Snow in Leiden...

That afternoon Jimmy and I went into Leiden to go to the market and for a walk through the snow, where we saw this snowman...

 ...and a snow cap on the Rembrandt statue as well as on his “self-portrait” on the wall...

...which was just around the corner from the Rembrandt Bridge.

I especially loved the view at the Oude Haven (old harbor)...

...where this cute little snowman rested in front of one of the old ships.

Let It Snow...

On February 11 we were thrilled to see the first snow in our back yard in several years.

It happened to be a Saturday, so Ashlynn and Jimmy were home to take Kati for a walk with me.

As you can see, there wasn’t any ice yet on the Vliet, the main canal from Delft to Leiden.

We met up with Gillian and Beauly in the field at the end of our street, where there was some ice on this small canal.

Kati wasn’t bothered by the snow at all.

All Dressed Up...

Veronica had a chance to wear her mermaid leggings again at a Disney-themed evening at the LCR.

Ashlynn enjoyed dressing professionally for THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations), which took place at the World Forum for five days. While over 3,000 students globally competed to participate, participation is mandatory for BSN Year 12 (11th grade) students. Ashlynn was thrilled that she was chosen to be a delegate. She and Max represented Azerbaijan within the Environmental Committee, and were very happy that their resolution was adopted without revision. Here she is posing with Anvitha and Amalie, whom we hosted for the week from the International School of Stavanger.

Jimmy and I enjoyed getting decked out for our final agency dinner dance. Sadly, the turnout was very low, but we loved the food and atmosphere at the Park Hotel, and enjoyed dancing until midnight.

An Unexpected Second Show...

When Ashlynn left for Amsterdam, she was expecting to walk in only one show. While she was in transit, her agent called me to ask if she could fill in for a sick model in a show that evening. She was really glad to walk in Dutch designer Astrid Elisee’s show. The rest of the models wore her original silk designs, but Ashlynn walked in a pair of vintage Levi’s that were customized by designer Mick Keus. Luckily the jeans fit her like they were made for her.

 Her second look was quite sexy.

It was exciting when we saw that outfit was chosen by the Dutch magazine L'Officiel as one of their favorite looks from Amsterdam Fashion Week. 

I was disappointed when I was offered last minute tickets for the show because we already had plans to go to the Chili Cook-Off, but was happy that Ashlynn’s best friend Sophie and her mom were able to go. Of course, Ashlynn was absolutely thrilled.

I don’t have a photo of Ashlynn and Sophie, but here’s one with the make-up artist that did such a great job.

Amsterdam Fashion Week...

While Jimmy was making his award-winning chili, Ashlynn was in Amsterdam walking in a fashion show for Belgium designer Toos Franken. Tickets weren’t available for the public, so I missed seeing her walk down the catwalk.

  Here she is with Toos and a few of the other models...

 ...and with the whole gang.

 As you can see, the make-up was quite dark on her forehead.

Dune Agency had seven girls walking in this show. It was fun for Ashlynn to finally get to meet so many of Dune’s “New Faces.”

Chili Cook-Off...

We weren’t actually planning on attending this year’s AWC Chili Cook-Off, but when I found out that Hannah and Austin, a young American couple we’d met at The Hague Hash, had joined the club so that she could enter the contest, we registered. Jimmy decided to make a vegan chili to guarantee that I’d have something to eat. We weren’t sure how to transport it since I gave away our crockpot, so he thought outside of the box and put it in the “growler” beer container that we got at a German monastery.

Hannah’s entry came in third place...

...and Jimmy’s came in first.

Amazingly, four years ago he was the club’s first vegetarian winner and now he won with the club’s first vegan entry.

Moving Day...

Sorry for the lapse in my blog, but we’ve been busy moving. We were notified by our landlord in January that his family was moving back in and that we had to vacate the house by the end of May. We managed to find a nice rental nearby so that Ashlynn could continue to have an easy commute for her final 1.5 years of school. 

It’s actually been three weeks since our furniture was moved into our new house and we started sleeping here, but we still had a lot of small bits to move and work to get done in our old place. Luckily a friend loaned us her car for several weeks while she was travelling. We then had to borrow another friend’s larger car to make five trips to donate stuff to the local charity shop.

It took nearly two weeks for our Internet to be connected because either the previous tenants or their movers cut all the wires in the house, but luckily our next door neighbor was kind enough to share his connection. Speaking of connections, I’m still not connected to our photo storage server, so I’m going to skip a few entries to use some photos that I already have on my computer. Thanks for your patience.