Catching Up On A Few Things

The smell of chili and cumin is wafting into the living room from the kitchen- Kip is cooking "tacos" (they need air-quotes, one of the things for my wish-list from Santa is a bunch of REAL taco seasoning packets from Texas). Megan and I just snacked on some "Mexican corn chips", basically taste like taco shells. Still, they're good- just... different.

That seems to be the way we are dealing with lots of things here- finding something to fill the need, and trying to ignore how it may be different.



With Ike fallout going on in Houston, it seems so rude to talk about how much fun we're having here, what with the air conditioning, internet access, houses with no flooding and all. But, we are having fun- let me recap the last week:

Autumn Harvest Festival/Heemstede Spelentuin
The local kid's petting farm had a fall harvest festival, and we went with Femke, Laura and Nina. The quick overview- pancakes are AWESOME:



Little kids climb like goats (even when wearing skirts):



Dutch festivals on farms are just so darned quaint.






After a tearful goodbye,


... we headed over to the Spelentuine (basically playground) right down the road. We pigged out on frites, the girls ran around like crazy while the grown-ups sat and talked, and we finished the visit with a round of decadent beverages.











Prince's Day
A Dutch holiday that boils down to wearing fancy hats. It is the day that the Queen delivers their "State of the Union" address, with new laws and goals for the next 365 days. This was a blip on our radar- we have no hats.



Sports Day
Field day! The kids ran around like insane monkeys all day long and came home totally exhausted! So did our neighbor, Shayna, poor thing- she was roped into volunteering for the event.



The kids each wore headbands they had made, and each class carried a special banner they had colored themselves.






The Coolest Dentist's Office EVAR
I swear I will ride back this week and take pictures- I didn't expect to need my camera when going for a dental appointment. The dentist's office seems to be the bottom floor of his house, which is right on the river- it is gorgeous!

Megan Speaking Dutch - The Movie(s)
If you haven't checked these out yet, you MUST.





I think she's progressing quite well, considering all that she's up against. It's just so darned cute the way all these kids speak Dutch. Cute and TOTALLY incomprehensible, but still cute.

More to come....