Amsterdam

We decided to visit Amsterdam since we were so close. We parked our car in the city and took a morning stroll. It was a lot of fun!

If you look very closely, you can see Bailey in the 's,' TJ in the 't,' and Joey in the 'e':

The people are passionate about their bicycles here. There are even separate streetlights for bicycles:

We enjoyed walking through the flower/bulb market:

Joey showing off a rather small bike parking area:

Rembrandt:

The canals were beautiful. We did not take a boat ride, but we enjoyed the views from the street:

Erick had to take a picture of the marijuana museum. I didn't realize that we were going to a place where such drugs were legal until Erick informed me that all soldiers must receive an automatic drug test upon returning from Amsterdam. I'm glad they take it so seriously:

A real multi-level bicycle parking garage. Isn't this thing huge? Like I said, they are passionate about their bikes:

Thatched roofs. They were so cool!

Windmill:

The North Sea

Last weekend we traveled to the Netherlands (Holland). We stayed in this little bungalow near the beach:

Our bungalow had three bedrooms, a full kitchen, a fireplace, and a living room. It was very roomy and comfortable. It was located on a little compound (Sunparks) that had all sorts of family fun things to experience.

We started out by playing on the unique playground. This is a bizarre merry-go-round:

The kids loved it. Here is another spinning toy thing:

We met up with our friends/neighbors for dinner. On the compound, they had several restaurants and shops. Here the kids are waiting for their hamburgers (which were not made of beef, but some sort of sausage-like meat product) while watching turtles and fish swim:

By walking five minutes away from our bungalow, we found ourselves on the beach of The North Sea:

 

The girls gathered seashells:

Erick and I enjoyed the cool breeze and the kids’ excitement:

Back to the compound (the term “compound” makes it sound like a cultish-type place. It was not. I want to call it a campground, but there was no camping, just our cute bungalows. hmmm. I’ll stick with compound, because there was a fence around it.)

There was a bowling alley. We played one evening before dinner. Erick officially won, but the kids don’t know that:

 

 

 

After some all-you-can-eat Chinese, the kids sat down to digest:

To continue digesting, we decided to take a turn on the jumping castle. This also helped the kids get very tired:

We will definitely stay in a Sunparks bungalow again. We have learned that there are several Sunparks located in Belgium and France. I’m thinking I need to visit the south of France. Would you like to come? This is your official invitation. Let’s go!

Last clip for the grandmas

Hi Grandmas, these clips are for you. I know you wish you could have been here, so I recorded some of the highlights. Enjoy! (Be advised, these clips are out of order. If you want to see them in the order they were performed, you may want to begin two posts down.)

This clip starts of with Joey the Stink Bug walking through a group of Army Ants. One ant yells "We need a medic!" as the rest of the ants pass out from the smell.

Then Joey begins her speaking parts.

More clips for Grandma

This is a portion Bailey's ladybug song and dance.

Video clips for Grandma

I'm going to post a few video clips from the girls musical, "Bugz." This is for the grandmas that wish they could have seen it in person. Enjoy!

This first clip includes Bailey's speaking part. She had some costume malfunctions, so she arrives just in time to say her part between the tall boy in yellow and the cowboy. In case you can't understand her (because my digital camera video recorder is not the best) this is what she's saying:

"I'm a little Gypsy Moth. How do you like my spangles?"

Then later on, a girl says something about the fact that all the bugs are pretty nice except for that Stink Bug. Everyone plugs their nose as Joey skips across the stage.

Baby number four

I’m 22 weeks pregnant, and this is what our little man looks like:

If you plan a trip after August, you can meet him in person. :)

Keep reading below to see pictures of my girls performing in their first musical.

“Bugz” the musical

Joey and Bailey performed in a school musical last week.

Bailey was a gypsy moth and a ladybug. Here she is doing her gypsy moth speaking part (she’s standing next to the cowboy and holding the microphone):

Here is Bailey while doing the ladybug song and dance:

She was quite the little star:

 

Joey was the ultimate star of the show. She was a stinkbug (aka the comedy relief):

  

See all the kids lying around on the ground below? They passed out from the stench when Joey walked by. Joey had everyone in the audience laughing like crazy:

 

Erick had been in the field the entire week, but he got home just in time to watch the performance:

It has begun…

My girls have officially started piano lessons. There is a new sound constantly flowing through the house. Come and visit. You will hear it for yourself.

Biking – German style

Now that the weather is improving, we have been joining the other neighborhood kids to ride our bikes up and down the street. We live at the bottom of a slight incline, so the kids love bike up and down the street. They speed down into our driveway. It is a lot of fun.

Here in Germany, they do not believe in training wheels. Instead, they sell bikes for kids without pedals. So the kids run and push their bikes with their feet. This forces them to learn to balance first. Then when they have perfected their balance, they go straight to a pedal bike.

A neighbor gave us one for TJ. It is a huge hit. He rides it to pre-school every day. Doesn’t he look happy?