Team Brunch

Last Sunday we had a team family x'mas brunch at the Marriott Hotel.

Uli, who knew the chef, had arranged a great deal for us. It was just $25 pp, with an all you can eat buffet and free flow of alcoholic drinks ( incl.champagne!). Only in Jakarta!

Needless to say that we had a great time and because of the kid's entertainment at the hotel we were even able to enjoy the food and the company.

Snakes

Last week I took Ayla and Noah to the Jakarta Zoo. This is something we do pretty often on Saturday morning. If we go early in the morning, it's a nice and quiet stroll and the kids love to check out the animals.

Usually we see the 'Snake Man' and he always asks Noah to pose with the snake. Noah had always refused, but this time it was different...... he suddenly said he wanted to hold the snake and to have his picture taken.
Of course after seeing Noah doing it Ayla also wanted a piece of the action.

Two brave kids!

Santas at home

Believe it or not but we have our very own Sinterklaas/ Santas at home.

Here is proof.....

Christmas in Jakarta

Traditionally we went last week to the Christmas Party of our friends the Chamberlains.

This is a really nice get together to celebrate Christmas with our JIS friends. We all sing christmas songs and of course there is Santa to bring the little ones a present.

Thanks to Scott and Dunja for another wonderful party!

Sinterklaas visits Ayla @ NIS

December 5 is a big day for Dutch kids. It's Sinterklaas' birthday and the kids gets lots of presents....If they have been good.

At the NIS December 5 is a festive day as well. Sinterklaas and his helpers come to school and there is an all school assembly with performances from the kids. After this Sinterklaas will visit the classrooms and the kids get a present and pepernoten ( which are a special kind of small ginger bread cookies))

Ayla had a great day! Initially she was pretty nervous and a bit scared, but after a while she was very brave . She danced, sang and even sat on Sinterklaas' lap. ( It only took a handful of pepernoten to bribe her in to this.)

Swing it!

When we were at the Merritts house last summer in July our kids just loved to play on the swings set that they had set up in the back area of their house.

On the day that we left Matt gave us that exact same set as a goodbye present.

We have ( finally...) hooked it up at our house now and of course it's a big hit with Noah and Ayla. They just love to swing on it, to do rolls and to hang upside down.

Thanks Matt!

UN Day

Every year at JIS we have UN Day. This is one of my favorire days at school.

The kids dress up with (traditional) clothes from their home countries, we have an assembly and a colorful parade with all the countries' flags in it. It's a great day and shows us how divers our student body is.

Noah's class was in the parade and after that there was a singing performance in the classroom for the parents.

Naughty Girl

Maybe it's hard to believe but this sweet looking little girl can be the naughtiest little thing in the world. Just look at these pictures and look at the spark in her eyes and you will know what I mean.......

Dive Master Noah

Noah is in the pool all the time. He goes currently to 2 swimming classes a week, his regular swim class at school and he also goes to certificate swimming at the NIS. During the weekends we are often 3 or 4 times in the pool. He is a true 'waterrat', as we would say in Holland.

Here are some photos of his latest diving class......

Silly Kids

What is it about kids that they always love to be silly?

Ours are no different and they just love to make silly / funny faces

Here are some photos of our silly kids!

Noah's First Diploma

Last month, Noah received his first diploma of his life.

It was a swimming diploma for successfully completing swimming classes at the Dutch school.

Well done Noah! We are very proud of you!

Ayla's Favorite Hang Out

There is this place at about 10 minutes by bike from our house. It's a quiet and tranquil outdoor coffee / food place and it also has a bakery. You can sit under one of the umbrellas, have a coffee and look at the fish in the pond. It's a pretty cool place and Ayla's loves it there.

Every weekend we ride our bike there, we feed the fish and Ayla's plays with the toys in the sand pit and I can bring my newspaper and have a coffee. Nothing wrong with that!

Thanksgiving 2007

Every year we celebrate Thanksgiving with a group of friends. This year it was an early celebration at Butch and Lorly's house.

We were supposed to get together with 4 families, but unfortunately the Schulz family couldn't make it,so it was only the Koltais, Grahams, Sietsmas and Tom Bartlett..

Butch had invited us to come at 4:oo for drinks and traditional dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravey, cranberry sauce, etc....

Unfortunately Scotty Graham, a true friend, thought it was ok to show up 'a little' later..............So.....we had to look ( and drool) at all that great food and couldn't touch it, until 6:00 when Scotty and Tika finally showed up.
Maybe next year we should invite Mark Murnane again? He eats a lot, but at least he comes on time. Hahaha! Sorry Scotty...had to nail you on this one!


Tom and Lorly are obviously starving and can't help staring at the food........for hours.....

The Grahams are here!

YES!!!! The wait is over.....Let's eat!

Special Thanks to our hosts Lorly and Butch!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

ISCI Playground

After Sinterklaas' arrival the kids enjoyed
themselves at the ISCI playground with Rob and Tracy's kids, Shayna and Saskia.

Noah even managed to take a picture of Rob's new camera. Finally after 4 years of deliberating he decided to buy a decent camera. Well done, Rob!

If you go to Rob's Blog ( see link), you can actually see the photo of Noah that Rob took.