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!