swim little fish, swim

Swimming lessons continue and I had to share these cute pictures I snapped...Its hard to get pictures of them swimming where is looks like anything besides a head bobbing in the water. Last week they had to swim out to the "cheese" climb on, stand up fall off and swim back to the wall. Lessons are very different here...but great. I think with all the water around, kids NEED to know how to swim more so they expect more and teach them many more stroked from day 1. The kids are learning the breast stroke, butterfly and back float. Their teacher, Onno, is wonderful. So happy to get this activity going....now if only I could find a martial arts class for A and a dance class for E. One thing at a time, right?

Sunday...fun day ...again!

Sunday was fantastic....bike rides through the forest...to the airport to have a picnic lunch and watch the gliders take off right in front of us. so fun! never gets old!

I made hopscotches with all the letters, many numbers and different shapes for Em to work on. She did hopscotch saying each square that she jumped on and then she stood in the middle, I said a letter, number or shape and she hopped on it. quite a fun activity to see all that she is learning at school...I cant get over how early they teach kids these very academic things here. so different...but obviously they can learn it bc she has, in no time!

then the kids had a water fight...sorry no pictures...took showers to rinse off and then they wanted to have a tea party. so cute! They had little snacks - trader joes cheese sandwich crackers that gma brought them from the states...(like the whole box bc they miss the snacks from there so much!) and we had wine. great afternoon in perfect sunny weather. I love summer! 

Gparents! (Even if just for a short time)

Headed to the airport to see family during their layover. Kids got ready so fast... It has been almost 3 months since we saw them...

Reunited! Happy kids!

Happy to see an aunts and 2 uncles too

Micro Legos from gma and gpa

Then the intl fair at school... Only got these two pictures ....oops too busy working at the North America booth. Look at this cutie!

littles field trip, at last!

The littles got to go on a field trip! hooray! All sixty some of them were SO happy. It was to a great park in Bussum and the rain held off so it was a success. A huge fun park is the perfect field trip for 4/5 year olds. Parents drove the kids, a few each (something that would NEVER happen back home!) They didn't even need permission slips, or anything...bizarre if you ask me. I was happy to volunteer to drive, as you can imagine. I wanted to drive my girl, not anyone else. (control freak...well maybe about some things ;)) anyway. The park was enclosed so there was no worry that they would wonder off, and it was surrounded by an animal reserve. Many of the kids like looking at the animals...they even had a wallaby! There was a cafe right there as well, great for coffee or lunch...next time!! 

lollies! to celebrate Ms Leo's birthday. :)

Father's Day

They don't really celebrate it here, but we certainly celebrated. Its not often that dad gets his breakfast made, laundry done for him and dinner all fixed is it? Ha! It would not be fair to call everyday dad's day around here...I am totally joking around. (well, little joke) We let daddy pick the days activities and a bike ride was first up on the list. He picked to go to a park too, a new one that he found. Such a good dad, thinking of things his kids would like too. Lets be honest, they need to be happy too, right? I do cherish this man, the dad to our kids. He is the best, we are lucky to have him and we hope he felt special today with his gifts and extra love today.

I also miss my dad today, I am so grateful for him. It's hard to put it into words.  He is the best dad in the world. He has taught me so much, and continues to. I thank God for making me his little girl. Love you dad!

Here are some pictures from our fun day.

Park fun

Bike ride fun

Cows....put there to eat and cut down on the maintenance costs of the grass cutting. I think I have posted about this before...but we have never been able to get good pictures like this! I was a bit frightened that they were this close to the cow...but obviously the cow could care less (as long as they didn't bother it) 

and more swinging fun back home as well

Vesting museum - Naarden

Beach day!!

Its hot, humid, and the pollen is terrible! We don't have A/C (no one does!) and its stinking hot out. For a little relief, and a little fun we piled into the car and drove an hour to the beach. A new beach, this one was in the Hague, its called Scheveningen. It had sand, the ocean and lots of people. (apparently we were not the only ones with the idea to cool off!) It was interesting, as most places had proven to be over here. People all over the world are so different and culture to culture they just have different cares, or lack there of cares. Smoking, drinking, lack of any clothing, sitting right next to others on an open beach, and plenty more. The beaches here, so far, seem to be lined with "beach clubs" and bars and tons of little snack shacks. Its like Newport, OR on steroids times a million. I can not even explain it. Very different, but kinda fun to experience and not bad when you need a snack, want to walk and explore.

Here are some pictures from the fun day
(Clockwise) kids playing, me and the kids, playing in the water and flying the kite!

There was a neat sculpture garden, so of course had to take some pictures with our favorites. We even rode the carousel.

The kids and me with the very dutch sculpture of the the man eating a herring....doesn't get more dutch than that!

This building is so neat looking...who would expect to see it at a beach. very European. :)

Bret and the kids jumping in the waves.

The kids enjoying the water...they were just cackling. it was priceless. I seriously hope they love each other and stay friends like this forever.

Bike ride to Loosdrecht

Over the weekend we biked a new route out to Loosdrecht, where we lived in temp housing. It was a fun ride and we even stopped at the little Hilversum airport for a snack and to watch small planes take off and land.

I was riding in the back, Aidan is up in the lead and right in the middles is this sweetness.

Horses

I thought I signed up to go RIDE horses...not get therapy about myself through training them. What a crazy experience. It was fun to go with a friend and truly just what I needed for many things going on. I learned that horses sense what you are thinking and respond to you based on how you feel and what you assert. At first I was afraid of the huge horse and he wouldn't come near me, but I learned when I was convinced of my feelings and believed in what I was doing and telling the horse to do, they followed me. He listened and he respected what I said. Children are the same, they want a leader and someone that believes in what they are doing and the choices they make for their family. I will spare the details or any further insight because this is a public blog and well, you know. (sounds so hokey and silly, doesn't it...well I thought so too, but I can't make this stuff up...not not creative enough :))

First bday in NL

Our first family member celebrated a birthday in Holland (and it was a big one!)! Wow, fun! The kids decorated the house with signs, balloons and streamers.Here are a couple pictures I took. 

Daddy opened special hand made cards. Little miss waiting patiently for daddy to arrive back from his bike ride to give him the gifts she picked out for him, three special toy cars that SHE wanted to get him. (She sat there for 40 min waiting for him with his presents. She woudnt move, it was so hysterical!) The girl loves her daddy! The other hand picked gift was a bottle of wine. (funny that my big kid would think of that, huh?) we did find a neat one though, to celebrate this big day. Its by PON, which, as story has it, is a family of Porsche dealer owners...or something like that, and they moved to Cali to run a vineyard. At any rate it went with daddy's love of cars and wine. He loved it. 

We had Grandma T's brownies, with vanilla ice cream and homemade raspberry sauce. Yum! 

Happy birthday to you! We all love you more than you know and wish you happy, healthy year ahead.

Bike riding

One of our fav things about living here has been bike riding. It's flat and there are tons of paths to neat places that we enjoy exploring. Yesterday we rode out to  Houve Ravenstein to enjoy the festival and animals. The kids did great, especially the little one...12k on her own bike...with 1 gear!