Hello blog readers. I have missed you. My parents came for a visit. It was lovely. My father took lots of photos and as they arrive here, I will post them (with his permission). We visited the grave of my paternal grandfather who died as a US Army Air Corps bombardier in WWII. He is buried in Belgium. Otherwise, we mostly stayed close to home except for two days which we spent in Amsterdam.
Eileen reveled in the extra attention and love. We even had a day at the local play area called Hemelrijk. It turns out that if you have a country that is cloudy and rainy and cool much of the year, there is a real need for indoor play parks...sort of like the McDonald's Playland, only usually much bigger and with more screaming children, and usually beer and wine to allow the parents to cope with the large number of screaming kids. Hemelrijk is walking distance from our house and has two large indoor play areas that compliment the smallish lake, waterslides, and other fun outdoor activities that they have. Here is a link http://www.billybird.nl/. Even mom and dad, aka Grandma and Grandpa, took the huge slide!
Amsterdam felt less festive than last time we were there, despite staying at the edge of the Leidseplein (which is full of restaurants and shops) -- right near the museum district. Eileen enjoyed the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum and the family now sports museum cards (museumkaarts) - so we can go to all sorts of museums.
Then, once Mom and Dad were en route to Pittsburgh, we rushed off to Tilburg to put on a dragon costume for Eileen and enjoy a Purim Shpiel in Dutch (Haman is still pronounced Haman -- so we did alright!).
I can finally feel a bit of spring in the air. Crocuses are popping up in the medians.
Speaking of flowers, Eric has planted all my favorites here (or they already existed) - Irises, Hydrangea, Rhododendron, Calla Lilly, tulips...and we have started a few of the veggies inside -- including artichokes! I am really excited to watch the strawberries bloom and have our own fresh produce. Until then, I hit the market.
This week, I finally broke out the hand-me-down bags (5 of them). Eileen has more clothes than she can go through in a week. And we hit market day and bought her a beautiful pair of all purpose shoes for 10 euro.
Swimming is still part of our life, and now I have some American friends joining me for it. I am bummed to have left the Friday group and my friend Ashra and her son Dieter, but we try to meet them after swimming on Fridays. All of the baby swim classes are much more popular than they were six months ago.
I don't know if Flikr will allow me to link to my father's photos with all right reserved to him, but here is the URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klh2009/
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