Working Out in Brussels...

When I found out that Jimmy would be away over a weekend for business, I contacted our friends in Brussels to see if we could train down for a quick visit. The girls were thrilled that it wouldn’t be a sightseeing trip, but just a chance to hang out with friends (although Jane and I did sneak in a visit to the local museum to see medieval tapestries.) The weather wasn’t great, but we managed to get to a park each day; this playground was particularly interesting because of its fancy exercise equipment. Jane introduced us to one of her favorite vegetarian recipes for sweet potato falafels, which I was happy to be able to make in Holland. 

Fun in Primary School...

This term ended with two special events at Ashlynn’s school. The first was Science Week with a theme of inventions. Ashlynn came up with a several ideas for the science fair including the I-Pen and a page turner for books, but settled on designing the 3rd grade award-winning concept for the Matchomatic that helps to match clothes. Later in the month was Red Nose Day, which is a bi-annual  fundraising day in the UK with a theme of “Do Something Funny for Money.” Ashlynn decided she wanted to be a snail tamer and was surprised by what a great job her daddy did on making her a cape. Her school raised over 3,000 Euros and the kids had lots of laughs throughout the day. 

A Smile in the Sky...

March 20th was a beautiful day and Sally invited me into the backyard for a juice after school while Ashlynn and Andrew played football (aka soccer.) We were chatting and enjoying the rare afternoon sunshine when Ashlynn told us to look high in the sky to see an upside down rainbow. I thought I'd misunderstood or she was imagining things, but sure enough there was an inverted rainbow. Sally and I were shocked as we’d never heard of such a thing; I joked that perhaps it was a signal to begin the alien attack. Otherwise known as a circumzenithal arc, this beautiful light show is caused by refraction of the sun through ice crystals and is rare below the Artic Circle. A normal rainbow started to form below this arc, which would have been really a sight to see, but never fully materialized. Surprisingly, a second arc showed up lower in the sky, but Sally’s camera didn’t have a wide enough lens to capture both. To finish the show, there was also a large spot (perhaps a halo or some other optical phenomenen caused by cirrus clouds and ice crystals.) Thanks Mother Nature!

Singing Around the Campfire...

As the American International Rep at our school, I worked with Veronica to come up with a script fitting for this year’s theme of Songs Around the World for the school’s international show. We quickly decided on singing a medley of folk and pop songs, and started recruiting kids to join us (apparently by including Canadians, one of the Canadian moms feared that I risked causing an international incidence, but I reminded her that we were just lowly parent reps not Ambassadors.) Jimmy made a campfire out of fabric and a fan that he carried on his bike to the performance. He played an old codger complete with a beard and a bottle of booze. The big hit of the show was when Elvis appeared, played by Max despite his British accent. We all enjoyed the ending when we said “Elvis has left the building.”

5,000 Clicks...

Last year, I reported that it took me 25 months to cycle 2,000 kilometers, but I expected that number to increase rapidly once we started cycling to school from our new house. Now I’m happy to report that in the last 12 months, I cycled 3,000K (1,865 miles). While this might not sound like a lot to my serious cycling buddies, keep in mind that I cycle for transportation without lycra in rain or shine. The girls have also really increased their mileage as Ashlynn’s roundtrip is almost 7 miles per day and Veronica’s is 5.5. You can see that Veronica is really turning into a Little Dutch Girl as she’s mastered cycling while carrying an umbrella. I, on the other hand, won’t be mistaken as Dutch because no self-respecting Dutch lady would ride a man’s bike since you can’t hop on/off gracefully while wearing a skirt. 

April Fools!

Any chance you believed Wednesday’s entry? Yes, those are real photos of the girls in our pool just after we moved in last July. And, yes, it’s true that our pool doesn’t have a heater. But, no, it isn’t warm enough to use in March or even in July for that matter. If fact, there wasn’t even a heat wave last year at all so I never got in. As ridiculous as it is to have a pool in this cold, windy country, maybe we’ll luck out and get to have a pool party one of these days.

Benefit of Global Warming?

While it’s rare (and politically incorrect) to talk about possible benefits of global warming, we’re starting to see positive effects here in Holland. Surprisingly, it looks like having a pool in our yard will actually come in handy as the temperatures here are rising. Our landlord didn’t spend the big bucks to put in a pool heater, so for decades the pool was probably only used a few days a year when a freak heat wave came through. Now, however, it’s only March and it’s already warm enough for the kids to hit the water. Maybe by summer it’ll even be warm enough for me.