Happy Birthday, Tom!

Today was Tom's 29th Birthday, again. From the kids he got a blu-ray disc player with a couple new blu-rays.

We had a couple friends over to celebrate in the evening. They joined forces to give Tom a really nice car radio. Tom also got to enjoy his favorite blueberry cake.

Naturalis

Today we ventured off to the natural history museum in Leiden. It was raining cats and dogs all day, so we were glad to be able to do something fun anyway. It's a beautiful museum, but unfortunately we didn't have very many photo moments. At least we got a couple good pics.

This one is great of brave Felix putting his hand in the mouth of a whale.

This was a fun exhibit for the kids. The had to feed the animals the proper food. The animals would "smell" the food and either shake their heads or open their mouths. Loads of fun.

Gotta love creatures in formaldehyde.

Fun in Zoetermeer

We spent the day in Zoetermeer with Opa Bas and Oma Wilma. We went to a huge playground there that has a great water playground, too. The kids loved getting all muddy.

Before and after a delicious meal of stone grilling, we did some bowling. Aunty Rachel and Juriaan joined us too. They have a handy little contraption so the kids can push the balls. We also played with bumpers, thank goodness! Everybody had a blast!

Harry Potter Marathon

Finally!!! The last installment of Harry Potter is here! Liz decided to go be a crazy fanatic and attend the 27 hour Harry Potter marathon with Menno. It started at Monday night a little after midnight with, of course, the first Harry Potter movie, The Philospher's Stone. Between the movies there were breaks lasting anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour and a half. I was so surprised to find out that I had never actually seen the first movie!!! The second movie I deliberately slept through (from 3am to 6am...). After that, except for maybe a few minutes dozing off here and there, we watched every movie. It was epic. Being in a full movie theater w

ith hundreds of other Harry Potter fans, and taking part of this memorable event, was amazing. We all clapped at the beginning of each movie. Whenever a new character arrived on screen for the first time, we cheered. It was truly enjoyable.

I, of course, had to go in costume. There were other movie-goers who came as Harry Potter or other Gryffindors, but I wanted to be Dobby. I fashioned a large pillowcase out of an old flannel sheet, and then turned that into the drab garment of Dobby the house-elf. I printed out ears and taped them to a headband. It was a pretty ghetto costume, but it worked and I liked it. The first evening people just kind of ignored the fact that I was wearing something weird. But by the second night (the evening of the new movie), people were all excited to see Dobby. I even had to pose in some pictures with people. This picture is a little photoshopped, but that's me as Dobby.

A lot of people thought we wouldn't make it to the eighth film, but they were wrong!!! Actually, by the time we got to the sixth film we were so juiced up about everything and so excited to see Deathly Hallows part 2! The last film was in 3d, so we got to wear these very cool glasses. We were very pleased with the last movie. No disappointments there!

Walk to the City

Today we had a really nice and relaxed day. We walked to the city center and checked out the statues on the Lange Poten. It was a perfect easy-going day!

Sushi Princesses

The kids had sushi again for dinner. It's quickly becoming a favorite of theirs. Thank goodness, because we really like it, too!

After dinner they both got dressed up as fairy princesses. So sweet!

Children's Book Museum

We just can't get enough of the museums! Today we checked out a relatively new museum in The Hague, the children's book museum. What a beauty! Most of it was more directed towards older readers, but there was enough for the pre-readers too.

One wall was made entirely of books. Quite impressive.

This was part of the young children's part.

There was a whole section about Kikker (Frog), a popular Dutch book.

There was also a part about scary books, which was the idea behind this table.

Last Day in Zeyen

The last day in Zeyen was spent just hanging out in the garden. Felix is enjoying is police helmet souvenir from the prison museum the day before. The afternoon was spent in the car heading home. Unfortunately we did have some traffic on the way back, but that's summer vacation in Holland!

The Prison Museum

Another close-by museum that we decided to check out was the prison museum in Veenhuizen. It turned out to be a great decision. What a great museum! The whole city of Veenhuizen was built around the prison, which has now been converted into a museum not only about that museum, but also the history of the judicial system and prisons in The Netherlands.

The first thing we did was lock Evie up!

Evie in shackles.

Judge Evie

This was on the courtyard of the prison where we had lunch.

Evie in her prison cell again. She was really good at adding drama to the photos.

Cellmates.

They had examples of old prison doors.

Tom.

They also had prison busses there, which is something we had never seen (the inside of) before.

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be this happy if they were really on the prison bus.

Day in Groningen

Today we went to Groningen, one of the largest cities in the north, and about a half hour away from where we are staying. We started our visit at the Groninger Museum, a beautiful art museum.

Prince Felix on his throne.

Every time Evie saw art she liked, she wanted us to take a picture of her.

This was a really neat artist exhibit.

After the first museum we took a walk, had some lunch, and made our way to the comic book museum.

She deserved a butterfly lollipop!

The comic book museum was really fun and great for the kids. Too bad Felix was sleeping by this time.

Openluchtmuseum

This week we are heading up to the north of the country to stay in the house of Opa Erno & Oma Els. They will be on vacation in Denmark, and we'll be in vacation in Drenthe! On the way there we visited the Open Air Museum, a family favorite. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too busy. Because we were there during the summer, every house had someone in it. In the past when we have gone, it's been off season, so it was nice to see it in its full glory.

Aren't we sweet?

To get around there are old trams. Felix loved it, of course.

One of Felix's favorites of the day was feeding the sheep. (doesn't he know we can do that in our neighborhood too??)

Looking cute at an old train station.

Here we got to see the metalsmith at work.

I believe he was making spokes for wheels.

Fly, fly away!

Another favorite of ours is the boat. This time Felix got to join in the fun.

These kids are ready for a Maine vacation...

Boy on a bridge!

Another really cool bike. Sometimes the Dutch go a little overboard with their bike design.

Tom also enjoyed the playground.

Evie insisted on this photo after we got poffertjes...

Bye-bye, Open Air Museum! See you in the spring again!