2011 Kite Festival...

While Jimmy and the girls were busy at the first of many Sunday rehearsals for this year’s panto, Aladdin, I headed to Scheveningen Beach to see this year’s international kite festival. As you can see, the winds were just right for a huge variety of kites to fill the sky.

Just had to include this silly snail that looks like it’s sitting atop the Kurhaus.

Sneak Peek at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam...

When I found out that a member of the AWC was the Director of Operations at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, I contacted her about the possibility of planning a private tour for the club. While it took just 9 months to build in 1656 (it was a marine warehouse at that time), the building had been closed for a remodel for over 4 years (just by coincidence, we had visited the museum on its final open weekend in January 2007). Much to my surprise, Lara arranged for a sneak peek of the museum two weeks before its official opening in early October. Several of the exhibits were still off-limits, but it was clear that this was a much improved museum. I was especially impressed with the new roof, consisting of 1,200 pieces of glass, which is strong enough to walk on; robots are used to clean the glass with 3 men holding the hoses. Afterwards, a few of us went to the antique district for lunch and some window shopping. I then dashed back to meet Ashlynn at school as she returned from a 2-night school trip to an adventure camp in Holland.

Last of Our Summer Fun...

During our first few weeks back in town, we attempted twice to host an outdoor movie after Jimmy borrowed a projector. As this photo shows, our first try failed as it started to pour just as dinner was ready and we had to cram six adults and ten kids in our tiny house and show the movie on the wall. Luckily, the weather cooperated on our 2nd attempt and we had a big crowd on our lawn.

One Sunday afternoon, Andrew came to hang out with the girls while David was at football. Ashlynn decided that it would be fun to make pizza. Of course, the kids needed help to clean up the royal mess, but they did manage to do all the cooking themselves.

John and Sally weren’t able to join us, but dropped David off after football so he could enjoy some pizza, too. It’s cool that the girls like to entertain.

Placing Our First Geocache...

Although our family had only gone geocaching (a hide and seek game using a GPS to find containers called geocaches) a few times over the years, Jimmy thought it would be fun to hide a geocache near our yard. Around 8 p.m. on a rainy evening in early September, Jimmy and the girls uploaded information about a geocache they placed in the woody bit between our house and the apartment parking lot. They had dug a hole to hide an ice cream container, which held a notepad and pen (for geocachers to record their find) along with a few small trinkets for trading. Much to their surprise, about an hour later six men (one opted not to be photographed) arrived in the rain to search for the cache. Apparently these die-hard cachers got a text message as soon as the cache went live and rushed over separately in an effort to be the first. The girls got out of bed to greet them.

A Big Day of Firsts...

September 5 was a big day of firsts for all of us girls: Ashlynn started middle school (with blue sweatshirts), Veronica started high school (with black sweatshirts) and I was freed from having to do the school run. Ironically, despite being three years apart in school, their home rooms are side-by-side. Luckily for Ashlynn, Veronica is actually excited about having her little sister at her school. She’s also excited about having a lot of her favorite teachers for the two years of GCSEs. And Ashlynn’s excited to have two good friends in her class and starting cooking classes. Needless to say, I’m excited about not having to have my schedule rotate around school pick-up, but I will miss those great conversations while cycling with Ashlynn.

First Race of the School Year...

The day before school started, Ashlynn ran her first race of the season along with David and Andrew at the Voorschoten Vlietloop 5K. She was a bit out of practice and suffered from the heat, but still managed to run a pace of 8:03 minutes/mile. David won the under 17s, while Andrew’s times keep improving with each race. Jimmy hadn’t actually planned on racing, but a friend had an extra run number, so he joined in with a 6:43 pace. Veronica had a lot of fun shooting video, which she made into this great movie. Afterwards, we had a relaxing lunch at a restaurant in Voorschoten next to a farm.

One Wild Ride...

We were completely shocked when we found out that we got to ride in the above crane (we were with the driver in the white box, which had a clear acrylic floor). This crane is used in conjunction with lifting containers from/onto trains. After our awesome ride, the bus dropped us back downtown. We walked along the river to see some of the other World Port Day exhibits including touring this giant sand dredger, which was used to expand the beach in Scheveningen. So impressive!