July 2012 - birthday celebrations and summer fun

Oh my gosh, where did the first half year go ?? I can't believe it's July already. When the heck did that happen ??

On the first day of July, we celebrated my niece Anouk's 4th birthday, which means, she will be going to school (kindergarten) after the summer. We had a nice afternoon and all had dinner together at my sister's house. Anouk's actual birthday is the 4th.
My co-worker started his 3 week vacation. I was prepared for a busy time at work. The first week was still busy, but then it quiet down. Malú is notorious for getting sick in any vacation of my co-worker and behold ... it also happened this time. It was "only" a fever and it only lasted a couple of days. She was still playing and running around as normal.

We had a lot of rain this month and we were anxiously awaiting "summer". It was also quite cold for the time of year. We pulled our long sleeve shirts out again. Then it finally warmed up and it turned around to summerlike temperatures.

We celebrated my sister's partner Leon's birthday and went out to dinner at a restaurant in Germany (right accross the border). We had a great afternoon and a lovely dinner. Malú played and ran around with cousin Anouk and she passed out as soon as she hit the sack.

My mom had the spot removed in the hospital and her results came back negative. The skin cancer is gone, so that was really good news !!

Then the time came ... it was hovering over me for a couple of days already ... a sad day ... it had been 1 year and a half since my uncle chris passed away ... we wore our orange shirts in his honour.
I talk to Malú a lot about my uncle Chris and have a picture of him with the rose on the cabinet in our living room. Trying to keep all the beautiful memories alive. I miss you xx

We had a couple of fun days with my sister Wendy and daughter Anouk. Had lunch at their house a few times, took the girls out for icecream and they rode their bikes along the river Maas. Malú and Anouk splattered in the little pools together and Malú also went swimming with aunt Wendy, grandma and Anouk in a big pool.

The last week of July, we celebrated my 36th birthday. I always thought people who were 36 were really old, but here I am: 36. If you asked me 10 years ago what my life would look like at 36, I had no idea. I'm not so sure what life looked like at 26 and I also don't know what my life will look like at 46. Hopefully, I will still be in good health and with a loving family.
All the people that matter to me were at my birthday party. I'm hoping to spend a lot more birthdays with these people ...


Love, Astrid xx