 3 hours and 40 minutes! Friday night we ordered pizza from Sezanne, they make very neat pizzas there, the flavours on their menu, remind me to show you if you're ever at the house :) and then the size :) American style... anyway it was the perfect meal for us and the kids. After that it was bed time, Madeleine got to sleep in her brand new princess like Ikea bed, which I had assambled while waiting for the pizza... I forgot to take pictures, it looks very nice, especially when she is in it :)

Saturday was another beautiful day in Oyes en Champagne, with loads of sunshine, mild temperatures and clean air. After hanging around in the morning, assembling a reck for the bathroom, chatting and playing, we went for a long (well for us it was) walk in the afternoon, Maxime stole the show with his cute-factor. The kids had a good time. Madeleine found it really unfair that girls weren't allowed to get dirty ;) (the boys weren't either but they truly did)

Came home, time to bake chocolate muffins and make dinner for 8 hungry little and big monsters. So good to sit down at the table all together, with the fire going. It is a beautiful fire place, and clean now. The yearly cleaning had taken place in our absence. Monsieur Boivin passed by on Saturday to tell us he had done it and to take a look at the next project. We absolutely need to fix a grill in the well. So dangerous, but at the same time beautiful and impressive at least 10 meters deep.

Voila, now you know (almost) everything about our weekend... enjoy the pictures, Michel is turning into quite the photographer...  Until next time...  Salut!

Would a fish really see the garden this way?

Le nefflier, will always always remind me of Jean-Paul, he was so looking forward to tasting it's fruits, just about ripe now.

And the house, a bit different because we had thee roof cleaned, looks good :)

The princess of Champagne

Maxime and Jos

Walk

At least the donkey is not doing a grimace

run run run

At the Saint Gond monestery

they have a beautiful collection of birds, here  a black swan

Sas and me :) BFF

And we all love Maxime

ran into these giant mushrooms

the well

so worth it getting out early

the champagne fields around Sezanne... resting now

School holidays - Halloween

It was a little bit cramped in the car with me and the kids on the back seat, but so worth it to have Liliane with us on this five day trip to Oyes.
What can I say, it was nice and quiet in the village, Michel did a lot of gardening, then he took his mother and the boys to Troyes for some sight seeing, lovely... meanwhile Glenis, me and the three girls went to the outlet shopping mall also in Troyes. Good fun and so out of the ordinary for me.
We got treated to a star dinner at Mike and Glenis' house, they had a Belgian male cooking club in the house who took over the kitchen for a day, yummie.
On Monday night we had a outdoor halloween barbecue with the kiwi friends, the kids went trick or treating and grilled marshmallows.
The weather was beautiful as it has been for the last two months really.

Louis and Liliane in the Troyes cathedral

Dora relaxing outside the Paris farm

Hairy little monsters

more monsters

Round trip to Reuves

ladies' weekend, weekend of loss

It's been almost a month since we had this ladies weekend in Oyes. On the picture you can see my gorgeous Reetian girlfriends. What started out as a running club some five years ago has now become more of a leisure club. 

The weather was amazing, over 25 degrees (in October!) 

At the same time this was also a sad weekend for our family, because we lost my beloved father in law Jean-Paul. 

We had known for some time which way we were heading, but the time is never right. 

We will miss him so much and his memory will live forever! 

Jean-Paul with his little princess at Emil's communion in May

From the left: Elke, Annemie, Mieke, An, Gerd and Emmy

The making of champagne, Simon explaining

How time flies...

When we entered the barn last week we found this beautiful owl on the floor. We agreed that we must have locked it in there when we last left the house. A bit sad, to have caused the death of this wise bird, but on the other hand it was a good occasion to get a close look and show it to the children.
Louis wanted to have it stuffed, but as it had been dead for a while we managed to convince him otherwise. Then Isabelle wanted to take to the kids' school in a carton box, but changed her mind after taking a closer look.
Isabelle is Michel's childhood friend, daughter of one of Liliane's best friends Monique. We invited Isabelle and her impressive family (4 daughters :) ) to spend the weekend with us. On Saturday night we were joined by Tante Hélène and oncle Jean.
The kids had a great time playing all together, Madeleine felt like she was dreaming I guess, with all these girls around.
We didn't take any pictures, but I have requested some from Isabelle and Nicolas and will upload them as soon as I can...  In the meantime, here is the main attraction of the weekend :)

The wisest of birds