Another weekend - spring comin'

I hope everybody has survived tax day again. Here, after another day of baseball at a local club, the weather was not so nice as expected. But after a couple of raindrops we decided to go ahead with our planned bonfire anyway. It was awesome, big flames, and got rid of tons of trash. We had some good friends over and missed BBQing in Deerfield. But we did have marshmallows (without the cookies and Hershey's chocolate).

Ties' first ever official hit in a baseball game

Ties in the newspaper

As mentioned in an earlier post, Ties organized a collection for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. He made it to the local newspaper and as you can imagine, we are proud of him.

The translated text:
Ties van trigt (7 years) makes an effort for Japan

Japan was heavily struck. The entire world is with them. Ties van Trigt (7) took the initiative to collect empty bottle deposit receipts. The money was transferred to the account of the Red Cross. With his entire class, 28 students of group 4 from public elementary school "De Vos", Ties came to Hoogvliet (supermarket). Principal Ronald van Sorge and teacher Helene Leon accompanied the children. Ties: "I had seen the children's news and thought it was terrible what happened in Japan, so I wanted to do something." He discussed with his parents and the next day at school. Ties came up with the idea to collect the bottle deposit receipts.
At school, the teachers discussed Ties'  initiative and it was decided that all groups would participate. Teacher Helene: "They are still young children and we did not want them to go out on the streets, they were only allowed to ask parents and grandparents." In the school hallway a collection box was placed with the text "put you receipt in the box", accompanied by a Japanese flag.

Under the picture: "At Hoogvliet (i.e. Jewel Osco) Ties brings in bottle deposit receipts collected in a week: 130 Euro's (i.e. $200)"

Ties' school concert

(for some reason the "play" button is not always were you would expect it but somewhat higher or lower)

This was really the week of Ties: together with his class he went to a local supermarket to hand over a whole bunch of bottle deposit receipts as a donation for the disaster in Japan. He made it to the local newspaper and is really proud.

Link here.

€130 Voor Japan

Algemeen nieuws

vrijdag, 01 april 2011 11:29

Voorschoten - Het was een idee van Ties uit groep 4T van OBS De Vos. Hij wilde Japan helpen na de grote aardbeving en de tsunami. En dus deed Ties een oproep: verzamel alle statiegeldbonnen in. En gisteren was het zover: de bonnen werden bij Hoogvliet ingeleverd. Bij elkaar voor maar liefst €130,-. Een mooi bedrag.

De kinderen kregen van de Hoogvliet iets te drinken en te eten en gingen daarna met het opgehaalde geld weer naar school. 

Vandaag wordt het geld op de rekening van het Rode Kruis gestort.

What happened this month

Just a short overview of some of our activities over the last few weeks.

Dide and Ties like going to school here as much as in Deerfield. Dide had a sports tournament with her class. Just do not ask about the game results, the main thing is they had fun. BTW, the school is named "De Vos", meaning the fox, which is the reason that they have the fox feet on their shirts.

Last weekend we went to see Radboud's parents, while Saskia was away with friends. The weather had been awesome all week, but it was grey on Saturday. Dide brought her own camera and made pictures from everything she saw. First of all, walking from the train station, we saw giant ducks.

Than we went to see the local windmill. Yes, it is true, you will find these things in The Netherlands. Most of them were once built to pump out the water from the polders to keep our feet dry, but this one is to grind wheat into flower.

And you can actually climb in there over tiny ladders and see the inside mechanism of the mill. Dide made the movie below.

And Dide's last picture for the day was of the little lambs, a true sign that spring is here.

Than on Sunday we went to the sand dunes with friends. And yes, that is also true, we have dunes to protect us from the sea. As you may know we live below see level, so the dunes are very important. But also pretty and fun for the kids.

Steep!

And than to the sea itself. It was pretty cool, but Ties and Dide did not mind. I was smart enough to bring dry pants.

At home they took a good shower, sand everywhere of course. I love the beach.

That was the small update. Next time I will try to provide a bit more text as well.

Spring is coming!

But first Dide celebrated her 9th birthday party. She chose to go skiing with her friends. You may know that we are not particularly famous for our mountains and feet of snow, so they invented indoor skiing. And that is what we did.

They had tons of fun and it was over way too soon. We should do this again.
And than, just like in the US, a party meal with present. Unlike in the US, presents are unwrapped at the spot.

That was a few weeks ago. This week, Dide and Ties had their first nephew. Radboud's brother and his wife had a baby boy named Mats. Today we went to the hospital to admire him for the very first time. But than it turned out to be open day in the hospital. Dide and Ties did do a real blood draw from a fake arm.

Don't be shocked, this time the cast for Ties (and Dide) is not real.

And finally, there is Mats .....

And the day had only just begun. Today was, for the first time, outdoor baseball practice. You see, we did not forget about the US and its habits.

At home everbody was tired. And do you recognize Lieve? She is a big sister now, tomorrow her baby brother and mom will be home.

Weekend again ................ old friends

This week, Dide and Ties had a school vacation. In The Netherland, schools usually have 5 vacations a year, typically 1 week in October, February and May, 2 weeks areound X-mas and a summer vacation of 6 weeks. As we do not have so many federal vacations days as in the US, the total number of school days is probably similar.

This February vacation was used for visiting family and friends: Saskia went to her mother, grandmother and old friends living in the east of The Netherlands during the week. The children were doing some homework and had a few playdates. On Friday, Radboud took a workday off and we all went to the far North of Holland: Groningen. This is were we had lived for 10 years until 2005, Dide and Ties were born here. We still have many friends up there and, moreover, we still go to the dentist in Groningen. We always use the dentist visit as an excuse for seeing old friends. This time it was no different, before the Friday afternoon dentist we already visited some places where we have old memories and we were surprised about the changes that took place during our US stay.

The weather was very Dutch: drizzling rain and fog, boring and grey.

Friday night we stayed at friends in a small village around Groningen. Ties is collecting soccer cards again and he did some good business this weekend.

Lots of kids everywhere and tons of food.

And the typical landscape of the Northern Netherlands: as you see it is flat indeed. The cows stayed indoors today.

Playing on the streets is still safe here.

And Ties played a Dutch version of basketball, known as korfball here.

Sure, more soccer cards at our next visit, a birthday of a girl who's parents we met during Saskia's pregnancy of Dide.

And old colleagues from university. This was Sunday breakfast. It was still grey outside.

Dide and Ties growing up? Sometimes they like to go back to toddler toys........ (see Saskia? She was already cleaning up).

The weekend ended at home, quiet and preparing for the new work and school week. Speak to you later!

RSDT

What's up in Voorschoten?

Last Monday, February 14th, it was Dide's birthday. We celebrated with family on Friday, just after the costume party at Dide and Ties' school. As you will see, Ties was a White Sox player, and Dide a strawberry (kudos to Saskia for the design and sewing)

More kudos for Dide's birthday cake, also by Saskia®.

The best thing of being back in The Netherlands are little nieces, according to Dide.

(and the rest of the family, we would say)

And on Saturday we had our yearly meeting day with extended family, all Radboud's uncles and aunts with children and grandchildren. An expanding group. Dide is the oldest of the children, Ties the second and they were really playing the big kids today. They were great!

At the very end of the party, Dide and ties got tired too. OK, we allowed them a little time on the iPad / iPod.

In the car today we were speculating on our lives if we would have decided to stay in Deerfield. Strange idea, being back is not yet feeling "normal". Our stay overseas has really changed us. We miss you all.

RSDT