Morningtime in Evie's Bed

Our little sleepyhead likes hanging around in her bed for a little bit after being woken up by Felix. Sometimes Felix joins her and makes it that much harder to sleep in.


Felix also enjoys the nice views to the outside. They are currently busy with renewing the sewer system in our neighborhood (and while their at it, they are also redoing all the roads and sidewalks!). In the end it will be really nice, but in the mean time it means we have big trucks outside doing really impressive work.

Park Pop

Every year in a large public park in The Hague we have Park Pop. It is an all day music festival with three podiums and lots of music!!! This year Snoop Dogg was supposed to come, but The Hague was afraid of the "type of people he would attract" to the festival and cancelled him last minute. In his place Beenie Man was going to come, but then there were protests about his homophobic lyrics, so he got nixed, too. Oh well. Tom had some VIP tickets and got to enjoy the concerts from the awesome backstage area with drinks, food, shade, and great proximity. Without a babysitter, and with temperatures well into the 70s, Liz decided to just briefly visit the festival with the kids. It was the first time for all three. It was a great atmosphere, but HOT! We ended up being back home after an hour. Tom stayed the whole evening and got took lots of photos.
Liz and the kids make their cameo.
Juliette Lewis
Danko Jones
Nena (remember 99 Red Balloons?)

Phone in the dishwasher!

Thank goodness we heard the phone be dropped into the dishwasher by the darling little Felix before we filled it up and turned it on!

Evie's Birthday

Today was Evie's Birthday, and she got to celebrate it with her friends at the creche (and Mama & Papa at home, of course). This past week we have been busy making the "traktaties" - little presents to give her friends to celebrate her birthday. This year we made little triangle boxes filled with sweets.
Each little box had a mini lollipop and ten princess colored M&Ms.
When put together it resembles a cake. One side of the box has a photo of Evie while the other has pictures of her favorite girly-girl characters - Hello Kitty, the Disney princesses, and Dora.
The finished product also had some bling - three stick-on jewels were the icing on the cake. We presented them on this tray.
The presents are for all of her classmates, but for the ones who are actually at the creche today we have some sugar cookies with Hello Kitty. The bigger ones are for the teachers,
The door at the creche announcing Evie's birthday!
Per creche tradition, Evie got to stand on the table while everybody sang the birthday songs to her.
The kids eating their cookies and examining the boxes. Some of them even managed to sneak out a few M&Ms! (Evidenced by some ripped boxes in the cubbies.)
Evie got to pick out a present from her teachers. She chose the sidewalk chalk.
Here we see Evie distributing the presents in the kids' cubbies.
We picked her up early where we found her still in her princess dress, crown, necklace, and earrings! She had a totally princess day!

Happy Father's Day!

Papa was treated to a bit of sleep and was awoken by a tray of French Toast and strawberry yogurt.
The kids gave their presents made at the creche. A folder with a "painting of mud" from Evie, and a door hanger from Felix.
Liz had to work, so it was a real Papa day!
"Sissy, please stop talking."
Papa took the kids to the newly re-opened petting zoo! It has been under construction for a few months, and we have missed it.
Usually Evie is pretty timid around the animals, but sometimes she surprises us by petting one.
Felix, especially, is starting to be very interested in the animals.
The bunny is just about as big as he is!
Here we have a little video with a few good laughs. Felix checking out the chickens, Evie running away for no reason from the chickens, and Evie insisiting Papa put Felix on the Bumba bike. (Bumba is a cartoon character).
Later in the day Evie made one of the puzzels she got for her birthday. 36 pieces and no problems! Not bad!

After-party

After the game we left Papa home alone to clean up the house. Evie and Linde went to a nearby street party.
Bouncy houses are always fun! Even if they are a little wet.
The girls also got their faces painted.
Felix thought Evie looked pretty cool!

World Cup - Holland v. Japan

The end of Evie's birthday party coincided perfectly with the beginning of the second game Holland plays in for the World Cup. This time we beat Japan 1-0. This means that Holland makes it through to the knockout games no matter what happens in our third group game on Thursday against Cameroon.

The kids lucked out during the game, as the weather had improved some. They were able to play outside and we were (almost) able to hear the game.

Evie's Princess Party

This year we celebrated Evie's birthday earlier in the day to accomodate the World Cup game. Evie has been talking about her "Hello Kitty Princess Party" for almost a year now. She got to wear her princess dress, have lots of princess food, and decorate everything in pink! We had a princess cake, flower cookies, Hello Kitty cupcakes, fruit-kebabs, and pink M&Ms in addition to the party appetizers. The girls got to dress up in Evie's new dress up clothes and got to decorate some paper crowns. Unfortunately the weather was a bit wet and yucky, but we still had a fun time indoors and we (just barely) all fit in the house.

Evie's Birthday!

This is Evie's birthday weekend! Her real birthday isn't until Tuesday, but today is her party. So in practical terms today is her birthday. She awoke to decorations in the living room, with her chair transformed into a birthday throne and a pile of presents on the table.
Evie was excited to open presents!
She was thrilled with the Princess and the Frog DVD.
Hello Kitty "Evi" Doll
She also got a chest full of dress-up clothes that she'll have to enjoy before they are all to small for her - in about three weeks.
Felix!

Wow, Mom, you're gorgeous!

Like most children, Evie enjoys looking through all of our photo books. This week, while flipping through one of Liz's albums, she suddenly yelled out, "Wow, Mom, you're gorgeous!" Of course, I had to run to see which picture she was talking about... and there it was. I was 14 or 15 in this picture. Apparently Evie thinks I'm gorgeous when I most resemble a barbie doll.