No More Braces!

Veronica got her braces in March 2011. Less than two years later, in December 2012, her teeth were repositioned to fill the gaps left from her two missing teeth and it was time for her braces to be removed. 

She wasn’t happy to learn that she’ll likely need to wear a retainer for the rest of her life to ensure her teeth don’t shift, but at least the process to make the mold for her retainer made her laugh.

Zombies Meet Cinderella?

After Cinderella left the ball, she took a shortcut through the woods where she ran into a group of zombies dancing to Thriller. Ashlynn looked great!

All the kids were awesome! This was my favorite scene in the show.

Our Ladies-in-Waiting...

The teen choir didn’t actually sing, but danced to Ring My Bell from the musical Hairspray.

Veronica was happy that the adult choir both sang and danced several songs. She especially liked singing Don’t Stop Me Now. She would have loved to have had a speaking part, but had to be content this year with a single line.

Our Little Zombie...

In addition to being a lady-in-waiting, Ashlynn was also a zombie. See how she was transformed from a beautiful princess into a scary zombie.

First came the scissors to tear up the lovely dress that we’d bought several years ago at a flea market that neither girl had ever worn. Then came dirt from the yard.

Between acts, the transformation was completed with the make-up and fake blood.

Backstage with the Kids...

After rehearsing every Sunday from September until the end of November, Ashlynn and Katy were ready to get on stage for the five real performances. As part of the teen choir, they started out as Ladies-in-Waiting.  

Veronica opted not to be a Teen Angel in the school’s production of Grease so she could be in the adult choir of Cinderella instead. Little did she know that she’d have her own fan club consisting of 10-year-old Kasper. 

Not surprisingly, Veronica often had a camera in her hand.

Behind the Scenes at the Panto...

Rather than having a part on stage in this year year’s Panto, Jimmy was supposed to do the lights. At the last minute, he was switched to doing sound instead, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

I went to the Thursday night dress rehearsal to play photographer; I managed to shoot 660 photos! It was especially fun to take photos before the show actually began because the Ugly Sisters were especially goofy.

Jenny directed hubby John’s non-traditional version of Cinderella: Shaken Not Stirred featuring James Bond. John was excellent as one of the Ugly Sisters.

Veronica’s Drama Performance...

Part of Veronica’s GCSE Drama grade is based on a performance devised by  looking at the above prompt, the painting Parsifal 1 by Anselm Kiefer in the Tate Modern in London. Apparently, the kids never looked up the history of the painting which is about the birth of the hero in Wagner’s opera based on the legend of the Holy Grail.

Instead, Veronica’s group performed a 18-minute piece called Negative about a girl suffering from schizophrenia. Veronica played Good, Izzy was Bad, Fergus was Dad and Ellie was the teacher. They each helped write portions of the script and kept journals of their work, which in total will count for 40% of their final grade for the two-year course.

I was happy to get to watch their dress rehearsal, but was shocked to watch Veronica commit suicide on stage. I’m clearly biased, but thought their performance was the best of the seven groups we saw that night. You can see it for yourself here.

Our 7th Anniversary in Holland...

Our anniversary in Holland fell on Thanksgiving this year. Veronica set up this family self-timer photo in front of our new house. Normally we go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, but the timing didn’t work out for us to go until the end of December; you probably saw my post a few weeks ago of our highs and lows from the past year.

Veronica put together this collage starting with the photo taken at the airport when we arrived in Holland in 2005.

It’s Party Time...

It is impossible not to love Jan and Bob!

The Marines definitely know how to party and so do Johanna and Jan!

The dance floor was a bit small, but that didn’t stop Jimmy from enjoying getting down with Leslie.

Marine Corps Ball 2012...

While we thought last year’s venue was more spectacular, that didn’t stop us from have a great time at this year’s Ball. I decided to be more daring this year by wearing a short dress with a tuxedo jacket and a hat.

As usual, we enjoyed sitting with Terri and Chris and us girls posed for our annual photo.

This year, we also enjoyed sitting with Jan and Bob. Jan surprised us with a bottle of champagne, strawberries and chocolate in our room.

A Shocking Book Sculpture...

On our way back to the hotel, we passed the Meermano Museum, which was featuring this unusual sculpture of books. We were convinced that the books must have been treated so that they wouldn’t be ruined in the rain, but they were in fact soaked and moldy. Even so, it made for an interesting sight.

Sinterklaas is Coming to Town...

Jimmy and I won a hotel stay at the silent auction at the AWC Gala in May, so we decided to redeem it the night of the Marine Corps Ball. The girls stayed with friends and we headed to Hilton The Hague in the afternoon. We arrived downtown in time to see the Sinterklaas Parade. Even after all these years, we still get a laugh out of this tradition despite the racist overtones.

Happy Times...

The breakfast started at 5 a.m. and by then we were pretty sure that Obama would win again, so we were all smiles.

We weren’t interviewed this time, but Bob was.

The Kurhaus main hall looks great covered in US state flags.

We brought a bottle of bubbly, which Jimmy was happy to pop open once Romney made his concession speech.

Election Outfits...

Imagine our surprise when we went to a Dutch department store and found these funny American flag onesies for adults. Ashlynn quickly talked me into buying one for her, Veronica and Terri’s daughter Lauren. They definitely got a lot of attention as they made their way through the crowds of business people at the breakfast.

A Night at the Kurhaus...

Every four years an organization called Overseas Americans Remember hosts the Who’s the President? Election Breakfast at the Kurhaus Hotel in Scheveningen. Like four years ago, we got a room at the hotel. This time we stopped by before dinner to help decorate. We were impressed watching the hotel staff removing each and every row of crystals on the chandeliers so they could clean them.

This time around we decided to bring the girls along. We all napped from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. then woke up to watch the early returns.

First Circuit Race...

On the first Sunday of November was the first 5K race of the Zorg en Zekerheid (Care & Security Health Insurance) Circuit. Sally had extra space in the car since David and John weren’t going, so I went along to the remote location about an hour away. What a thrill to see Andrew break 20 minutes for the first time!

While at one time Andrew and Ashlynn ran together, he’s gotten faster and the gap between them has gotten wider over the last year. That’s why Sally and I were shocked to see Ashlynn come flying past at just 20 seconds behind Andrew with a PR at 20:11 (6:30 minutes/mile). She was the 2nd girl 15 & under, 5th woman and 38th runner out of 374.

Our speedy kids got flowering plants at the end. What a great start of the racing season!