Thursdays with Mama

Yesterday, Mr Felix decided to get into a little mischief. While I was making some cookie dough in the kitchen I noticed Felix was being awfully quiet. A peak around the corner found me looking at a yoghurt covered little boy who had climbed up onto his sister's chair.
Of course I ran for the camera to get a picture of the boef.

Unfortunately, he ended up falling from the chair about thirty seconds after this picture was taken.

The kids enjoying themselves at the playground. Felix is starting to get into the whole playground excitement. Evie is getting more daring with what she does.

Felix only gets a few licks of his popsicle before it finds its way to the ground. We can only rinse it off so many times...

Linde's Birthday Party

Today was Linde's birthday party in Amsterdam. Happy 4th Birthday, Linde!!!

Evie insisted on a princess present

Felix enjoying himself with all the cuter older ladies

Evie, Linde, Jette, and Iris.
They are all within a few months of each other. Iris is the oldest, Evie the youngest. Evie's the tallest, too.

Saturday Braderie

Felix in the stroller, happy as can be!

Evie in the bouncy house.

Evie loved being able to ride a motorcycle!

... and she's a very good driver!

Felix in the Morning

Here you see a typical lazy morning moment. Felix is eating his bread with a great big grin, and Evie is taking it easy on the couch.

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday Liz was treated to a fabulous Mother's Day morning. Tom snuck out of bed when the kids woke up and then they all came into the bedroom to present her breakfast and shower her with gifts.
Though it was presented in bed, we actually ate it at the table.

Evie made Mama a beautiful pasta necklace she made at the creche.

Felix gave some tea in a handpainted teapot.

This Mama has the best kids in the whole world!

In the tram on the way back from Zoetermeer, Evie fell asleep on Papa's shoulder.

Birthday at the Creche

Today was the last day of the Felix Birthday Celebrations. When we got to the creche we were greeted with a note on the door announcing Felix's birthday.

After lunch, Felix got to wear the birthday hat and pass out his little presents to his classmates.

The kids each got a box of yoghurt raisins sandwiched between a photo of Felix and a picture of Felix the Cat.

They all sang the Dutch birthday song ending with "Hieperdepiep - Hoera!" where all the kids put their hands in the air.

"Jarige Job!" (a name they call birthday boys)

Happy Birthday, Felix!

Today was Felix's first birhday! Because we celebrated yesterday, we didn't really do anything birthday-ish, but we did enjoy our last day with Grandma and Grandpa.
In the morning we went for a walk and to the playground.

In the afternoon we went to the Historical Museum of The Hague where we saw some amazing 3D photographs from the end of World War II.

After the museum we went to a nearby cafe.

After dinner at Little V, a Vietnamese restaurant in the center, we ended the day with some ice cream.

We really enjoyed the visit from Grandma and Grandpa, but all good things come to an end. Hopefully they come back soon!

Felix's First Birthday Party!

In Holland the 5th of May is Liberation Day, celebrating the end of World War II. Although observed every year, it is only a day off (for most) every five years. That happened to be this year. We decided to take advantage of the day off to celebrate Felix's birthday (one day before his real birthday).
One of Liz's friends from work helped decorate a Felix the Cat cake.

Felix received a top from Papa and Mama and hammertje tik (hammer pegs) from Evie.

Felix was dressed to the nines.

The kids loved playing with all the new toys... nearly all of them had wheels! It was amazing!

We sang Happy Birthday and Mama helped blow out the candle.

The party was made extra special by the presence of all the grandparents and one great-grandparent. (We were one great-grandmother shy of everybody.) Such an occasion warrants the making of a group picture, of course.
TOP, from left to right: Tom, Oma Els, Grandpa David, Opa Bas, Oma Oma, and Oma Wilma. BOTTOM, from left to right: Grandma Nan, Opa Erno, Liz, Felix, and Evie.

Openluchtmuseum

Monday we went to the Peace Palace and took a tour of the inside. It was amazingly beautiful!!! Unfortunately, for security reasons, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. Outside it was raining, so we didn't take any picture there either. Sorry about that. In the afternoon, the men stayed home, while the ladies took advantage of the rental car and went to IKEA!

Tuesday the kids went to the creche while the adults went to the Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem. Grandma and Grandpa really enoyed the museum, as did we. We started with some poffertjes where we looked through the map and circled everything we wanted to see. We ended up seeing everything (on the list) before heading back to the Hague in time to pick up the kids.
Waiting for the poffertjes!

The poffertjes are nearly done!

Here we are in a 1910 styled photograph. What a handsome family we are!

Here we saw some ladies weaving fabrics to make scarves and dish towels. Grandma Nan got one with the pattern that is being woven here.

Cheese at the dairy factory. Very Dutch.

This is a door inside the dairy factory... something tells me it is not used very often.

Rotterdam

Grandpa David has been getting pretty jealous of Grandma Nan's frequent visits to The Netherlands. To make up for it, he has joined us for nearly a week. He arrived yesterday and will be staying until Friday, when they will both leave on the same flight. It is great having Grandma and Grandpa here together!

Today we made a trip to Rotterdam where we visited the Maritime Museum. It was so interesting learning about the history of the shipping industry. There was a great exhibit focusing on the shipping of animals. We all had a good time.
On our way to the train station to Rotterdam.

The kids powering their own little boat in the fabulous little kids section of the museum.

This was in the animal exhibit.

We had lunch at the museum cafe, Lloyds. It was super delicious! A great little restaurant.

After lunch we walked down to the Erasmus bridge and took a 75 minute harbor tour of the largest port in Europe, and third largest in the world. We got to see the shipyards and docks of some amazingly large ships. There were so many containers! Simply amazing! Unfortunately, the weather is still a bit wet, so the sights weren't nearly as amazing as they could have been. As a result, the photographs are a bit greyish.
Evie and Felix had a good time on the boat, too. After a little bit of ice cream, Evie found pleasure in running around with another little boy her age. Felix delighted in crawling from one end of the ship to the other, climbing stairs and flirting with the other tourists.

Love love love!

Grandma & Grandpa looking out at the enormous ships.

The harbor.

The Euromast, typical Rotterdam.

Ahh, don't we look lovely!
Some REALLY big ships with SO many containers!