Koninginnenach

Tomorrow is the national holiday of Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day. That means that this evening is Koninginnenach (Queen's Night) in The Hague. Several podiums are set up around the city center with all sorts of bands, lots of beer stands, and many drunks. The party doesn't really start until later, so we decided to go check it out while it was still tame.
Evie donned an orange scarf to show her Dutch pride.
Evie loved watching the bands and dancing crazy-like with Mama and Papa. When we left she said, "let's go find more music!"

Evie's Camera

This post is long overdue, but better late than never! One of the presents Grandma Nan brought with her visit was a camera for Evie. Unfortunately, we can't actually figure out how it works, and it is not compatible with our computer... BUT that doesn't make it any less fun for the little princess. Evie loves bringing her camera with her and taking pictures. It's too bad we can't see the pictures, but the loss is probably not that great as she always seems to have a finger over the lens.


Seeing her joy with the camera has convinced us that a "real" kid's camera is in store for her in the near future. These days they make cameras that are allowed to fall and are easy for little hands to hold onto. If anyone has any experience with the VTech Kidizoom or Fisher-Price Kid-Tough cameras, we would love to know your opinions.

Our plan for when she has the camera is to make an Evie photography blog. We're sure her perspective of the world through a lens is worth some bandwidth.

Baby Carla

A week ago today our friend Ulrike gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Carla Ilse and she is simply perfect! Evie is also completely in awe of the little baby. Hopefully it's a good indication of how she'll be with her baby brother, who should be making his arrival sometime in the next two weeks. (Carla chose to be fashionably late and was born at 42 weeks with a little help.)
Evie visited when Carla was 3 days old.
She was very gentle with the baby.
And very curious!
4 days old
6 days old. Evie gets to hold Carla.

38 Week Belly Shadow

Every time the belly casts a shadow we have to laugh at how funny it looks. Last night that inspired us enough to try to get a picture of it. We grabbed the tripod and managed a pretty cool shot. Notice that belly button sticking out!

Springtime

We have been having some really nice weather lately. It's finally resembling springtime! Saturday we went had ice cream and went to the playground. We've put together a little movie of the ice cream.


Evie is such a big girl now that she can (almost) use the shovel! It's still a little heavy for her, but she tries her best.

Evie's Spider

We continue to be impressed by Evie's obvious artistic talent. Last night she drew a spider. She told us what it was, but it's also very clear to see, of course. Maybe next year we'll teach her that spiders only have 8 legs...

Baby's Room

At this point we can say that the baby's room is done and ready for him to come. It's not actually his room, it's actually a corner of our room. But he doesn't know any better! We started with an orange wall. We didn't want to paint over it, so we decided to go for earthy colors.
The real inspiration for the room came from the quilt Grandma Nan made for the baby. It is all batik prints.
Baby's room!
His bed is made up and ready for him to sleep in it.
When Grandma was here we got some more batik fabrics and used it to jazz up the canopy.
The changing table.
After Grandma Nan left, Liz continued working with the leftover fabric to make a night light...
... a basket...
... and a diaper stacker.
Voila!!!

Pictures from Oma & Opa

As we mentioned earlier, Evie spent the weekend at Oma and Opa's house in Zoetermeer. Today we got an email with some pictures of her fun-filled weekend. The petting zoo, the playground, and biking! Who could ask for more?

Happy Easter!!!

Evie returned from Oma and Opa's house this morning to find that the Easter Bunny had visited! Evie got an big bunny-shaped almond cookie got to look for eggs.
Showing us her cookie
Evie made this basket at the creche. She got to have a chocolate egg.
YAY!!! Eggs!
There's one in the doll's bathtub!
Check out all the eggs!!!

Evie draws people!

Evie is off for a weekend at Oma and Opa's house. This morning we brought her there and she played with her magna-doodle. To our great delight, she drew a picture of Opa (left) and Oma (right). While drawing, she was concentrating very hard and looking back and forth from Oma to her drawing and back. It's too bad it wasn't on paper, but we preserved the moment with a photograph.

Saturday afternoon Fun

Just some pictures taken Saturday. In the morning we went swimming, but seeing as we all went swimming there was nobody to take pictures. In the afternoon we made muffins.
Evie doesn't mind cleaning the bowl.
Papa teaches Evie "thumbs up!"
Block-castle creation!

Evie says...

She puts her hand on Mama's belly and feels the baby move. And says,

"Hee, baby! Niet schoppen op m'n hand. Dat is niet leuk. Anders worden Mama en Papa boos. Dat willen wij niet. Okee, I love you. Good bye."

Translation:

"Hey, baby! Don't kick my hand. That's not nice. Otherwise Mama and Papa will get angry. We don't want that. Okay, I love you. Good bye."

36 week Belly Shot

This picture was taken yesterday. Ulrike is 40 weeks 4 days, and Liz is exactly 36 weeks. Yes, we're wearing the same shirt... but it wasn't intentional! This will hopefully be the last belly picture with both of us. It's time for one of these babies to make her appearance!!

Guess the Baby Stats!

Okay, so the due date is getting closer (one month from today!). Let's all post predictions of the baby stats. The closest one will receive no prize. So click on comment and post:
Your Name:
Baby's Birthday:
Time of birth:
Baby's weight:
Baby's Length:It would be easiest if everybody used the metric system. Convert pounds and inches to grams here. Convert inches to centimeters here. The time and date should be in The Hague local time.

For reference, Evie was born two days after her due date, she weighed 3900 gram and was 51 cm.