April

April started with Easter of course and school celebrated with an Easter breakfast, so all the boys were allowed to go to school in pyjamas. It was all a bit too exciting for Falco: we got a call in the course of the morning that we should go and fetch him because he was being very naughty. In the afternoon Marjolein had to pick up Matthijs early because he was disrupting the “bring in your toys” afternoon.

Easter at home went much easier. Falco's, rather shy, best friend, who he stayed with the previous weekend, slept over. He had a good time, so we may be able to repay some of the many times Falco has slept away.

Daniel also had a friend over, because his mother was suddenly without a babysitter, so we had five boys in the house on Easter monday. Fortunately the weather was good, so we booted them out into the square to look for eggs. After that we made a very eggy big brunch for both the mums.

School then dropped a bomb on us: three of the teachers and the “internal advisor” pulled us in for a talk to, basically, bitch about our kids. It was all very stimulating but we were left in a quandry: how are we to have an effect on their behaviour at school. The do not get away with disruptive behaviour at home.... We gave them a list of the things that we do if they misbehave: timeouts, loss of priviledges etc. but it seems as if they are making us responsible for a situation in which we are not present and cannot act.

One thing is sure, none of our children is inclined to respect anyone just on the basis of their age or height, nor do we teach them to do so. Their teachers need to control them based on character and smarts, which is perhaps too demanding a task... Marjolein started to feel a bit hunted and checked with other parents who have had them over to stay and with their gym club, whether they were particularly hard to handle, everyone said no, but that they were pretty lively and demanding.

We are starting to go off this school a bit. They have gone down hill rather recently. Though there is no point in moving Matthijs it might be an idea to shift the two younger ones.

On the good side the school puts a lot of effort into putting on productions of the School Theater every month. Falco got to do a dance with his best girlfriend, Daniel was an Easter Bunny and Matthijs' class got to watch (they had done a major middle-ages presentation previously).

We also started playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids this month. Matthijs is enchanted and immediately memorized the manuals, Daniel can follow it pretty well and we included Falco by making him the wolf-pet of Daniel's druid. Marjolein is a rather reluctant participant, but I have to be Dungeon Master so...

The end of the month was Marjolein's birthday. She had a quiet party with close family and a couple of friends, very relaxed. Daniel gave her a deskset which he had laboriously constructed out of paper the previous evening, covered in hearts and kisses.

The final event of the month was of course Queens Day, the national day of junk exchange in the Netherlands. We did not do any selling this year, but the kids got 3 euros each and had a fine time. Matthijs bought himself a truly horrible lamp in the form of a highly gilded bust of Tutenkhamon with a large lampshade coming out of his head. He has terrible, terrible taste, but actually got a bargain because the massive long-life bulb in it was undoubtedly worth more than he paid...