ESCAPING THE CITY

I had to escape the city this week.. I rented myself with my sisters, Ineke and Melinda a cottage up north in Muskoka. The most beautiful part of Ontario very close to Huntsville, where I hold many great memories of summer band camps, and playing in the Huntsville Festival for over 10 years with Anne marie Monaco. It took 2 ½ hours to get to the cottage located on a small lake, Ril Lake. The cottage was quite large and fit the 8 of us quite comfortably. We did lots of swimming, boating, fishing, game playing, cooking and Potter reading during the week. Perfect weather was the real plus for us as well, but the bugs were pesky ! I will defiantly do this again next summer, it’s a real treat to enjoy cottage life in Ontario.. I love it !

click here to see more pictures of our week up north !

A VERY PROUD AUNT INDEED !

Today, I was a very proud " stage aunt" .. Caroline performed at City Hall infront of a crowd of hundreds, and did an amazing job. She was selected after an audition to perform at this event, Youth Day 2007 at Toronto's City Hall. We all came out to support her, and in the pictures below you see her close friends, and Maya, Joe and Hali as well as of course her very proud mom, Ineke !

I have also included a video of her performance.
( click on any of the images to enlarge the picture view) ...*click on this links below part 1 or 2 which will take you to YouTube to see a live video of the performance, its in two parts.. Part 1 Part 2

YOUTH DAY IN TORONTO

Today, Caroline will be performing on the main stage at City hall for Toronto's first Youth Day Festival . She auditioned about 1 month ago, and is a finalist, and therefor has been given the opportunity to perform at City Hall on the main stage. She played her song for me last night, to practise and prepare , giving her performance tips that would be helpfull to her and her overall performance.

I'm sure she'll be great ! such a talented family we are !

GREAT FAMILY MEMORIES

This morning I woke up to a great surprise email from my cousin Rutger in Hamburg. He had sent me this great photo that was recently found by his brother Steven, when he was rummaging through some old photos. Taken in the 30's its a picture of my Grandfather sitting outside on the car, and inside the car , sitting on my Grandmothers lap, is my Uncle Bob, at the window my Aunt Hilda, and in the background is my mom ! What a great photo ! very cool!

THOSE SILLY DUTCH!

Today I drove up to Barrie with Ineke to attend the Holland Pavillion, that that Jeff Van Niekerk organized. Jeff is the son of John, the owner of Niemeyers Dutch import store in New Market. He did a great job ! I"m very impressed.. it was like walking into the Amsterdam Pavillion that mom organized for Caravan back in 1977 ! It even made me a bit teary eyed when I walked into the pavillion !

click here to see more pictures of the day

videos from the day:

Dutch pavillion in Barrie

Dutch Carnival Band performs

More of the Dutch Band

Making fresh Stroopwafels

HARRY POTTER HAS ARRIVED IN TORONTO

Tonight was the premier of the newest installment of the Harry Potter films. And of course the kids were all excited and went to see it tonight, including Maya, who as you can see in the this picture even got a great picture with one of the main characters and stars of the film Rupert Grint ( Harry's best friend aka, Ronald Weasley)

( maya with Rupert Grint tonights premier of Harry Potter at the Toronto Scotia Theatre, downtown at Richmond and John)

I too am looking forward to seeing the film! and this weekend.. more excitment as the last Potter books in hitting the shelves... all computers, cell phones and ipod's will be abandoned for about 5 days, as all of Toronto kids and teenages will be silently reading in every corner of the city !

NEW SUMMER LIGHTS HIGH IN THE TORONTO SKY

Toronto main tourist attraction the CN tower has a new look ! LED lights have recently been added to the tower to make it really look spectacular and really stand out. The summer heat, today a balmy 43 degrees adds to the heated colours the tower is able to produce !

here are some CN tower facts and trivia...

Is the CN Tower the World’s Tallest Building?Yes, it is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Tallest Building. The CN Tower has also been recognized as having the World’s Longest Metal Staircase and World’s Highest Wine Cellar.
How tall is the CN Tower?The CN Tower is 553.33 m (1,815ft, 5 inches) tall or the equivalent of 5 ½ football fields stacked end-to-end.
Why was the CN Tower built?In the 1960s, Toronto’s growing skyline created problems for radio and television transmission because the pre-skyscraper transmission towers were simply not high enough to broadcast over the buildings. The prime function of the Tower is a telecommunications hub and several Canadian radio and television channels broadcast from there.
How much did it cost to build the World’s Tallest Building?The CN Tower was built for $63 million (about $300 million in 1998 dollars).
How long did it take to build the CN Tower?It took approximately 40 months to complete the CN Tower. Construction started on February 6, 1973, and wrapped up in June of 1976.
How many people did it take to build the CN Tower?1,537 courageous workers toiled around the clock, five days a week, 24 hours a day, to build the CN Tower.
Who owns the CN Tower?Canadian National (CN) built the tower in 1976, and retained ownership until 1995 when it became a public company. At that point, ownership of the CN Tower was transferred to Canada Lands Company, along with a number of other real estate properties.