Ties' birthday

On May 11, Ties turned 8! Congratulations to all Deerfield friends who celebrate birthdays on that day as well! As we were out of the country last year, we decided to celebrate this well. On the actual birthday Ties got a few presents (more Magic Tree House books), but the real party was the Saturday following the Wednesday's birthday.

Here is Ties ready to open some presents, woke up 2 minutes before.

Saskia playing with one of the new  toys. Baseball practice!

 And the great cake Saskia made on Ties' request

Big party, mostly family this Saturday. We did an afternoon and meal, very laid back (especially for the guests). It was another "get your own drink from the fridge or you will be thirsty" party.

They love each other -  as always - ahum.

Sunday was another family party, Saskia's nephews and nieces came to our house for lunch. Good to see everybody again, some newborns (and not so new borns as well) joined the club.

And with a subgroup we went to the beaxch afterwards. Lots of wind, so perfect for flying the kites.

And after another week of working it is weekend again and there was more baseball, we seem to get used to that now. The weather was again great, awesome and fantastic. We seem to be making many, many baseball pictures, sorry if you get bored from them........

And another birthday, this time not in our house, but in Haarlem with Saskia's brother. Playing games with grandma.

While Dide was lightning the BBQ.

And although it is still light here, it is 9 pm and the kids watched a movie.

While their parents had another drink in the garden. Good times, having older kids definitely has advantages.

Back home, Dide skyped with her friend Ben, she loved doing that. Dide and Ties still miss Deerfield a lot and are talking about it all the time. They are happy here, too, but seem to compare many things. Sometimes the result is in favor of The Netherlands, sometimes the US wins.

Cheers, see you at our next short update.

Spring or summer?

In the last update (sorry, it has been a while!) I already mentioned the great spring weather we were having. The awesome weather stayed with us until this very moment. We had the most dry and warmest March and April ever since it is recorded, approximately 300 years. And also May started off very promising. We are fully enjoying all the good things, are seeing lots of friends and are having almost as many BBQs as in the US. We are having a good time, although we still miss Deerfield. Dide and Ties did have 2 weeks of vacation with a week of school in between. Strange schedule, but ample time for nice things. They are still working hard and are doing really good in school in catching up with their Dutch writing and reading.

Below are some pictures from last month, to keep you all updated.

Dide and Ties with long-time friends in a natural playground. This is sort of a boat on a rope, lots of fun......

But a bit dangerous as well. It was amazing how fast this went away though.

This is Dide eating ice cream, not in a rain storm, but behind the drops of a water toy on the field across the street from our house.

And in the evening warm up in front of the camp fire. Looking backward this was not such a great idea, as everything was so dry. But no worries, everything went well, no accidents.

This is why a lot of tourists visit The Netherlands in early spring. And we just pass it by train without thinking about it. Still beautiful.

Speaking about BBQ........

 And another great day of summary weather, the yard next to our house.

While Saskia is reading books to our little niece Lieve.

Dide and Ties love playing with the water balloons. We are so happy that Dide can now make the knots herself, that saves us lots of time and painfull fingers.

Eating with Radboud's brother and family, we just had a few drops of rain last Sunday, so we went inside. It turned out not to be necessary after all.

Saskia decided to make an awesome tree for Ties' birthday treats. In The Netherlands it is common to bring something to school for your birthday. Ties will turn 8 this Wednesday and he decided that the theme should be "Magic Tree House". So that is what Saskia is building here.

Radboud has been in Philly in the last week. No chances to come the Deerfield, unfortunately. Next time. But a suitcase full of Target products came back home. Saskia made a 2-page shopping list.

Last week we also heard that our building permit will not be given. Due to some unwritten and strange rules that the village of Voorschoten cane up with they do not allow to built according to our original plans. We have been sad and angry, but have switched gears now and decided to do a smaller extension which can be built without a permit. We will start as soon as feasible, probably in August.

That was it for now. A lot of things are happening and due to our lazy update schedule for the blog we cannot provide them all. The only thing we forgot to mention is Saskia's ongoing problem with her teeth.She has already had 2 dentists appointments and 1 emergency visit after being back. It is all being repaired (root canal) and not too painful, but it is a pain. We love hearing from all of you in the US. Thanks in particular for the tulip flowers from Country Lane 1102. We wish we could see it in real.

Let's keep in touch! Our current plans are to come for a visit in summer 2012.

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.