Fun with friends

The week before Ilianna's birthday, I took some really nice pictures. Helena's best friend, Joke, was here after school, playing with Helena. We had some real fun trying to get everyone to simultaneously look at the camera and without goofy looks on faces or stuffed animals in the way!

The next morning when the girls came, I had to take a picture! Ilianna is really learning to play with other children, and enjoying it! What a difference a year can make!! We are really thankful that she is doing so well!

More birthday fun

Birthdays are always celebrated in school here, and the birthday boy or girl always brings a treat for all of the kids in their class. Ilianna's birthday was celebrated in the last half hour of her school day on Thursday. I was also invited and when I arrived, her group and another group were playing outside. When I was taking a picture of Ilianna, alot of the other kids ran over and wanted to have their picture taken as well!

Once inside, we had a drink and a cupcake, and Ilianna was given a couple of presents from her classmates and leaders of the group. The first present was two cars, so once she had opened that, she didn't want to open the second present, but a few minutes later she did. It was a puzzle with different animals.

Above, in the beginning of this blog, is a picture of the poster that was hanging on the door to the classroom. It has a picture of a sheep in the balloon, which is Ilianna's symbol. Every child has an animal symbol that is repeated within the group; on their chair, their personal cupboard, and their coathook. The poster is telling people that they are celebrating Ilianna's birthday today, a fact that all the children in her group had been told throughout the day.

When we came home that afternoon, Ilianna opened up her last presents from the day before, which were from her Pake and Beppe here in Holland. It was an ironing board and an iron. Right away she got to work ironing her pyjama's!

In the weekend we had more company; Omme Germ and Tante Esther, Grytsje and Miriam, Omme Klaas, Tante Sigrid, Femke, Frerik and Tjisse, all on Saturday afternoon.

Friends of ours, Marc and Geke with their boys Jesper and Matthijs came on Sunday afternoon, along with Sybo and Jantine and their kids Ryanne, Sigrid and Robert. Ilianna played nicely with all of the kids and opened the presents almost quicker than we could grab the camera! She's getting the hang of it now!! Christmas should be a breeze this year!

A Piglet-filled birthday for Ilianna

September 17, 2008: Ilianna's 4th birthday!

We had a quiet day, with a few presents, and Ilianna seemed to understand that she was turning 4 and that all the decorations were for her.

The first of the company, Johanna and her mom, Sjoukje, arrived just after 3 in the afternoon.

Followed by Hendrika, Grytsje and their mom, Bertha.

A few minutes later, Gerjella, Justina, Helena, with their mom, Sofia and Beppe Gerda arrived. They of course were also bearing gifts for Ilianna.

Later on Pake and Beppe arrived, and then Omme Sjouke and Tante Janneke, but by then Ilianna was so busy playing with her new toys and the other kids that she didn't want to open the presents that they brought. Oh well, no pressure, tomorrow is another day...

New pics of Ilianna; post summer holidays

Here are a few post holiday pictures. First, with her cousins, Grytsje, and Miriam.

Here she is, watching her favourite movie: The Sound of Music.

And finally, a couple of really nice pictures of Ilianna. No explanation required.

One more week...

These pictures are the last of the ones we took while my parents were here. While they were here they celebrated their 40th anniversary. My brothers and I treated them to a very unexpected surprise, a plane ride in a 4-seater over the Frisian countryside. Here is a picture of the town where we live (Kollumerzwaag):

My parents really enjoyed themselves, and since I got to go along, so did I!

The weekend before my parents left, we enjoyed a day out with my Mom's family. We went to a town nearby and visited a museum and then a windmill there. Everyone seemed to have a good time, despite the warm weather. Even Ilianna had fun!
In the evening we went out for dinner with everyone and everything was nicely decorated for the couple in the spotlight.

But then it was time to say bye-bye (da da). The evening before Pake and Beppe left, Ilianna spent some quality time with them.

Then came the big day, and goodbyes in the airport.

We had a good time with my parents and we all really enjoyed spending time with each other.

Vacation Photos

While my parents were here this summer, we also spent a week in Belgium. While we were there we also saw a couple of places in Germany and in Luxembourg, both countries about 15-30 kms away from where we were staying in Belgium. We had a nice time together, and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful scenery and old buildings and castles in the area. Here are a few of my favorite photos of the vacation.

We stayed in a park that was built on a hill looking out over the town of Vielsalm, Belgium. Here is the view from the playground near our cottage:

The day after we arrived, which was a Tuesday, it was beautiful weather, so we decided to go on a boat trip on the Mosel, a river running through part of Germany. The views from the river are amazing. Here's one of them, behind Beppe and Ilianna:

On Wednesday we drove to nearby Bastogne and visited a war museum. For any of you who have seen "Band of Brothers" or any other Battle of the Bulge related movies or documentaries, the town of Bastogne will sound familiar to you. On the way to Bastogne we stopped outside of Foy, near the Bois de Jacques, where we found a monument dedicated to Easy Company, the company featured in "Band of Brothers". Seeing the monument with all of the names of the men of Easy Company who were killed during the battle of the bulge felt very personal all of a sudden, maybe because of the fact that we have seen "Band of Brothers" very often, and we feel that we know the main characters who fought and died here. It's hard to imagine, until you have actually been there.After discovering the monument, we decided to explore the woods. We had heard that there were foxholes, still intact, and went in search of them. We ended up finding quite a few!

The woods were very quiet and it was quite eerie feeling knowing what had happened in those woods more than 60 years earlier.

Later on in the week we went to another little town in Germany called Monschau. This picture gives you an idea of how pretty it was there:

Another beautiful town was in Luxembourg. The town of Vianden was once home to Victor Hugo, and on the top of the hill overlooking town is a beautiful castle. Here are two of my favorite pictures:

Our last day trip was to Durbuy, Belgium. We visited a topiary garden and walked through town. Once again we found another castle:

This last picture is also the last photo I have of our vacation. It was definitely a successful vacation with memories that will last a lifetime!

Crazy about Oranje

While Dave was here and some of the time my parents were here this summer they got to enjoy the European soccer championships. Two days after my parents arrived here my Mom celebrated her "16th" birthday. Holland also had an important match that evening, so we all wore orange all day and watched the match in the evening.

Ilianna was right into the spirit of things!

And Beppe helped out with getting ready for the big game. Here she is painting Ilianna's fingernails orange:Here we are watching the game, which turned out to be a very disappointing loss...

Well, even though the results for Holland were not great, it ended up being an interesting tournament, and ever since this summer Ilianna's favorite colour has been ORANJE! HUP HOLLAND HUP, Uncle Dave!