Penninkmeijer - March 2025

Last update/Next update

The Penninkmeijer Family

Frederik is 70, Bianca is 65, Dirk is 37, Catherine is 35, Elisabeth and Margaret are 4 and Stephanie and Nicholas are 3
(Abby Gradonni and Annie Tora are 34 and Sya Gerrits is 33)

Narrated by Dirk

Our oldest girls turned 4 last January, and I still can't believe they are old enough to go to school. They like taking the bus, even though the school is just around the corner, it passed here anyway so we just let them.

They bring home homework, and Frederik and Bianca are more than willing to help them with it. I think they can't believe they are going to school as well.

They like spending time with the kids anyway. Frederik really enjoys teaching them things. Lately he started to teach them to play chess. I think he lets them win sometimes, but not all the time!

Elisabeth really likes playing the piano. I've thought her some things, but I'm not nearly as good as Laura, so we are thinking about asking her to teach her some more things.

Last year we made the garden child-proof, and now that Elisabeth and Margaret are old enough to enjoy it, they spend almost every free moment playing in the garden. It's nice to see the garden is appriciated this much.

They really hate it when it's raining and they can't play outside. It's a nice opportunity for them to play with their siblings, which they do, but it's not the same as playing outside.

Bianca and Frederik are enjoying the garden as well. We put a midgetgolf-set in, and they really like it. There are still some things we need to do, like adding a pool, but first things first.

Catherine and I have been thinking about redoing some parts of the house. So we sat down with Bianca and Frederik to talk it over and see how they would feel about it.

They seemed a bit surprised at first, but after hearing our ideas they were on board. They liked the ideas and I think they were happy that we didn't want to tear down some walls. So the pool will have to wait.

Frederik used to be a hugh work-a-holic before he retired. And Catherine is a lot like him. I know he still misses it a lot. They can sit and talk about work for hours.

Catherine is more than willing to hear his tips and tricks, and ask him advice about it all. He gets so in to it when he's talking about business.

Even though Catherine is more ambitious than I am, she's not that interested in running for governor next year, and I am.

She's all for the idea of me running for governor though, and gets really excited planning my campaign.

If I get elected or not, I still want my moments with my family. Like every sunday is a day for me, my wife and my kids. We have breakfast with the family but afterward it's just the 6 of us.

We don't do anything special, but it's still important to mee. Taking the kids to the nearby playground is nice.

They all love it, and that's what's important. There are even things for Nick and Steph to do.

And Meg and Beth are happy as long as they are outside.

I think Catherine and I could do more productive things on sundays, but as I said before, I think time with the family is important, after all kids grow up so fast.

I'm pretty sure that in a few years time all 4 of the kids will be making all kinds of excuses when we ask them to go to the playground, or the burgerbar.

But at the moment they still love going out with the 6 of us, and I think we should really enjoy those moments.

It's not always work or family. Catherine tries to get together with her collegefriends, at least once a month. Now that they all have children, it's harder to do, but they still manage.

And evenings are mostly out of the question, but they are more than happy to get together for some afternoon coffee.

Bianca and Frederik take care of the kids during the day. And both Catherine and I really appreciate it, they really do a lot.

But we do try to get them out of the house sometimes. Not that we get tired of their company, but so that they'll have a night for just the 2 of them.

They always seem happier when they come back afterwards, so I'm sure they appreciate their nights out.

Extra:

I did redecorate some of the rooms in this big house, and this is what I did so far:

The livingroom before.

And the livingroom after. I might lower thos frames a bit, and I know I still need to fill them, but that will be done some day :)

And Catherine and Drik's bedroom, before.

And after.

Notes:

• This update could have been longer, if I just played what I wrote down, but instead I forgot to play half of what I had planned.
  I'm happy with the redecorations though, and I can't wait to redo more of the house, which they currently don't have the money for :)
• Dirk is the second one I'm introducing to run for governor. I have thought about letting Catherine run, but it's more in his line of work (politics) and I don't like him running against her, so I went with him running.
  The other 2 are Mairi Wagtmans and Chu Min. I'll  tell more about them later in a real election-post at the end of this round.
• I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Stephanie and Nicholas growing up to children! It seems like they have been toddlers forever. But starting next round their will be no toddlers in this house, and I can't say I'm going to miss it :)