Felix on his Bike

Felix has completely mastered his balance bike. He can go so fast on it now and holds is feet up so he can coast along. Tom snapped this short little video today.

Tweety gets a Bath

Evie and Tom spent the afternoon together and came to have lunch with Liz in the city. Somehow her Tweety fell and got all dirty. So when they got home Evie gave Tweety a bath out in the garden. Tweety loved it.

Park Pop 2011

Park Pop is an annual free day of concerts at nearby Zuiderpark. Like last year, Tom was able to get VIP cards, but this year we went together.

All roads leading to Zuiderpark were lined with people walking or biking to the concert.

Di-rect put on a good show.

The whole crowd jumping!

Here is the only picture we took of ourselves!

The best act was hands down delivered by Memphis Maniacs. They are called a "cover band" but they are so much more than that because they never actually just play a song, or even their own version of a song. Instead they mash them up the way a DJ would creating something quite unique. It was a great show!!! Check out youtube to see their performance.

Electric Guitar

Today Tom dug out the amp for his guitar so the kids could play with it. They loved it! Check out the video of Evie singing "Jesus Loves all the Little Children" in Dutch.

Legos in the morning

Legos are a hot toy at our house these days. Oftentimes they are pulled out to be played with first thing in the morning! You can really see the freshly awake faces in these photos.

Birthday at School

Today Evie was the Birthday Girl at school. She got to wear her specially made birthday hat and was serenaded with a dozen different birthday songs before blowing out five candles on the classroom birthday cake.




Then the teacher gave her a tin of sleeping dust to put all her classmates to sleep so she could pass out the surprise treat (Hello Kitty popsicles!)



Evie loved being the center of the attention and everybody enjoyed the popsicles! It was really nice being able to see the classroom birthday traditions. The celebration ended with the kids throwing fireworks in the air. Not real ones, of course.

Happy Birthday, Evie!

Today our Evie officially turned five! She awoke to a pile of presents, of course. Felix helped her unwrap his present to his sister.



This afternoon we had a birthday party with four of her classmates from school. We have about a thousand one photos, so I'm working on a video of the party and am still waiting for permission from the other parents to publish here. But hopefully it will be finished soon! In any case, here are her Hello Kitty cupcakes for the party. The girls were so cute when they got to eat them. They turned the 5 upside down and said, "Look, Evie's turning two!" Everybody laughed!

Father's Day

After being able to sleep in a little bit, Papa was treated to a special Father's Day breakfast, complete with special Father's Day placemat, napkin ring, egg cup, and banner.

Evie gave him a framed picture with the text: I'm upside down crazy about you, Papa
Felix gave a tile with his handprint, so so cute!
Tom also got a cool new backpack.

Evie's Birthday Party

Today, being the Saturday before Evie's birthday, we celebrated with family and friends. Of course she woke up to a couple presents on her chair, too.

She also got to have a special breakfast to kick off her Birthday week.

Evie really wanted a scooter for her birthday, and she got one! We decided not to go with a girly girly pink one this time. She loves it! She also got a Hello Kitty party dress that matches her invitations.


The party started at three in the afternoon. The weatherman threatened overcast and rainy, but it turned out to be a dry and somewhat sunny day!

Evie with the spread.
Hello Kitty Heart Cake.
Hello Kitty Cookies
Opening presents.
Grandma Nan & Grandpa David sent a present from America that happened to also arrive at 3pm the day of the party! Perfect timing!
Hip hip Hooray!
Make a wish!
It was a delicious vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling and fresh strawberry buttercream frosting.
The girls playing on Evie's bed.
Those who stayed were treated to enchiladas with rice and mexican bean salad.
The kids got quesadillas.

Felix in the Garden

Watering the plants.
Investigating.
Being cute.
Airplane!
Finding bugs.