Spring Visitors...

Dinner in Leidschendam along the Vliet

Dipping Toes in the North Sea

For the last few years, Debby, my scrapbooking buddy from Cary, has hoped to visit. When her husband Tim turned 50, it was finally time for her to bring him to Europe for the first time. Ironically, they arrived on the same day as Nancy and Dan, good friends from San Diego, arrived for a conference. I had a busy morning meeting or I should say missing both of their flights. Debby and Tim stayed with us while Nancy and Dan stayed in a houseboat in Amsterdam.

A Day at the Amusement Park...

We all cycled to Drievliet, a small amusement park in Voorburg. For some of the girls, it was their first time on real thrill rides, which Jimmy captured on his GoPro; check out the video that Veronica put together.

I was so impressed how sweet the girls were to each other; they took turns riding with each other and being the solo rider so that no one felt left out.

Happy 12th Birthday Ashlynn!

In the past, we’ve usually hosted a family party for Ashlynn several weeks after her actual birthday. This year her birthday fell on the day before a school holiday, so she requested to have a slumber party on her birthday. Somehow her guest list kept growing and we ended up having six girls over for make-your-own pizza night.

Our house is rather small, but the girls didn’t seem to mind squashing onto our living room floor.

Despite staying up late, the girls got up in time for pancakes before spending the holiday at a local amusement park.

An Amazing Birthday Cake...

Adelina offered to help decorate Ashlynn’s birthday cake. First, Ashlynn had to decide upon a theme, pick a design and bake the cakes. She chose the Mockingjay from The Hunger Games books. She printed out a template that Adelina used to cut out the fondant.

It was a lot of work, but clearly turned out wonderful and looked very professional.

Ashlynn was very excited about showing her friends her cake. They were definitely impressed!

Another Sunday, Another Race...

Veronica isn’t really into racing, but said she’d do at least one 5K per year (joggling the CPC didn’t count). She chose to do the Royal Ten which runs mostly through the woods of the Haagse Bos. Jimmy had planned on running the 10K, but decided to run with Veronica instead since he was still recovering from a cold.

Ashlynn ran with Andrew for much of the race, but he overtook her at the end. She beat last year’s time by 19 seconds to come in 6th women with a time of 22:02 (7:06/mile pace).

Ashlynn was happy to meet up with Lauren.

AWC Hearts & Minds Gala 2012...

Much like last year, the AWC hosted a gala to benefit local autism efforts. Despite the downturned economy, the event raised over €40,000. We started the evening at Terri and Chris’ for cocktails.

Unlike last year, Jimmy wasn’t the official photographer. We didn’t end up with any group shots, but at least he could enjoy himself. 

The dancing started a bit earlier this year. We tried swinging, but as usual I dropped Jimmy’s hands when he swung me around.

Queen’s Day in Leidschendam...

In honor of the Queen’s birthday, the Netherlands turns orange. In our house, our daughters’ hair turned orange. It rarely rains on the Queen’s special day and the weather was perfect. We went into downtown Leidschendam to visit the free markets. We were surprised to see entire streets transformed into a giant yard sale.

After shopping and stopping for a cold drink, Jimmy spotted a family gathered around a small boat. He stopped to ask them if they could give us a ride across the Vliet for a few euros. Not exactly sure what made us think having our precious children crawl into a small boat driven by a 12-year-old was a good idea.

Luckily, not only did they survive, but we had a ride as well and made it safely to the shore.

Spying on the Neighbors...

Well, Huis ten Bosch (the royal palace) isn’t exactly around the corner from our house. However, it is in the part of the woods of The Hague that I cycle through regularly. On a day that I just happened to have my camera with me, there was a helicopter circling over the woods that eventually came in for a landing in front of the palace. One of the ladies that gathered next to the fence said that it was Prince Willem-Alexander’s birthday and we hoped to spot the birthday boy, but no such luck.

Cycling the Local Fields...

I had high hopes to lead a group of ladies on a cycle ride from The Hague to the tulip fields in Lisse, which is approximately 25 miles (40K). It was threatening rain that morning, but two ladies were willing to take a chance with me.

I made a small detour through Wassenaar to see some fields that I’d happened upon the week before. The colors were vibrant and varied.

Unfortunately, the rains did set in and showed no sign of letting up. We detoured again and went towards Wassenaar Beach to have lunch. By the time lunch was over, it had cleared up but we decided it was too late to continue our original route. We took the dune route back to The Hague. We still managed to cycle 22 miles (35K), saw some beautiful flowers and had a nice lunch, so it was a good ride.

Visiting a Tulip Grower...

I went along on an outing planned by the PTA to a local tulip growing business. This family business in Wassesnaar was started in 1920; that year they sold 10,000 tulip bulbs. Now they concentrate on selling cut tulips, which grow in greenhouses. Amazingly, they sold 800,000 tulips between October and April.

These machines cut the ends off the tulips and tie them into bunches. It’s funny that the tulips we buy in the florists are grown in greenhouses and all those lovely tulip fields we see are actually grown strictly for the bulbs.

Big Prizewinners...

How exciting that Ashlynn won her first cash prize:  € 75! As David turned 16 on the date of the last race, he was included in the 16- to 19-year-old men. Despite being the youngest in the age group, he came in 3rd and won € 50.

Our Big Winner...

Still just 11-years-old, our speedy girl came in 2nd place among girls 15 and under in the race series. It was very exciting seeing her called up to the stage. As you can see, she’s clearly younger than the other winners. No telling how fast she’ll be when she’s 15.

Don’t Forget the Dads...

John and Jimmy also ran. Jimmy had just recovered from an extended cough. In an effort to take it easy, he wore street clothes instead of running clothes. He looked pretty silly, but actually felt great after the run.

At the end of the race, the runners got to choose a flowering plant.

Flying Across the Finish Line...

Sally and John were nice enough to take Ashlynn along with David and Andrew to a series of races that started back in November. For this last race, they brought two cars so that Jimmy, Veronica and I didn’t miss it (it was complicated to get to by public transport and too far to cycle). I always love it when I manage to capture a photo of a runner with both feet up in the air. It was quite windy, but Ashlynn still managed to finish in 23:49, coming in 3rd girl 15 and under and 16th woman overall.

David’s 16th Birthday Cake...

Ashlynn made David a cake for his 16th birthday, which fell on the same day as the last race of the circuit they were running.

The cake wouldn’t cooperate when coming out of the pan and had several strange indents. With some clever decorating, the cake looked like the finish line of a cross country race.

The little runner for the top reminded Jimmy and me of Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live.

Ashlynn presented David the cake after the race.

Flower Parade 2012...

The girls opted out when Jimmy and I headed to Voorhout to watch this year’s Bloemencorso, the big flower parade held each year near the bulb fields. This year’s theme was Communication. Here are two of my favorites floats. The floats were as colorful as in previous years, but the theme didn’t lend itself to interesting of floats.

We always enjoy watching the little kids go by before the floats come through. There were bikes, strollers and wagons decorated with cell phones, satellites and mail. There were also several bikes ridden by Twitter birds. I liked the newspaper costumes of these kids.

Forbidden Statues...

A few days later, I went back to Amsterdam with the AWC for a special tour of the Old Jewish Quarter with Batya (whom I went to Israel with). As we walked towards the Portuguese Synagogue, we stopped to see two statues that Batya said were forbidden because the artists didn’t have proper permits. Presumably, Music Rises Up was an inside job since it’s within City Hall.

This one was just outside the door of the Oude Kerk (the old church), which is located within the Red Light District. Seeing where Marijke, who was born to a Jewish mother in May 1945 just after the liberation from WWII, grew up was an extra bonus of the tour.