Summer in the City I

Since coming back from the Netherlands in July, we've been nicely settling into the rhythm of things again. The last three weeks of their summer vacation, the boys went to a few soccer camps, jumped in the pool a lot, and (perhaps under some pressure from the parents) caught up with the sights in Beijing.


 
Thomas happy to be back on his own bike. (The tie is fake...). Simon participates in a Club Football Summer Clinic.

 
Blue skies above Beijing! While the kids play soccer I go for a run in the Beijing Olympic Forest Park. (Rio, here I come!)

 
These ladies make sure not to catch any rays of sun. I go from a country of umbrellas (the Netherlands) to a country of parasols. Thomas also gets his Club Football certificate. Football (soccer) was great, but according to Thomas he was "boiling hot."

 
We visit the Confucius Temple in the blistering sun. The only way to cool down is with a gigantic fruit smoothie. Turns out though that Confucius not only greatly influenced thinking and society in China, but also came up with the great, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" ("Wat gij niet wilt dat U geschied, doe dat ook een ander niet") golden rule. Not bad for a guy from the 6th century BC.

 
A super cool bike and one happy child.

Dangerous animals in Beijing.

In het Nederlands: We zijn weer "thuis" en het alledaagse leventje begint. De jongens zijn alweer op school en--met deze blog post--blikken we nog even terug op de laatste weekjes van de zomervakantie. De foto's uit Nederland zitten nog op de memory card! :-)

Simon

Recently there's been an overwhelming amount of posts on this blog that had something to do with Thomas. (Well, it happened to be his birthday in February, and then he had that crazy week with his art show and other activities.) So today I thought I would just post some homey pictures of Simon, the gege (哥哥 or big brother) in the house.

And if you ever feel my updates about Simon are lacking a bit, just check out the kids' own blog about his school work.

 

Walking our neighbors' dog at Shentang Yu Valley during a recent hike.

 

Playing soccer on a Saturday morning. (Before we moved to China I had this crazy idea that the boys would be playing soccer with Chinese kids. Instead, most of the kids' sports activities are run through a couple of expat-focused organizations. The soccer on Saturday is part of Sports Beijing. Chinese kids can certainly join in, but there is an overwhelming amount of blond kids running around...)

The new Koeman?

Insect art and proud artist.

Soccer art. The young artist himself credits his mom for his success. (Or so she would like to think!)

In het Nederlands: Vandaag wat fotootjes van Simon! Die is inmiddels ook al acht, en druk met school en sport. Voor z'n schoolwerk houdt hij ook z'n eigen blog bij.