Zuiderpark

Lots of was had in the Zuiderpark today.  Lunch, football, frisbee, you name it!  Benjamin loves to pluck the little flowers ever so gently (and then rips them apart).  Despite the overcast skies, it was actually really warm outside.  And the good news is, it looks like this warm weather is here to stay the rest of the he week, too!

Weekend without Papa

This weekend Tom is off to Milan, Italy, for work.  Things have been going surprisingly smooth on the home front.  The kids have been very nice, the weather has been agreeable, and the days are flying by.  After dinner last night we went to the playground.  Meanwhile, Tom was going box with a roman statue.  Thank goodness for FaceTime; the distance doesn't seem that far.

At the park with the boys.

Picking flowers and playing soccer with the boys! They are both soccer talents for sure.

Swimming lessons

Evie swims every week and is practicing for her swimming 'license'. She is doing great, look at her jumping into the pool from the diving board!!!

Reading on the couch

Little Benjamin's firtst attempt reading. Of course he's just being a goof!

Play-doh

Benjamin is loving the play-doh this morning! Of course, he is most interested in taking it in and out of the container, but that is to be expected. He's only tried to eat it a dozen times, so that's good, too.

Mother's Day Legos

Today Liz was treated to a delicious pancake breakfast after being able to stay in bed until it was ready. She got some lovely presents from the kids, including two new lego sets. Legos for Liz?!? Yes, indeed! Look at how cool these sets are! As soon as Benjamin went down for his nap, it was playtime!

Birthday Party

Yesterday Felix had his birthday party with friends from school. He invites five boys and his sister to lunch at home followed by a visit to the indoor playground. It was very successful!!

Bye-bye, Facebook

We've done it.  Tom and I have both departed the Facebook scene.  There wasn't any one thing that drove either one of us away.  We just realized we were done.  From a blog perspective, I see that the more active I was on Facebook, the less active the blog got.  It got so far that there was a two and a half year break of blog posts.  A whole pregnancy and infancy completely absent.  But I'm fixing that now!  With all the extra time I have now that I am not scrolling my news feed, I am finally getting around to playing catch-up.  Pretty soon, looking back, one may not even realize that the blog ever was inactive... That's my goal, at least.
 

Felix 5 Years!

Yesterday we celebrated Felix's fifth birthday with friends and family. The weather was great, so we were all outside. Felix was spoiled with lots of new Lego sets and wasted no time getting started. Tuesday is his real birthday, and Wednesday he will have his (first) birthday party with friends from school.

Sharing a smoothie

Now and then we treat ourselves with a smoothie. Healthy and yummy! And Benjamin loves it too.

Beamer in the yard

Benjamin loves his ride!

Mama and Benjamin

Looking ever so sweet in the baby carrier, Benjamin waits with Liz for the kids after school.

Merry Christmas

We had a little bit of Christmas drama last night when the lights on our tree stopped working- on Christmas Eve!! Luckily our neighbors were kind enough to take the string of lights off off their outside tree so we could light up our inside tree! Never ever have I undecorated and redecorate do a tree on Christmas Eve!

Ready for Halloween

We are ready for Halloween!  Benjamin has his jack o lantern diaper, and Liz finished up the most awesomest costume EVER for Felix!  Let the good times roll!

Proud to be an American

Evie needs to bring a photo of herself to school that portrays something of which she is proud.  Ever the patriot, she chose the American flag.

WAHM Fluff

In the world of cloth diapering, there is a type of diaper referred to as WAHM.  That stands for work-at-home-mom, meaning a mother who works from and, in this case, creates diapers to sell.  Grandpa David ordered the fleece redsox cover.  The best part?  The inside is Yankees print.  It is called Red Sox poops on Yankees, created by Bear Monkey Bottoms.  The second one is a hand appliquéd  Nijntje created by Dutch Baby.  The workmanship is incredible!!  It's really amazing.  The WAHM behind Dutch Baby has become a friend in the past year, so it was extra special.  She is Dutch American, making it even more perfect.  The other things that came is a mini wet bag for wipes and a cloth diaper keychain.  

Ouwehands Dierenpark

Today we made a visit to Ouwehands Dierenpark.  Martijn, Danielle, and Isa joined us, as well as Opa Erno and Oma Els.  We got to be so close to a giraffe!!  It was AWESOME!

Father and Son

Back to School

School started back up today.  Evie is now in group 5 (third grade), and Felix is officially in group 1 (pre-k).  (Up until now he was also group 1, but it was actually more like group 0, even though that doesn't exist.)