Sinterklaas Feest ( St. Nichlolas Party)

Our family is a member of NAAM (Netherlands-America Association of Minnesota) and they hosted a "Sinterklaas" party yesterday. Sinterklaas is basically the Dutch Santa Claus. Sinterklaas ( in English, St. Nicholas) was a bishop from aroundthe 13th century who was believed to be born on December 5th. He was famous for his kindness to children. There are many legends of how he gave money and help to those in need. He loved to give gifts to poor children.So, on the 5th of December, which is St. Nicholas Day, the Dutch celebrate this man. They call him Sinterklaas and he comes with his helper "Zwarte Piet". (Black Pete) Our American Santa was originally this Saint. The Dutch Settlers in New York (once New Amsterdam) brought the Sinterklaas tradition to America with them. Just one more thing to thank the Dutch for!;-) By the way--- in the Netherlands, Christmas is a religious holiday and "Sinterklaasdag" is a day for kids to have fun, eat treats and get a gift from the Sint. Christmas has nothing to do with St. Nicholas there.

A day at the maze!

Wow! Yesterday was the "perfect" October day to enjoy at Sever's Corn Maze. The Bouwman kids were so glad to enjoy their day at the maze with a few of their cousins. 1) Sara and her boys along with the Bouwman brood 2) The Bouwman kids and Olivia and Ava, listening to the live music 3) Bert and the baby girls 4) Mac working his way around the huge straw bale maze 5) Ava "swimming" in the corn pit 6) Olivia on a pony ride 7) The super slide ( if you look really close, you can almost see Sara and Kenny going down!) 8) Bear and Shirley Kate in the petting zoo 9) Bronwen Ann

Where have all the Briggs Kids gone? If there is life out there, please make yourself known!!!

The Corn Princess

Uncle Bert took Olivia down to the river bottoms to pick some sweet corn on Saturday night. What a way to spend a 3rd birthday, huh?

Olivia thought it was pretty cool, and it always tastes better hand-picked...and hand-shucked, of course!;-)

Maybe next year Uncle Bert can get you out on the big picker, LivyLu! You would love it!

Lucia Ann Turner~July 16, 2007

Summer Fun!

Baby Lucia and Shirley Kate

Lucia Ann And Shirley Kathryn met each other for the first time at the hospital last night. They got along quite well, and seemed to enjoy each others company---as you can see! They are already anticipating their many adventures together!

Lucia Ann Turner: born Monday, July 16

Big sister Olivia is very excited about her new baby!

Olivia is so nice to let Bronwen "help" her hold Baby Lucia.

Lucia Ann Turner

Look at all that hair!

Turner Girls Spring 2007

Finally some new pics!!!

Olivia practices holding babies--poor Shirley Kathryn...Ava and Eric on Memorial Day...Olivia and Grandma Briggs share their morning beverages...Ava in the back yard.

We need some new pictures!

This is Shirley Kathryn and her namesake. ( 10 days old )

Shirley Kate (3 weeks )

Come on, family! We would love to hear from you all and see photos of everyone else's families!

Meet Shirley Kathryn Bouwman!

We are so pleased to announce the safe, speedy arrival of our daughter and sister: SHIRLEY KATHRYN! (And only 1 week overdue!) She weighed in at a whopping 9lbs,13oz, and was 21 1/4 inches. She is blonde and chubby, and of course we all love her to pieces! She was born Wednesday, April 11 at 10:30pm. She surprised us by how fast she decided to come, but we like surprises!:-)
Bert, Molly, Berend, Bronwen and Maclaren

Olivia Goes to the Beach

Ava's 1st Birthday!!!

Eric Reaction to News of Turner Baby #3

CRUISIN' (Feb.17-24)

We went on a "Texaribbean" cruise a few weeks ago---a last getaway before Baby#4 makes his (or her) appearance! We had a great time! It was sooooo relaxing and surprisingly fun! (Molly was not too excited about the idea of a cruise, but liked it.)
We left from Houston on Sat., were at sea for a day, then Progresso, Mexico on Monday.(What a DUMP! We looked around, then got back to the ship---the name "Regresso" was already taken, we guess!!!) On Tuesday we visited Cozumel. That was beautiful---such clear, blue water! On Wed. we stopped in Belize. We stayed on the ship and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Thurs. and Fri. we were at sea and we arrived at the port in Houston Sat. morning.
Our ship was the Norwegian Dream, and we would recommend Norwegian Cruises to anyone---the service was GREAT and the food was DELICIOUS! (We had been warned that cruise food was not that great, we loved it---too much!!!:-)
Thanks to Mom and Dad, Wendy and Sara for helping out with the kids. They had so much fun while we were gone, I don't even think they missed us!!!

Olivia and Ava...Winter 2007

Time for school!!!

This is a photo of Bear, Bronwen and Mac doing their "Dutch School" on the computer. The Dutch language school they had been attending the last few years has closed (temporarily, while waiting for more funding from the Dutch government---it may take awhile because we all know how tight-fisted those Dutch are!:-)so, in the meantime, Bert has been doing the "Rosetta Stone" Dutch program with the kids. It is for adults, so they can't do everything, but they do amazingly well---even Mac! To them it is just a fun computer game.
If you ever have an interest in learning another language, the "Rosetta Stone" software is great! It is surprisingly easy. Since Bert already speaks Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and English, he has decided to tackle Italian!!! I think the kids and I will stick with English and Dutch!!!:-)

Mr. Chatty

Thought I'd try the video thing again.
Not sure if this will work. Click on the
link to watch a funny video of Kenny
talking on the phone.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=623942824692928214&pr=goog-sl

Harry & Kenny

Harry at 6 months
Kenny at 2 years

Het Kerstfeest van het familie Bouwman (The Bouwman Family Christmas)

As you can see from the "mooi" photo's, we had a very nice "Kerst": Our "kleinste jongen" Maclaren enjoyed our "kerstboom" a lot. Papa shares a "knuffel" with his favoite "meisje". The "twee Bouwman jongens" pose by Grandma and Grandpa's "kerstboom", and the "drie Bouwman kinderen" get ready to open gifts on "Kerstavond".
(Can you tell we've been working hard on speaking "Nederlands" at our house?:-)