Sneeuwpop (Snowman)

I always thought that building a sneeuwpop (snowman) is easy... But it depends how big or how beautiful you want to build... Before Christmas last year, we went again to Het Winschoter to build a snowman... Actually my husband is the one who build the snow. And my daughter Mireille with her cousin Deniz tried to help by giving him every now and then small snow ball. As for me, Ron (my husband) asked me to help him carry the 2nd big snow ball to put it on the second level of snowman, but it's too heavy and big, I can't even help him to carry it together with (just imagine carrying a big ice block), so he made it a bit smaller then.... You can see in the photo that he really made a big sneeuwpop (snowman), it's even bigger than him :)

Sneeuw (Snow)

This is the first time for me and my daughter to experience walking and playing in the sneeuw (snow) . My husband said that it was few years ago the last time they experienced the same heavy snow, normally whenever there will be snow it's always light and not getting thick like what we have now... We have the chance to walk in the "Het Winschoter Park" and Mireille enjoyed riding in the sleigh... My favorite part is when me and my daughter lay down in the snow... such a nice experience....

Paddenstoelen (Mushrooms)

The Herfst (Autumn) season here in Holland officially begins last month (September 22). With my family here we have the chance to walk then in the woods of Drenthe and I made some pictures of Paddenstoelen or Mushrooms. Every Autumn season, kids are busy collecting fallen leaves, nuts and some cute things that can be well used for Autum decorations...

Mushrooms are popular also during autum, as you walk in the woods then you'll see different kinds of mushrooms are growing out... And making photos of them is nice too like what I did... I remember last year in the television program i've seen a documentary about Mushrooms, what are different classifications of them, their human uses like for eating, for medicines, etc.. But there are also poisonous mushrooms, like the first photo of mushroom you see above the red with white spots, according to Wikipedia they are called Amanita Muscaria .


By the way, today is the last day of our Herfstvakantie (Autumn vacation), a one week school vacation nationwide here in Holland during Autumn season... So back to school again on Monday... dutch! dutch! dutch!

Filipijnse Buurvrouw (Filipina Neighbor)

Today, we have a sort of BBQ Party at the house of Klas and Ivy... They are living in another street near to where we live, but I always say that Ivy is my Filipina Buurvrouw (Filipina Neighbor) or kapitbahay here... We have another Filipina kapitbahay here named Rhoda, she is living with Pim (dutchman) in few streets away from us... Tina came also with her kids, she is an Indonesian friend of Ivy... Today was such a good weather and we really have a nice day at BBQ Party...

Ivy and Rhoda were not only my filipina kapitbahay here, they are also my klassmates in the Dutch language lessons in the school, but they sit now in another group... I'm in Level 2 group, Ivy in Level 3 and Rhoda in Level 4 group... Sometimes, mostly on Friday we make schedule to eat lunch mostly at Ivy's house... The typical food for lunch here is bread... but whenever we made the schedule to eat together in lunch, then for sure it will be Filipino food, like rice with sinigang na isda, dried fish, pusit, adobo or nilagang baboy... sarap!

I'm glad I have Ivy and Rhoda as my filipina neighbors here... talking tagalog, eating filipino food, talking over bringing-up the child in dutch and filipino way, talking about the reality that filipino culture runs in our blood and sometimes we have to combine it with the dutch culture that is around us.... of course, we are inbracing dutch culture the way we embrace our dutch husbands... Still, we may be streets away from each other but we are neighbors in a filipino way....

Lente seizoen (Spring season)

The Lente seizoen (Spring season) officially begins today here in Holland... I know for some of my Filipino reader or Christian reader, who will read my blog first thought, I mean "Lente" means Lent season, in catholic tradition the forty days of fasting, prayer and penitence before Easter Sunday... Well, so as now it's spring season and lent season at the same time...

I made some photos of krokussen (crocus) flowers today. Those purple and white flowers in the photos. Actually those flowers bloom already maybe 2 weeks ago... But I've heard in the news, the blooming of flowers this year were a bit later than last year.... Maybe because last year we have some snow also.  Normally the winter here in the past few years don't really give so much snow that's why it think the flowers bloom also earlier than spring season...

Anyway, I made some photos of those yellow flowers and trees which appear to have color green.. It was such a nice weather today... We walk in the park.... And I can feel that "the spring begins".

Sneeuw (Snow)

Yesterday, there's a weather forecast of early Sneeuw (Snow) that will fall in Holland. The funny thing is, in almost every part of Holland there will be snow, except in North-East of Holland, and that is where we live... So I'm thankful to Mama Gea who sent photos (1st and 2nd photo here) from their area where the snow is about 5 cm high...

And then, this morning it's a bit late when I remember to make photo also (3rd and 4th photo). Last night snow start to fall here also in our area... It is still autum but it seems winter is coming early too...

Hagel (Hail)

Last friday evening some Hagel (Hail) or some kind of little ice balls fall here. So yesterday morning we made some photos... At first I thought those are snow already, but not yet ha...

Herfstvakantie 2008 (Autumn vacation)

Herfst (Autumn) seaon is here. Here in Holland it starts on 22 September this year.

And now we have our Herfstvakantie (Autumn/Fall vacation) for this week. It's one of the official school vacations here in Holland and this year Herfstvakantie starts 18 to 26 October. But for me it's not really a holiday ha, because i have lots of "school assignment" to do and to study too. But for sure it would be a nice week vacation because I would have more time for my sweet daughter Mireille, for I don't need to leave her to a "Nanny" this week.

Fijne Vakantie! to other students like me....

Midwolderbos (Midwolda's woods)

Saturday last week (Oct 11), we walk in the Midwolderbos or woods of Midwolda, a village near to Winschoten. Walking in the woods is one of the favorite recreation here. That's why you'll found many nice forests here to walk on... And it's really relaxing to walk around the nature even it's cold... The autumn had already started that's why you'll see some yellow leaves, fallen already in the ground and some trees here are having yellow leaves on it too. You'll see in photos kids are busy picking up some seeds and yellow leaves to make an art out of it... creative ha!

Zomer (Summer)

Zomer (Summer) is here, yesterday it's about 38 degrees... the nice place to cool down is to jump to the zwembad (swimming pool)... Cool!!!