Ice creams on vacation

Jan and Kabouter had a nice ice cream routine on vacation

Waiting for a big boy's bed and a sleeping boy to arrive

This room is ready to receive a big boy's bed and a sleeping boy in that bed one of the next weekends (*) . Hurraay.  A big boy that has helped to achieve his room with a lot enthusiasm.  That means the guest room will become a guest room again so feel free to visit.

We found a fantastic red toddler overall

So our goal to complete the new little attic bedroom has been achieved and by the time you read this we are progressing well on the attic bathroom. Now that we are on a working rhythm, we keep going!

(*) and some plinths

Back at the beach in Surfside

Since we had enjoyed our stay at the beach hotel at Treasure island so much, we had decided to cancel our cheaper hotel in the Miami suburbs and upscale to another beach hotel in Surfside, a bit north of Miami Beach. It's such a blessing to just relax, walk up and down to the beach or pool  just as you want, without having to worry about parking, traffic, things to pack, naps to take in the room etc...

We enjoyed once again a large room in a very modern hotel, although the space wasn't always logically used until we realised we had a room suitable for a wheelchair. But we had direct access from our sliding rooms to the rooftop pool :).

An ideal environment to spend our last couple of days in Florida, chilling and enjoying the sun (no more rain!!) and this little jewish community where we found some excellent (kosjer) restaurants. Especially the jewish tapas-sushi restaurant the last evening was delicious hip food.

Space shuttles, beaches and swimming pools again

After 5 days on the Florida mainland, we headed towards the beach again.  Just 1 hour drive eastwards from Orlando, we reached the Atlantic Ocean again where we arrived at Cape Canaveral.

First we headed to the NASA visitor center.  We could see several rockets and shuttles set-up. But NASA is a serious scientific institution where obviously you can't roam around freely as a tourist. When we learned that the tour is in fact a  2h guided bus tour, taking you to the launching platforms and backsites etc, we believed this would be greatly interesting to do with children that are in elementary school but not with a restless baby and active toddler. Next time.

Instead of touring with NASA, we visited Cocoa Village Pier and had lunch and some refreshing cold cocktails before our room was ready and we could dive into the hotel pool. Flash, the pool pinguin, joined our family. 

We slept well afterwards 

Plaster, paint and wallpaper progress

During our vacation the carpenter had finished the doors and window cases for our attic as well as a staircase protection so we can finally allow Beertje to walk around in the attic. And now it's up to us. After the disappointment that we could not finish most painting in May, hence requiring a lot of extra work, we were very motivated to start working and finish up the boy's bedroom asap.

Jan went to buy all needed materials in a DIY open on Sunday morning so we could launch ourselves right away when we arrived on Sunday afternoon.  Also Kabouter was determined to help, bringing his little toy toolbox along. Oh what a sweetheart! While I played with Beertje, they plastered the last wall.

In the next days each nap from Beertje was used very effectively to plaster, sand, prime and put wallpaper in the tiny room. The room is small but oddly shaped and therefore a puzzle to work in, but we were progressing well, which is very motivating. 

On the playground

After all those years I visited the downtown playground for the first time here. Even though there weren't many toys for Beertje's age, both Beertje and Kabouter had a good time so I'm sure we'll be back this summer.

impressive pulling up