Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween Cookies

To help celebrate Halloween in the classroom, Evie brought some homemade sugar cookies to school today. There were ghosts, bats, and jack-o-lanterns! They were pretty delicious, and kids enjoyed their treat! Unfortunately, there are no pictures from school.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween Party

This year there was a kids Halloween party at the Grote Markt in the city center. It was set up as a kids disco with a live dj, pancake stand, face paint table, and coloring pages. All the kids were dressed up in their finest halloween attire. The party was lots of fun. The highlight, of course, was the screaming contest. About a hundred kids were up on the stage screaming their heads off while all the parents couldn't help but laugh, laugh, laugh!!!! I'm proud to say, our kids didn't win.
Felix was showing off his dance moves quite a bit.
Pancakes!
Dancing together onstage.
SCREAM!!!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Trick-or-Treat!!!

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood was held on a Saturday this year, to make it easier for everyone involved. Felix had a skeleton suit and Evie was a black cat.
Felix looked the scariest when we wore the skeleton mask.
It wasn't very cold out, so the kids were able to just wear an extra layer under their costumes.
"TRICK-or-TREAT!!!"
Halfway through Mama and Papa traded places handing out the candy/walking with the kids. This was the perfect opportunity for Felix to sample some of his candy.
This is the bird that landed on the electrical wires!
Meow... our sweet kitty.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Hello Kitty Museum

Today we took a visit to the Siebold Huis in Leiden, a museum about Japan. They currently have an exhibition that we simply could not miss - Hello Kitty, Hello Holland! Being the Fall break, Hello Kitty was there herself for a great photo op.
Felix shakes Hello Kitty's hand.
He pretty much thought the point of this piece was to play peek-a-boo behind Hello Kitty. That works, too.
There was a difficult scavenger hunt and some craft activities for the kids.
And lots of Hello Kitty things. Our favorite was the guitar.
Felix enjoyed the magnetic Hello Kitty dress-up wall.
Dutch Hello Kitty

Monday, October 17, 2011

Marzipan Cupcakes

This morning we made some cupcakes and decorated them with marzipan. For those who don't know, marzipan is similar to fondant. It is easy to model, kind of like play-doh, but it tastes a lot better! Felix was doing a really good job at playing and making things until he realized it was edible. Then there was more snacking that modeling going on.
Our rolling pin has gone AWOL on us, so we had to improve with cups.
Evie ended up making way too many. We only had 12 cupcakes!
Evie was also able to help Felix.
The finished products! The kids were very proud of their work!

Waiting for the Tram

On our way to Zoetermeer yesterday to visit Oma Wilma. How cute is this family???

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Jack-O-Lantern

Evie lost a top tooth this evening making her look like a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween. This is her third lost tooth. Hopefully the tooth fairy won't forget to stop by tonight.

Music Class

Starting this school year Evie is taking weekly music lessons on Saturday morning. Today was the first session that the parents were allowed to stay and watch. It was definitely a little noisy, but also really fun to watch.



After class, Tom took the kids to go visit Max, who lives nearby.

And before going home they stopped by Aunty's house, too!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Superhero Hunt

After school today most of the teachers were transformed into superheroes and found places to hide in the neighborhood. Evie and Mirre set out together to find them all. Each superhero had a letter to contribute to the puzzle. In the end we found all but a few, but were still able to figure out the puzzle. We saw Spiderman, firefighter and policeman, Robin Hood, Sinterklaas, and Mega Mindy. It was great fun but quite tiring!

Evie and Mirre looking for superheroes.

One of Evie's teachers was Superwoman!

The other one was Mega Mindy.

Worth a photo!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sunday Painting

Today was a great day for some painting. The children each donned an old t-shirt of Tom's and went to work. They used a large piece of paper from the easel which provided plenty of space for their artwork. Afterwards they each painted on canvas. They did a really god job!

Friday, October 7, 2011

My Hero

This week is Children's Book Week in the Netherlands. The theme this year is heroes. For school Evie had to say who her hero is and why. She answered with Papa, because he hung up my nightlight and I really wanted that.
It's true. For weeks Evie would ask every day when she was finally going to get a nightlight. We had her old moon nightlight from her bedroom, we just hadn't hung it up yet. About four weeks ago Tom hung it up. Evie has been so happy ever since!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Welcome, October!

Today is the first day of October, but it feels more like the first day of August! Temperatures reached 26ºC (79ºF), which is a lot warmer than this summer! Holland fully taking advantage of the weather with just about everybody heading to the closest beach. Tomorrow will be just as nice, so we'll go to the beach tomorrow. Today, however, Tom took the kids to a water playground in a nearby park. It's just a whole bunch of puddles and mud and old pipes and messy fun! They were pretty dirty when they got home and had to go directly in the bathtub!