Happy Halloween!

Our neighborhood is lucky enough to have somebody who organizes Halloween every year. Most parts of The Netherlands don't have any trick-or-treating. This year, however, the holiday was moved to Saturday night. So last night the kids got to dress up and make the rounds in the neighborhood.
Evie was a fairy princess butterfly.
Felix was a dinosaur, though we preferred the name, "Felixilla"
Grandma had just touched down to The Netherlands a few hours earlier. As you can see, the trip really took its toll on her.
Felix had the cutest costume ever! Everybody just wanted to eat him up!
When we were right about to leave some friends of Evie's came trick-or-treating so we joined with them when we left.
Felix wasn't scared of anything, not even the very creepy guy at one of the houses.
Evie was a little spooked out, though.

Kinderboekenweek

The week before the fall break was the national Children's Books Week in the Netherlands. One of Evie's classmates wrote a children's book and came to the class to talk about her book. Plucked from the school's website, here are some pictures of Evie listening attentively to the speaker.

Doctor Felix

Need I say more?

Sharing a Chair

Here we have some shots of the kids sharing Evie's chair and coloring together. Check out the giraffe Evie's drawing.

Felix Playing

One of the best attributes a child can have is the ability to play independently. By no means is Felix always able to play by himself all the time, but he can do a pretty good job once in a while. And he's so cute when he's sitting there moving the car and saying, "toot-toot!" Simply adorable!

Evie's Zoetermeer Visit

Seeing that it is Fall break, Opa Bas and Oma Wilma decided it would be nice to have Evie come to Zoetermeer to spend the night by herself. She seemed to have loved the special grandparent time without the cute little brother stealing all the attention. They had lots of fun playing and exploring Zoetermeer.

Rock Band

Today Liz spent the evening playing Rock Band with Menno and some of his friends. What a great game! Drums, guitar, bass, and microphone, and a whole bunch of great songs! What fun!!! Each song we switched off instruments so we all got a little bit of everything.

Playdate with Mirre

Wednesdays are half days at school, which gives a great opportunity for playdates. Today Evie's friend Mirre came over to play. The girls had lunch together, made and decorated some cupcakes, and played school with each other. After the fall break Evie will be going on a playdate at Mirre's house.

We Will Rock You!

Today Liz went with Menno to We Will Rock You in Utrecht. All the music was from Queen and with English text to boot! The show was awesome - we had a great time!

Fried Fish

Evie has always said that she doesn't like fish, but we wanted to change that. What better way to get someone to like a food than by offering them the fried version. She loved it!! As did Felix, but he'll eat just about anything.

Chestnut Creatures

We had a little bit of fun fall crafts today. We gathered some chestnuts last week and today we transformed them into marvellous little creatures.
by Liz
by Tom
by Evie

Art Board

We've pulled the easel out of the shed and the kids have been enjoying having a really big page to color on. Evie's loves drawing. We are very impressed with her obviously natural born talent. She doesn't even mid when Felix helps color them in.

Texel - Day 3

Today we went for a walk and visited the watch tower and playgrounds before we headed back to The Hague. Evie said it's called a watch tower because it's a tower and you have to watch out when climbing up it.

Texel - Day 2

Today we enjoyed breakfast and a swim in the morning. After naptime we visited the lighthouse. Evie and Liz went to the top while Els, Tom, and Felix stayed on the ground.
Breakfast table.
Evie and Oma made a puzzle during naptime.
The lighthouse:





Playing in the dunes:




The kids found out a drying rack makes a great tent!