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.