Amelie turned 5!

 

Amelie and Toby's birthdays are so close together!  We celebrated Amelie's the very next weekend. The kiddos had no school on Friday, so Rob took the day off and we went to Miramar Friday morning as Amelie's requested birthday activity. We love the pools, small kid friendly water slides, and even getting a Jaegerschnitzel for lunch. There was much discussion about whether this would be our last visit to Miramar... we'll see, we might get there once more this winter.

 

 

 We had an early dinner of cheese fondue (per Amelie's request) while I baked a birthday cake, but we had to hurry a bit as Friday night she had her first soccer game ever.  She did get a few good kicks in, but she also spent a fair amount of time twirling and a LOT of time talking and socializing.  She loves everything about soccer.

  

 

When we got home, the kiddos got into their jammies and I quickly frosted the cake and decorated with mini Shimmer and Shine toys. We had planned to get an ice cream cake due to our busy day, but the Commissary was all out! Amelie was happy with her cake and other little gifts though and said it was a super fun day, so that is what counts.

 

Amelie at five is a firecracker!

She loves preschool and making friends. She loves to "practice the piano" every day and we actually love to listen to her do it. I love that Amelie is curious and asks lots of good questions.  She wants to "be big" and help, and sometimes gets frustrated with being the youngest child in the family.  But other times she likes to remind me that she is my baby and wants to curl up and cuddle.  I love reading books with her, and it is amazing how much she has matured and mellowed out a little bit this past year.  We love you Lulu!

Amelie's Birthday Interview

What makes you happy? "Cuddling, treats, and getting to buy gum, and toys, and all that girlie stuff."
What is your favorite toy? "Dawn (a Little People toy) and Seahorse (a light/music toy she sleeps with.)"
What is your favorite animal? Horses and Unicorns
What is your favorite fruit? Raspberries
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? "A waffle with syrup on it.  Lots of syrup."
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Macaroni and cheese
What is your favorite dessert? "Just frosting!"  (oh boy)
What is your favorite thing to do? "Cuddle, and hug, and smooch, and play tag sometimes."
What is your favorite movie? Shimmer and Shine and My Little Ponies
What are you really good at? "Playing on the trampoline and playing the piano." 
What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Stars
What do you and your mom do together? "Cuddle, sometimes watch a movie."

What do you and your dad do together? "Play games on his phone, and cuddle, and bike rides."
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? "Paris or France."
What do you think your parents are too strict about? "Make bedtime one minute later."
Who is your best friend? "Caroline and Olivia, but they moved. Autumn, Maybe, and Booklyn are some of my new friends."
What are some of your favorite things to say?  "Mom!"
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go to the beach.
What is your favorite book? The Monster at the End of the Book
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A musician. I want to play instruments all over the world."

Double Digits: Toby turned 10!

When I asked Toby how he felt about turning ten he said, "Double digits! That's what everyone tells me."And it's true, there is something about reaching a whole decade that feels momentous.  That said, we celebrated Toby's birthday this year in a low key way, which seems to be his preference.

 

In the morning we attended his first volleyball game of the season, and were joined by his friend Finnian to cheer him on.  Toby is the only boy on the team, and I thought that might bother him, but he loves playing volleyball SO MUCH that I think the rest of the team could be made up of monkeys and he wouldn't care.  This photo is post-serve. At this age level a lot of kids still have trouble getting it over the net, but Toby aced all of his serves.  When a server hits five in a row, they rotate to give everyone a chance. He was 5 for 5.

 

His team won the first two sets (best two out of three) and that was it for his volleyball morning. I'm glad he is loving this sport, it is fun to watch him play.

 

 

After volleyball we went home and took Finnian along to play for the day. We had red beans and rice for lunch, which was Toby's requested birthday meal, and then birthday cake which was a lemon cake, with lemon curd filling, and vanilla buttercream frosting.  It was a new one for me, but Toby loves lemon, and it was super yummy.

 

After dinner and cake, Toby opened his gifts and the kiddos played until it was time for us to go to Charlotte's evening volleyball match. We had tossed around a bunch of ideas for what to do for Toby's birthday, but this was his choice: a playdate at home with a good friend. Toby continues to amaze us with his mathematical mind, his kindness and empathy, and his desire to be and do good. He may be nearly as tall as me, but our Little Man still loves to cuddle up and talk about his day and his ideas, and I never get tired of hearing about them.  We love you, Tobs!

Toby's Birthday Interview

What makes you happy? "I don't really know. A lot of stuff I guess."
What is your favorite toy? Legos and paper (to explain, Toby does origami, but he also just makes his own amazing creations out of paper too.)
What is your favorite animal? Owl
What is your favorite fruit? Pomegranate
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? French Toast
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Tacos
What is your favorite dessert? Lemon Bars
What is your favorite thing to do? Play video games and play with paper
What is your favorite movie? "Movies are okay.  I like movies, but I can't really point out one specific movie that is my favorite."
What are you really good at? "Some people say I'm funny. I like to draw mazes." 
What is your favorite song? Coldplay- Adventure of a Lifetime
What do you and your mom do together? Cuddle a lot

What do you and your dad do together? Play board games
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? "I'd stay in Germany."
What do you think your parents are too strict about? "Bedtime is a little too early."
Who is your best friend? Porter, and Jack, and Jack, and Finnian
What are some of your favorite things to say?  "I don't really have a favorite thing to say. I think I have a bit of a large vocabulary."
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go to the beach.
What is your favorite book? Anything by Rick Riordan
What do you want to be when you grow up? An architect.

Wonderful Waffle Weekend: Holland

 

Holland is a region of The Netherlands.  We drove there on Monday morning to visit Kinderdijk.  I wanted to get there early, as I had read that the sight can get crowded by midday, and we had other plans for the afternoon.  It was a gray morning, but was great to pull right in, easily park, and be on our way to visit the windmills. I was shocked to learn that these windmills are still mostly inhabited!  People live out here!  Some are only able to reach their homes by boat or bike.

 

Kinderdijk means children's dike and the story goes that during the flood of 1421 the area was washed out.  When the storm had subsided, a villager went to the dike to see what could be salvaged. In the distance he saw a wooden cradle floating on the water. As it came nearer, he saw it move, and upon closer investigation, a cat was found. The cat was seen in the cradle trying to keep it in balance by jumping back and forth so that no water could get into it. As the cradle eventually came close enough to the dike for a bystander to pick up the cradle, he saw that a baby was quietly sleeping inside it, nice and dry. The cat had kept the cradle balanced and afloat.

 

Everyone had to try on the giant wooden shoes and didn't believe me that people actually wore wooden shoes.

 

Called "Klompen," wooden shoes or clogs kept the Dutch feet drier than leather shoes which quickly became soggy in the wet climate.

 

Of course these weren't the right fit.

 

But Toby tried to walk around in them anyway.  We next visited the Nederwaard windmill behind Toby in this photo.   The Hoek family used to live here with their 13 children!  It is now set up as a museum to show visitors how this large family lived here around 1900.

 

The kids loved that Rob was tall enough to reach out and touch the spinning blade as it went by from outside the safety barrier.  I was less thrilled when we learned that the mother of the Hoek family was killed by these when she rushed to rescue one of her children, leaving her husband to rear the large family alone.

 

The stairs inside are much more like ladders, the ceilings are low, the gear work exposed, and the beds teeny tiny.  The younger children mostly slept on the floor, and though there were a few toys (a doll, dominoes, a boat) it is clear to see that the children would have spent most of their time playing outside in all sorts of weather.

 

It was hard for me to imagine feeding a family in this kitchen, especially with no electricity.

 

And this is the living room/dining room!  It is very lovely for two people, maybe three, but thirteen?!?

 

Jake absolutely loved seeing the gears inside and watching the windmill work. I think this would be a unique but dangerous and difficult way to live.

 

The kids all loved getting close to the water and looking for fish.  We also talked about being able to ice skate on the canals in Winter and how fun that must have been.

 

Next, we walked back to the gift shop to buy some trinkets and some stroopwaffels for a mid-morning snack.

 

And then boarded a boat to tour the canals from the water and see all of the 19 windmills.

 

Our last stop at Kinderdijk was the tiny museum about how windmills (and mills in general) work and then we were ready to head out.

 

Rob and I agreed that this was a neat place, but we would never want to live here.  It is so incredibly flat and wet.  Part of what I love about travel is the feelings of gratitude I come home with for the time and place that I do live in.

 

Our next stop for the day was near the town of Gouda.  I was super excited about this.  I found a family run cheese farm called Kaasboerderij Jongehoeve that offers tours, and we were going to see how Gouda cheese is made!  I made many cheesy puns.  We arrived and the kids immediately ran over to this sunken trampoline and tree swing to play.  I warned them, clearly, to stay away from the edge of the canal.

 

Two minutes later, Jake is climbing out of the canal completely soaking wet!

The canal was covered in this green algae, and he didn't even realize it was water.  He thought it was a "playground surface" and tried to run across it.  He was clearly fine, though very upset, and Rob and I both busted out laughing.  We stripped him down right there and wrung as much water out of his clothes as we could since we had nothing else for him to wear, and I was not going to miss the cheese farm tour! We left his shirt off, and just had him wear his jacket (which was dry) zipped up for the rest of the day.  He was not happy about the wet clothes, but did see the humor in his falling in the water at least.  Poor Bear, he likes to learn things the hard way sometimes.

 

The other kids were unfazed by all the commotion and visited with the friendliest farm cat ever.

 

Finally, it was time for our tour!  The cheese shop smelled great!

 

Our tour guide was the house Oma. She and her husband had been living and farming here for their entire 45 year marriage and had recently handed the reins to their son.  Now, she says, they just volunteer. We watched a short video on an ancient TV, and then she walked us through each step of the process.  Here she is showing the kids how they apply wax, turning the cheese each time to do the other side. They make only Gouda cheese here, but many varieties- young, old, and with herbs and spices.

 

The cows here were the largest I have ever seen in my life! And I'm not a total stranger to cows, so I was really surprised by their size.

 

Brand new Gouda, just starting to dry! Oh we seriously love cheese in this family.

 

Back in the shop, at the end of our tour, we sampled ALL of the types of Gouda.  Another shopper came in and couldn't believe how excited our kids were about cheese. Then we bought about two kilos, and some mustard, to take home.  Our very next stop though was a store in tow so we could buy some bread rolls and make cheese sandwiches for a late lunch.  The cheese was so good-ah.

 

Our final stop for the day was to drive through Rotterdam to see the Cube Houses there.  Designed in 1979, these houses are supposed to optimize living space, but I just don't see how that works.  They are novel though, and while the trend clearly hasn't caught on on a larger scale in the past 40 years, they were neat to see in person as a very short detour on our route back to Antwerp.

 

Arriving back in Antwerp earlier than expected, we thought we might have time to visit Middelheim Park.  There is an open air sculpture museum here that was on my maybe list. There are hundreds of sculptures here, but sadly, they are closed on Mondays.  Bummer.  We walked around other areas of the park though and just enjoyed the quiet, gray day.  That might not sound fun to you, but for introverted Rob and I, this was a perfect quiet end to the day.

 

We stumbled across an awesome playground in front of a posh restaurant and let the kids play for a while.  We considered having dinner  here, but you might remember, we had a kid who smelled like a canal.

 

So after some playground fun we headed back to our hotel.  While I cycled kids through the shower and into jammies, Rob went out in search of dinner.  He came back with burgers from 5 Guys which we enjoyed while watching cartoons and discussing our quick weekend in Belgium and The Netherlands.  It was a fun trip!  We had been feeling lately like our "travel mojo" was missing and this trip feels like it got us back on track.  We're looking forward to our next adventure.

Wonderful Waffle Weekend: Antwerp

 

Throughout this weekend we stayed at a budget IBIS hotel near the train station in Antwerp.  Two triple rooms here were more affordable than any other option I found, including free breakfast with hot chocolate, and everywhere we wanted to visit was within an hour's drive.

 

We headed into Antwerp pretty early on foot and most of us enjoyed looking at the old and new architecture, store fronts, and how many McDonalds we passed (four in a fifteen minute walk).  Others of us preferred sightseeing inside a novel. 

 

The name Antwerp comes from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the river. He extracted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. Eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Ant = hand, werpen = thower.  Let's give Antwerp a hand. 

 

There were other stories to learn in Antwerp.  This sculpture in front of the church is based on the book A Dog of Flanders by Marie Louise de la Ramée written in 1872 and set in Antwerp. In the book a boy named Nello becomes an orphan at the age of two when his mother dies. His grandfather, who lives in a small village near the city of Antwerp, takes him in.  One day, Nello finds a dog who was almost beaten to death, and names him Patrasche. The dog recovers, and from then on, Nello and Patrasche are inseparable. Eventually in the story his grandfather dies and his life becomes even more desperate. Having no place to stay, Nello wishes to go to the cathedral of Antwerp (to see Rubens' The Elevation of the Cross and The Descent of the Cross), but the exhibition held inside the building is only for paying customers and he's out of money. On the night of Christmas Eve, he and Patrasche go to Antwerp and, by chance, find the door to the church open. The next morning, the boy and his dog are found frozen to death in front of the triptych. Nothing like crying in a public square, I tell ya.  (And yes, Charlotte was still reading her book.)

We also wanted to see the Rubens artwork inside the church, but it was closed to visitors and only open for mass, it being Sunday.  We stepped inside and found that the attached gift shop was open and that from there we could look through and view the Rubens paintings just fine.  We lit a candle on our way out- for all the little Nellos.

 

The Grote Markt of Antwerp was set up for a Sunday market and we strolled the square.

 

In the center is this fountain with a depiction of  Silvius Brabo throwing the giant's hand.

 

 

We stopped for a mid-morning snack of heart shaped waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, but of course I didn't think to take a picture of those.

 

And then we strolled to the River Scheldt.  Some historians say the name Antwerp derives from "anda" (at) and "werpum" (wharf). But is that as much fun as throwing a giant's hand? Not so much.

 

We were really just in the mood for low-key city strolling, so that is what we did.

 

And we made a stop at a little playground. 

 

Then we saw this busker with a piano!  His name was Toby Jacobs!  How great is that?? So we bought a CD of piano music by Toby Jacobs as our Belgium souvenir.

 

We did visit one museum in Antwerp, which was the Rubens house. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was the most famous Baroque Flemish artist and his former Antwerp home and studio are now a museum housing his and a few peers' work. The house itself is a neat place to explore- I love seeing how people once lived- but the artwork was really impressive.

 

After walking through the house/museum, we went to the garden out back and enjoyed the beautiful flowers. Rubens was very successful during his lifetime, and he clearly liked to live comfortably.

 

On our way back toward the hotel, we stopped by the square in front of the train station where there was a little bit of a festival set up.  The kids desperately wanted to walk through The Beast.  I tried to talk them out of it saying it looked like a haunted house set up where people would jump out at them, but only the youngest was deterred. When the three big kids came out, they were not happy.  Apparently a "scary guy" had jumped out at them inside. Toby bravely asked him which way was out, to which he responded, "There is no way out." Despite that, they did find their way out and will be unlikely to want to do something like that again any time soon.

 

The front of the train station is really quite pretty.

 

We got talked into paying for one more ride, and all of the kids did this trampoline bungee thing.  This is Amelie.

 

Toby didn't love the heights once he got up there.  You can see The Beast in the background.

 

Jakey was the giggliest bouncer.

 

When the worker thought Charlotte wasn't bouncing high enough, he tugged on her long spider legs so that she would bounce on her bum and then way up high again.  She hated that.  So then he gave the boys the same treatment, sending them all a bit higher than they were comfortable with.  Still, at the end of the day, Jake and Amelie said this was the best part of the day.

 

We looked for some dinner nearby and found this very crowded Lebanese restaurant.  I generally think crowded is a good sign for a restaurant.  From a distance, the food smelled and looked great so we waited for a table.  Up close the food did not look great and Rob and I prayed no one would get food poisoning.  Some travel meals are like that. Thankfully, no one got sick.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the night.  We had walked more than 8 miles on our urban hike through Amsterdam and the kiddos were seriously worn out.  We didn't expect much from this little city, but it ended up charming us.