Dide's birthday

Over a month ago already since the last blog post. We have been settling in into our New Old House, still a list of things to finish, but we do not feel like it. We have enjoyed some nice weekend outings, for example a visit to the children's science museum in Amsterdam, smaller than that in Chicago, but very entertaining and interesting as well. Dide and Ties recognized a whole lot of experiments, but also discovered some new ones. Afterwards we visited the Anne Frank house as well. For us that was the first time, very impressive, it makes you quiet.

And we are also trying to get used to our new weekly schedules. Saskia's working hours have changed (i.e. are even better now), so Dide and Ties do not need after school care at all any more. We have no time to clean the house any more, but like what we are doing. Weekend's are busy, but rather give than take energy. We have some social contacts to revive after all these months of reconstruction work.

Playing at the home of "opa and opa" (grandparents) is more fun than at home.

Today we had a small party for Dide's birthday next week (10 years old, can you imagine?). We had mostly family over for lunch. It was a very good time, although we were on a schedule as this afternoon it was basketball again.

Do you wonder what she is wearing? It is a body protector for horse riding.

And finally, the last few weeks we had cold (as in VERY cold) weather here. It has been below 0C (32F) for more than 2 weeks, we temperatures below 0F. That is pretty exceptional here and it led to lots of ice (and only a tiny bit of snow). Dide and Ties have enjoyed it a lot. The weather was crisp and mostly sunny, sometimes bitterly cold on the bike, but still better than the rain we so often had in December. Today it will start thawing and the grey weather is forecasted to return. Blaahh.

Happy new year!

Very best wishes to all of you. I have to apologize for being so late with a blog update, but as you will see, we have a good excuse. Our construction work went on until X-mas day, but it is completed now and we are very happy with that. Here you see the floor heating tubes: 

Then they went on with the floor and plastering walls and ceiling. The painting we did ourselves.

And here the floor is ready and the new kitchen installed.

Bathroom tiling in progress (thanks to Saskia's father)

And now we are done! End result in pictures further down.

In the mean time we had a life as well, sort of. Our social life was on a complete and total hold, but at least we tried doing things with the kids every now and then. I know, it was not enough, they have played more on the Wii and iPad than we like, but it was all for a good cause (and they liked it most of the time). In the pictures below, Dide and Ties are playing basketball ate the American School of The Hague, 8 afternoon sessions in the winter and after the first time they seem to enjoy it.

Even during the construction work we had family over every now and then, They have been a great help. Babies nephews were not of any help, but it was good to see them in between anyway :)

We also went bowling, hiking and eating pancakes with old friends, lots of fun as you can see.

My company is now also joining the local field hockey company competition (I am actually the organizer for my company). We play games on Monday night with colleagues, which is great to get to know colleagues (or get to know them better), but also for the sportive activity. We are not the best team in the league (understatement), but we must be the team that has most fun. Below I am in action, I think I am still better than this than in indoor soccer in Skokie.

And before I forget: In October Ties passed his first swimming exam. Now at least he cannot say anymore that it is our fault that he doesn't have it yet because " we wanted to live in the US". You have to know that in The Netherlands it is normal for children aged 5 to 6 to do their first swimming exam. We have so much water here, you have to. Ties is really proud on himself and so are we.

The Christmas started. At boxing day we had Radboud's family over, we were so glad it was not at Christmas day as we needed that day for last building activities and cleaning. But we managed and even had a reel tree. See how finished, clean and good it looks (The Wii is now upstairs again).

The idea was that everybody cooked together (in our awesome new kitchen). Dide stuffed the turkey. Did you notice how small Dutch turkeys are (we had 2)?

By the way, Saskia brother is making us a new table. On the picture below it doesn't look good yet, but we were told that progress is good and that the result will be great.

Dide and Ties had a Christmas dinner at school as well, Radboud was so happy to be assigned as a waiter. Good times.

Oh yeah, did I already mention that Dide is now following horse back riding lessons? She loves it. It helps us out as well because she doesn't need after school anymore because she can do it all by herself. Huge responsibility, so we are still a bit nervous for her.

Earlier this week, we had friends over to stay for the new year's festivities. We really have our house back, because we fitter 8 people overnight scattered throughout the house. Awesome that we can do that again! Below the kids are lighting some children's fireworks. That is another thing you need to know, here in The Netherlands many people light their own fireworks. It is legal on 31 December only. They thought is was somewhat scary but enjoyed most of it.

Playing games, all kids were in bed except for Ties. Playing games is too good to miss.........
Do you recognize the map on the board game? It is the map of the USA.Very nice game, it was new to us but we had plenty of fun. After champaign at 12 we played until after 3 AM.

And the next morning it was just a little hard to wake up again. Here are the kids (except Ties, of course) watching a movie at 10.30 AM or so. They just awoke.

 And now Dide and Ties are still enjoying a week of vacation. Saskia's mom was so nice to stay with us to watch the children as we both had to work. On Friday I will take a day off and do something nice with Dide and Ties. The weather is horrible, storms and lots of rain, but warmer than ever before in January. I guess the possibilities will be limited to indoor activities.

Again, I wish you all the best for 2012. Thanks for reading this far, let us know how you are! We have started planning our summer vacation in IL.

Almost done?

We are sick and tired of home reconstruction. Progress is good, it just all takes too long!

The outside and inside walls are all finished now and we have a ceiling again. This is also the week of the floor, today the isolation was put in (last picture of the series), tomorrow we will get our floor heating and on Thursday the floor itself will be put in. Next week is the week of the walls and the week thereafter we will have a kitchen again. Can you imagine what a luxury?

We miss you all, we miss Deerfield and the US. We have started to make some first summer vacation plans for next year, hope to see you than!

Halloween

Another weekend means more work in the house for us. Except for the regular cleaning of all the mess the constructors leave behind, we have been building a new wall. In the mean time Saskia has been preparing for our tonight's halloween party.

But first: our new front door. Finally we own a door which properly closes, the hallway will stay warm this the winter!

This is our new wall, we have now created a real garderobe and a larger bathroom.

This is the first part of the stone wall. On the picture it is not clear, but around the corner the work is completed.

Than the good stuff of the weekend. We had a halloween party with baseball friends in Wassenaar. Dide was dressed as an octopus (Saskia and grandma Dorien made the suit) and Ties went in his skeleto suit again. Big fun in trick or treating and it was surprising how many kids went out on the streets and how many people had their house dressed up as well.

Oh yeah, this it was also mandatory for parents to come dressed up. We did not really change a lot, though. Saskia was a witch and I went as a mad scientist (no pictures from me).

This is one of the treats Saskia brought, great idea from a friend here.

After sweets and cakes the kids played outside for hours, soccer it was. Good that our weekend is an hour longer. We change to winter time tonight, I believe 2 weeks earlier than in the US. Only 6 hours of time difference! Anybody interested in Skyping?

Apologies

It has been a while since I posted pictures of our construction work. A lot has happened in the mean time and we are making good progress. Yes, we, together with the constructor.

But we are also still having fun. The last 3 weeks we have been to The Netherlands's biggest leisure park ("Efteling"), the smallest city (where many famous Dutch buildings are in miniature format) and a children's musical. And before I forget, Dide had her first horse back riding lesson today, she was totally excited!

And this is how we are having dinner now with the ground floor under construction .......... in the bedroom