Birthday Party on the Art Bus!

On Saturday, Lily was invited to Nahla's 9th birthday party. After Dutch School, we hurried to get to the party in time. Lily couldn't wait to see her old preschool friend again! There was an Art Bus parked in front of the house for the occasion, an old yellow school bus converted into a mobile art studio! The kids got to paint the bus (on the outside) and then go inside to make crafts, like... oh joy... SLIME! Of course, this was the highlight of the party, except for... Ennio, who was ecstatic that he got to pretend drive the bus!

The birthday girl... acting shy for the photo.

Painting the bus!

Lily and Daphne, another one of her preschool friends.

Making slime!

Nahla and her slime!

Ennio making slime!

Decorating her slime jar with glitter and the glue gun!

Future bus driver!

That was an awesome birthday party!

Still the best kitty in the world...

 Stella!!!

A little bit of everything!

Hi everyone!
It's been so busy lately, I have hardly had time to even think about this blog. Here's my attempt at updating you guys with some news and photos about what's been going on over the last few weeks. Let's start with the not so good news. I had a lot of medical issues over the past 6 months. It started last August, when I had a huge pain attack in my lower back and abdomen in the middle of the night. It was so bad, Marcus even called 911! I had no idea what had happened to me, but the next day, the pain was gone... Until October, when the same pain hit me again... this time at work. It hurt so much, I had to vomit in the kitchen! After a couple of hours, the pain subsided and I was able to drive home. I saw my doctor the next day and he ordered a CT scan and it became clear I had 2 kidney stones. The doctor just recommended I'd drink a lot of water and see if the stones would pass by themselves. Long story short, they didn't and I had multiple other pain episodes (4 more), so I saw a urologist who proposed a ureteroscopy. This is basically a procedure where the surgeon puts a small telescope-like instrument into the bladder, ureter and kidney, locates the kidney stones and then breaks them apart using laser energy and removes them with a basket. I was scared for the procedure, because, although there are no surgical cuts or incisions, it is done under full anesthesia. However, I was sick and tired of having all these attacks - the last one so painful, I thought it was worse than giving birth - so I had the ureteroscopy done on February 20. Thankfully, all went well, and after 3 days of resting at home (the first 48 hours after the surgery were still pretty painful), I was as good as new! I hope I will never have to experience kidney stones again!!!

I got these beautiful roses from my friend Barbara! They definitely brightened up my day!

Then on to more enjoyable news!

• Ennio is taking swim classes at our local YMCA.

• On March 10, the kids had spring school photos taken. This is taken at home on the morning of.

• Official School Photos: 

• Marcus and I found our new favorite coffee shop in town! Zweet Cafe! Clearly, the owners don't speak Dutch!!!

• My brother visited us March 10-11 and the kids flew in an indoor wind tunnel! See previous posts, which I just added!

• We celebrated Marcus's 44th birthday on March 16 with a visit to Wi Spa, a Korean Spa in downtown LA. First time there and I loved it! I especially liked the clay sauna room. We saw the spa is very family-friendly, so we hope to take the kids there some day.

• Lily had her Tumbling and Ribbon Dance Performance last Monday. Here she is with her friend Pearl.

• Franz, a friend of Marcus, who is a Lufthansa pilot, flew to Los Angeles last weekend and visited us on Monday. Ennio was very excited to meet a real pilot!

• There are currently many other things going on in our lives as well, mostly having to do with Ennio's problems in school. He's smart, but he has a hard time learning. He's lacking focus, attention and concentration. We're trying to figure out solutions... Cross your fingers for us, please!

Ennio in the classroom (standing up, in the black jacket)

• To end on a positive note, Lily's in Journalism Club and had her newspaper issue published today. Since Journalism Club meets on Wednesdays, I can volunteer in the classroom. We had our publication party today! Here's a link to the Wolf News, if you're interested. Lily wrote 3 articles. Enjoy!

During Journalism Club, in Lily's classroom today. Each author read their article out loud.

Bezoek Wouter!

Wat een leuke verrassing was het enkele weken geleden toen mijn broer Wouter liet weten op business trip te moeten komen naar L.A.! Of we thuis zouden zijn dat weekend en of hij kon langskomen? NATUURLIJK! Dat moest hij geen twee keer vragen!!! We vonden het super leuk hem hier te hebben en hopen dat hij nog vaak zal moeten terugkeren 😃

Wouter kwam zaterdagmorgen 10 maart aan (komende van Sao Paulo) tot grote vreugde van de kinderen. Voor Ennio was het alsof het Sinterklaas of Kerstmis was. Hij stond om 6 uur vol verwachting aan ons bed om te vragen of nonkel Wouter er al was! Gelukkig moest hij niet te lang wachten want rond 8 uur stond Wouter al aan de deur! Na gezellig bij te kletsen, vertrokken we rond de middag naar het verjaardagsfeestje van Ford (zie vorige blogpost). We bleven daar tot rond 16u00 en keerden dan huiswaarts. 's Avonds namen we Wouter mee naar de Los Angeles première van RegionRat, een kleinschalige, onafhankelijke film waar Marcus de muziek voor geschreven had. Leuk, maar Wouter was zo moe, dat hij ocharme af en toe in slaap viel! Het is hem vergeven, hij was al uren op en had er al een drukke werkweek in Chili en Brazilië opzitten... Ik doe het hem niet na!

Marcus met regisseur Javier Reyna

Op zondag hadden we bewust niets gepland. Geen drukte, maar gewoon uitrusten en leuke dingen doen. We aten sushi bij Katsuya (yummy!) en terwijl we er dan toch waren, gingen we langs bij de Tesla Store. Is there a Tesla in our future??? I sure hope so (nog niet voor direct, maar een mens mag dromen, niet?). Ennio vindt Tesla alleszins de max, en heeft al gevraagd of hij zijn verjaarsdagsfeestje in de winkel mag houden, haha! Nu denk ik niet dat dat tot de mogelijkheden behoort..., ik zal dus nog eens goed moeten nadenken met welke alternatieven we kunnen afkomen!!!

Op zondagavond was het dan tijd voor Wouter om te vertrekken. Van maandag tot woensdag had hij business meetings in Bakersfield. Daarna vloog hij via New York terug naar huis. Ze zullen hem daar ferm gemist hebben, maar wij waren superblij met dit blitz-bezoekje ❤️

iFly!

It's amazing how differently kids are growing up nowadays and the things they get to experience. Things I couldn't even dream of as a child! This is what I am talking about: last Saturday, we were invited to one of Ennio's classmates' 7th birthday party, and all the children got to... FLY in an indoor wind tunnel!!! The party was at iFly Hollywood on the Universal CityWalk. It was a rainy day, but that didn't matter much. The kids had a great time and I just watched in astonishment!!!

PILOTS ENNIO AND LILY!

 PATIENTLY WAITING THEIR TURN...

ENNIO TAKES OFF!

 

LILY'S FLYING!

GROUP PICTURE

CAKE!