The last weeks.......

The Birthday party was a blast, lots of friends, lots of food and good fun, we had a face painter come and we are so happy that we did, she was amazing!   We do not know if the kids understand that they will not see their friends for a long time and we thought this would be a really nice way to leave, with good memories and photo's

We will miss our island and our lovely friends  but especially after today, when we learned about the horrific Boston bombing, it made me realize yet again how fragile life is and how much we want to be with our children and experience life together, learn together and live our dreams, even though it might be more dangerous to be on the road then in the garden of our home but we will live in the way that we want to live and not in the way society tells us we should live especially since that is not our thing and has never been our thing, it feels scary yet empowering to finally design the life we want and actually live it and there is a chance that it might blow up in our faces and it will be a massive Fail! The kids might beg us to go home after a  few months, Colin might lose his job and that will force us to go home .................Or We will have the time of our lives and we will become way better versions of ourselves and we might actually contribute to society in a     

positive way... we will just have to find out.

Three more weeks now and we still do not know if we will get a camper van or a caravan, caravan is cheaper yet way harder to drive but since we will not use it the whole time and do not have bundles of cash lying around I think it will be a caravan. packing is still a major issue, I think we are going to bring way to much stuff, oh well, live and learn I say 

              Only four more weeks to go!

Ok, so now, I have painted the two bedrooms, threw/gave away a ton of stuff we had accumulated, found great homes for our animals, and even though it hurt to see them go, I am content with the fact that they will be looked after well. We had a a few people look at the house to rent and tomorrow we will hear if we have a renter, I hope so, that will take a huge weight off my shoulders (and our bank account!) 

The kids are asking us every day when we will leave, especially Kai is excited, Anouk really wants to see her cousins in Holland but that is about it. I am waking up at night with panic attacks and can not go back to sleep until I research the how and what's of our trip but in the end I know we will be fine, we always thrive on change and even though it seems stress full right now, in a month and some we will be laughing about it.

Kai has decided he wants to learn 2 languages, french and dutch while we are away, and also "space" he said he wants to find out more about space, well that is fantastic so that is what we are going to focus on, I'd like to learn to speak German  and I am sure Kai will speak German and french and dutch before I get even close, kids are such sponges and I know I am definitely not anymore. I am learning more and more how my children are showing me new things, not the other way around and I am loving it.

packing for our trip is an issue, not so much the clothes, that will be ok, it is the toys and books that will take up most space in the suitcases, Anouk's ,my little pony collection and kai's lego, all the books I want to bring  for them and us as well, I am sure we will pack too much but only time will tell.   

We will fly the 5th of may  to Hong Kong from Auckland stay there for two days and then we will arrive in Amsterdam on may 8th, My sister will generously give up her new apartment to us for a few weeks??? days??, we are not sure yet, in Edam  and in the mean time we will try and buy a motor home that will be our base for the next months to come.    in those weeks we will also see my family  and I can not wait, I have missed them a lot.

why would you leave this place!

Why would you leave this place? Yes! fair enough question. We live on one of the most beautiful islands in New Zealand, have bought our home just over a year ago and, the kids are happy and we are very content  so why leave.... Well lets call it wanderlust, we love to travel, see new things, meet new people and would love for our kids to experience different cultures, excite their brains with the magic that the world has to offer and while you can do that by telling them about it and showing them a picture on google, we know that to actually experience it will make them grow into even more beautiful human beings, so we did it! we bought our tickets, we are going to rent out our house and we are going to travel for a YEAR!! In 7 weeks! aaaaaaaaah! So suddenly there is a lot to take care of like paint the two bedrooms sort our our stuff keep half, pack our stuff unpack and take half, somewhere in between that we will have to throw a double birthday/good bye party and fly!

Kai is 7 and has a lot of experience traveling, he has already lived in 4 different places in 2 countries, been on lots of trips within that time as well and loves it. he can not wait to go to Holland and meet all his family there ( I am dutch) and is even more excited to go to France and visit castles.
Kai has the important job of taking the pictures for this blog, which he is really proud of and will be writing here about the way he is experiencing our adventures as well so this will be a joint effort between me and him.

Anouk is almost 4 and is the happiest girl, most happy when she is with her brother who she looks up to very much and as long as she can be with us and play we could go to the moon and back and she'd be thrilled. she is also very excited that she will finally meet her family, in particular her little cousin of the same age which she has been in contact with on skype and by mail. and although she does not understand the full extend of what it means to travel for a long period, we think she will be a trooper.

At this point we are racing around like chickens with their heads cut of, so much to do so little time but as always it will work somehow and we will laugh about it later.... I hope.