Expected visitors and summer fun

Well it's been way too long since I updated my blog and now I finally have some free moments to do so. The summer has flown by and it's hard to believe that the kids are back in school now, which is way too early in my opinion, mainly because I grew up in Canada where the kids don't go back to school until the first tuesday in September.

It has been a busy summer, with a premature visit from my brother, Dave, and a visit from my parents, a visit that we knew about since January and were looking forward to! This is the first of an unknown number of blogs with some pictures of our summer. We took over 400 pictures, so it's hard to pick out the favorites.

Here is the first one, when Mom and Dad first arrived:

One of Ilianna having fun:

Here's a nice one with Uncle Dave:

And on July 9 we said goodbye to Dave, who was leaving for Taipei:

More pictures next time...

Hup Holland and an unexpected visitor

On Monday evening my brother, Dave, arrived here from South Korea. He was just in time to see Holland beat Italy (3-0) in their first Euro 2008 match.

Everywhere you go you see houses decorated in orange flags and streamers, and kids have orange hairspray in their hair. Even Ilianna's school got into the spirit and on Monday afternoon Ilianna came home with orange bangs and dutch flags painted on her cheeks!

She's really in the spirit! Oranje boven!!

Here she is with "Uncle Dave"!

Ilianna spent all day Tuesday following Uncle Dave around, saying his name, and imitating what he did and what he said. It was pretty funny! Here they are playing with the ball in our backyard.

We can definitely say that she really likes Uncle Dave! We hope to have some fun times with him and my parents who arrive in a week!!

Fun with friends

On Sunday morning we had some friends over for coffee, the parents and big sister of Hendrika. Hendrika is Ilianna's friend who also is in the same group as her in school and also sits in the same taxi to school. Hendrika's mom has also become a good friend of mine, and we walk together two evening a week. Ilianna and Hendrika are total opposites when it comes to their personalities, but they really like each other and can really play well together. They also have a way of communicating with each other and they really understand one another well! It is so neat to see them play together!

We really get along with Hendrika's parents, Alle and Bertha and her sister, Grietsje is a really nice girl. They were here for a couple of hours and we had some nice conversations. It was beautiful weather so we were able to sit outside!

It was beautiful weather all day and Ilianna, happily playing outside, decided to get dirty!

Ilianna has never been much for playing in sand or mud, and has never really taken an interest or notice of small things around her. Last week she came inside with a couple of ants in her hand and later on that day she caught a small beatle. We are happy that she is discovering the world around her. A year ago she would never have done this. Yes, she may get dirty, but who cares, that's why we have a bathtub!

Spring

It's spring here in Fryslân. This week has been kind of cool, but last week and the two weeks before were very nice! We've been taking some nice pictures and here are some of them.




















Here are a couple of pictures with the girls I babysit:



















This morning I took some pictures when we walked to the corner where the taxi picks up Ilianna. She really loves going to school, and you can tell by the way she runs to the corner to get into the taxi!




















And one last picture of Ilianna in the cab.

Winter for a couple of months

While everyone here was so excited about a little bit of snow for a couple of hours, the exact opposite is happening in Canada where my parents live. They are hoping that the winter will end at some point! This past weekend they got another dump of snow and my mom sent me some pictures. The first one is of the front of their house.


This next one is of their backyard, with the snow piled high. My mom said that they were running out of room to put the snow that they have shovelled.

The last picture is self-explanatory.

Ever since I moved to Holland 8 years ago I hoped and wished for snow like this! It would be nice to experience it again, but if it lasted as long as it has this winter in Ontario, I don't know how much I'd be hoping for it again! Hopefully for Ontario it will be over soon!

Winter for a couple of hours

This week wednesday we woke up to find that something very strange had happened overnight;


When it snows like this, it really makes the world look so fresh and new. It's nothing compared to the amount of snow that my parents have had this winter, but it was our first snow this winter, so it was really nice to see. Too bad it was all gone by noon!

An "amusing" day

On Friday morning Ilianna and I set out to do some grocery shopping. I wanted to stop by house from the three girls that I babysit, to say hello. The schools had vacation last week, and when I arrived at the house, the dad told me that the mom had taken all the girls, plus 3 of their friends, to an indoor amusement park, called Speelstad Oranje. He immediately called his wife to ask her where she was (she had left not too long before), and told her that we were coming as well. So I said, well I guess I'll do my grocery shopping tomorrow!

So to make a long story short, Ilianna
and I then set out to the town of Oranje,
and were there just before lunch.
It was very busy there, and Ilianna
really had to get used to her surroundings,
but after a while she started enjoying
herself and tried out some rides.

Here is one last picture of Ilianna with Justina. You can clearly see that she is having a great time!!