An Automated Music Museum?

That’s right. There’s an Automated Music Museum in Utrecht. And as silly as that sounds, it’s actually a pretty cool museum. The tour highlights a variety of items from the collection including grandfather clocks, calliopies and self-playing pianos (including one with three violins played by robotics built in 1920 for the World’s Fair). This particular clock is the oldest in the collection. While it wasn’t featured in the tour, I was amazed to see that it’s from 1480, predating Columbus’ famous journey to the New World. Veronica was recruited to hold up the words to a sad love song while the guide played one of the small organs.

Train Buddies...

It’s taken over two years, but we finally managed to get Sally, David and Andrew down to Utrecht to visit the Train Museum. It was only fitting since we met on the train that we should explore the history of trains in the Netherlands together. The kids especially enjoyed crawling all over a huge variety of trains, including climbing on top of this one which had the stairs blocked off (somehow we didn’t notice this particular detail until they were climbing back down).

Child Labor...

The girls are proud to have their first summer jobs. When their school music teacher realized that we lived around the corner, she recruited the girls to catsit while she’s on holiday in France. They go over to her house twice daily to feed, play with and let the cat in/out of the house. Their other job this summer is very unique in Holland--pool cleaning. They still have a lot to learn, but they’re getting better at it.

2,000 Clicks...

It may have taken me 25 long months, but the odometer on my bike finally hit 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). I know this doesn’t sound like a lot compared to my triathlete and mountain biking buddies or to Jimmy, who averages 4,500K (2,800 miles) per year riding to work (I don’t have an exact number since he doesn’t have odometer). However, considering our buddy Jim had predicted I’d only last 3 months without a car, I’m proud of my 2,000K. And the next 2,000K should go a lot faster now that we’re within biking distance of school. In fact I’ve included this photo of the girls on their last train and tram ride to school as a reminder that we won’t be running to catch the train anymore. On bad weather days, Ashlynn and I will still take a tram and Veronica will take a bus since she’s moving up to the middle school in September.

A Voyage Through the Human Body...

A most unusual building with a 115-foot human on the outside recently was completed along the highway near Leiden. Yesterday we had a chance to go to Corpus and find out what all the buzz was about. We spent close to an hour on a multmedia tour of the body. As we walked along gigantic body parts with our audio guides, we learned through a series of short videos and 3-D movies about human reproduction (luckily the G-rated sperm plus egg, not the X-rated kind), the brain, the senses, the heart and digestion. It was a technologically impressive and educational journey that we all enjoyed and didn’t want to end. Afterward, we wandered the interactive sections that included mountain biking simulators, computer quizzes and a chance to have your photos taken for a very cute video. Not sure how long these links will work, but check them out here: Veronica and Ashlynn (click on: Bekijk de Clip)

Olympic Fun at School

The 4th/5th Grade Summer Fair is always a big hit with the kids throughout the school. The older kids spend a few weeks designing, building and marketing a game for the younger kids to play. It’s a great learning experience for all the kids as they learn about handling money as either the business owner or the shopper. Veronica and three of her friends painted a map of the world then built a maze over it with the goal of getting a marble through a hole in a country where the Olympics have been held. They collected 10 cents for 3 tries with all money going to a school in Romania. Over $5,200 was raised from the various games plus the sale of food and used books and toys.

A Bird’s Eye View...

Last year, the girl’s school spent a small fortune on installing a man-made nest in an attempt to attract storks. It succeeded in attracting a pair of storks to the school yard, but they rejected the man-made nest (which was later occupied by a pair of Egyptian geese) and built their own nest in a tall tree instead. They had three babies and each day we tried to catch sight of them. This year, the PTA donated the funds to install a video camera aimed at the nest, which you can see on the bottom left of the above photo. It’s been very fun watching this year’s two babies grow over the last two months as the video is transmitted to all the classes. I was thrilled when Ashlynn’s teacher, who’s the resident expert on storks, led me up an extension ladder onto the school’s roof so I could get these photos of the babies practicing lift-off. Unfortunately, they failed to make their first flight before school was out for the summer.