Kert - 13 today

Kert is turning thirteen today - officially a teenager now! :)

It's unbelievable how quickly time flies... I still remember him being a small kid, starting his first year in the kindergarten, then school... and now, he is even not a boy anymore, but a teenager. So I have to prepared for moody days, strange behaving and all other surprises... So far, he has been a wonderful son to me and I hope it will continue this way.
We had his parties already on Monday - the boys party - and yesterday (a bank holiday since it was our Independence Day) - the family party-.

Party for boys

As Kert is a motosport fan then there was no other option than to celebrated his birthday by organizing a Grand Prix competition of go-cart track. He invited 6 boys to compete with him and one hour of boys pleasure started...

Photo: Kert is ready to test his abilities to drive the quickest circle.

Photo: Just before the start of warm-up race

Photo: In the middle of the track

Photo: WINNER - Kert, II place - Rauno, III place - Sebastjan

Photo: Happy winners.

Photo: At home hungry, eating pizza...

Party for the family

As yesterday, it was our Independence Day, and it is a free day from work, then we could have Kert's birthday party on Tuesday starting at 2 p.m. I cooked the whole morning... We had 13 people all together as our families are growing - besides my and Erik's parents, my brother with Taimi and Lisanne came and Erik's sister with Martin, Emily and Anna came. It was a nice cosy family party!

Photo: flowers for Kert from his grandparents

Photo: All the family members around the table. Only my brother and Lisanne and Erik are missing

Photo: Little Lisanne came to the party, too, and was staying up most of the time

Photo: I and my niece Lisanne

Photo: The flowers and cards Kert received.

Babies in 2008

The year 2008 brought additional family members to many of my friends. I'm very, very happy for all of them! Time flies like a bird and soon, those beautiful babies aren't babies anymore, but cute little girls or boys! :)

FEBRUARY
February 11 was a very happy day for our neighbours Raimond and Kadri who got two little girls to enrich their love. Laura and Helena have just had their 1st birthday and are absolutely lovely little girls - walking and almost talking :)

APRIL
This beautiful Spring month brought wonderful news to my Latvian friend Laima - she gave birth to an adorable little girl called Liga.
Photo by Laima

SEPTEMBER
Autumn was important for my friend Robert, because then, he was made as an uncle - his sister gave birth to a precious little baby boy called Boris.

Photo by Robert

OCTOBER

October was a happy month for ME - as I became an aunt! :) My brother has a beautiful girl called Lisanne who is now more than 4 months old.

Photo by Taimi

Just 1 day before, my dear Portuguese friend Marta had given birth to her lovely girl Gabriela.

Photo by Marta

DECEMBER

Little Sondre, my Norwegian friend's Annette's son, was very eager to come out to this world already in 2008 - instead of planned date in January, he was here already before Christmas 2008:)

Photo by Annette

And the very very last week of December brought joy to my Austrian friend Michaela's family - her cute little baby boy David was born 2 days before 2009 arrived! :)

Photo by Michaela

Congratulations to all parents!

Happy Birthday, Martina!

Today it's my Austrian friend Martina's birthday. I hope she has a nice day with full of greetings, hugs, flowers, surprises and happy moments!

And I know she has received my homemade card by now, too...

Letters...

-There's nothing like getting a real letter in the mailbox, reading through the letter from a friend and then responding to send the same joy to his/her mailbox.-

We live in the 21st century - a modern world, where a simple paper letter via snail mail is already a rarity. Something unique... An average person receives bills via mail, newspapers via mail, maybe some magazines... but not fat envelopes with a letter from a friend or a penpal.

I'm not sure how many letters a "normal" person, who's passion is not penpalling, writes during a year. Two? One? Zero? So how do you tell to those "normal" people, that I - a letter lover - have written tens or hundreds of letters per year... Often I feel I need to justify myself in order to seem "normal" for "normal" people.

Why do you need to write? Where do you find the time to write? Isn't it much more convenient to call, e-mail or msn to your friends? What is the fun of writing so long letters; isn't it an obligation instead of enjoyment?

These are the questions what are usually asked from a person having penpalling as a hobby. I am sorry for those who never tried penpalling, who never put words on paper just to write a letter to someone who lives in a different country. You may never meet them, not face to face at least, but a part of you will always belong to them and there will always be room in your heart for them.

It's difficult to explain the passion of penpalling to other people. One has to have the same passion for letters to understand what amazing world it is. It's another kind of cute, bright, maybe a bit of childish (on its own way), warm-hearted, normally quarrel-free and open world which has been a part of my life for 21 years... I need to write because it's just the same way to express your feelings, render your thoughts, share your joys and sorrows as you do while talking on the phone, writing in msn etc. I find the time just like another person finds the time to watch TV - instead of watchin TV, I write a letter. And writing a letter seems often more personal to me than making a short phone call - when you start to answer a letter, you take an hour or two to spend with that person formulating your thoughts down on a paper, choosing a nice letter pad to write on, selecting the most beautiful stamps to put on the envelope... It's special and it comes from the heart... Writing a long letter has NEVER been an obligation to me. I only write when I want to spend time with a friend, and it's a pure enjoyment... I'm so happy to be surrounded with many nice penpals who have given me lovely moments to share their life with me and vice versa through letters. It's unique, it truely is.