Birthday Week

We had a lot of fun this week. Naomi was really busy in the kitchen making my birthday present - a yummy salmon dinner with cheesecake for dessert. Her best cheesecake yet. Then on Saturday we went bowling. There is a forest hotel nearby with four lanes. Turns out you can bowl there for an hour and get two beers and some deep fried snacks for less than ten euro. Quite the deal! The pins are still reset with strings. We will have to go back some time.

On Tuesday we made a hedgehog house in the workshop. The girls had fun helping. Abigail would rather play and draw, but still likes being in the workshop. Amélie really likes to use the tools. Took about an hour and a half. Hopefully today we can find a place for it in the yard.

School continues to be a bit of a struggle. Thursday was meetings for me from 8:30 to 4:30. I had a five minute break, and some of the meetings overlapped so I was late. I did get a big compliment from some teachers trying to put together a project. I came to give them some advice on their progress, was there for 20 minutes, and afterward they said that they felt more hopeful after my advice than they had in the past year and a half of working this! Nice to hear. Too bad the school, one person in particular who is supposedly in charge, seems to fight against every bit of advice I give!

Making the hedgehog house.

Abigail had a friend over on Friday, and Amélie went to play at a friends house.

Birthday food!

Fun at the zoo last weekend.

Amélie has started doing Abigail's hair in the morning.

First time bowling fun.

Sinterklaas came to the Netherlands by steam train for the first time (he usually takes the steam boat) yesterday so that he could arrive in Apeldoorn. Afterward, he came to our village to stay at the castle (this happens every year) and there was a big welcome parade for him. The girls had fun!

Erasers

This was a week of erasers. We can't seem to find a good one to buy for the whiteboard, so the girls and I picked up some refill pads and velcro on Tuesday and made one in the workshop. Then, at school on Friday, the eraser was missing from my classroom. Turns out most of the rooms in the new building don't have one, so next week I will bring some over from the main building.

It was nice to get back into the workshop to make a little something. Haven't had the energy for that in a while. Still feeling pretty wiped out much of the time. Not sure when the energy will return. My contacts have also really been bothering me for the last month. Really blurry from time to time, especially after I take a little nap. Haven't had that problem before.

Today I am writing this and heading to the gym so that we can go to the zoo tomorrow morning. Should be cold and sunny. Hopefully there won't be too many other people. That way we can make it back home for lunch.

Making a new eraser.

Confused Crocus

Definitely didn't have the energy to get back into school mode after an intense holiday. I think I just need to keep reminding myself that I can enjoy some rest time now. The girls don't need quite as much attention now that they are five, my business is slow at the moment, the website and land deal have been wrapped up, and school is intense enough. Taking some time to rest and slow down seems to be the way forward for a while.

We had some beautiful fall weather this week, and it even froze a few times at night. One of the classes I teach was in London this week, so I was able to take it a bit easy at work. Still more than enough to do though.

On Tuesday we noticed in the newspaper that they were busy with digging up some skeletons around the church here in town. Seemed like a perfect activity for Halloween, so the girls and I rode our bikes there to see if we could watch the archeologists (tough word for the girls) and the construction workers in action. We were a bit late, but could see the plastic covering up the skeletons. I saw them working the day after. They are redoing the water systems downtown, and the church has been burying people there for 1000 years, from the 800s to the 1800s, so they had archaeologists on site to recover and relocate the bones.

Yesterday Amélie practiced some more roller blading - this time with Naomi. Found a nice quiet bike lane to use. Naomi is trying to get the girls ready for some ice skating this winter!

Is it spring or fall? Our flowers are confused.

We carved some pumpkins with friends. I ended up having to cheat with power tools...

The local archeological dig.

Blausee

We have had a really nice fall vacation. Started out by bombing down to Switzerland to visit Auntie Claire and Matt. Turns out the Autobahn really wasn't much of a success. Lots of traffic, rain, and construction. Bummer. At least we got good gas milage.

We only saw a few moments of sunshine while we were there, but it was enough to catch a glimpse of a snow capped mountain on the way down to the 'blue lake'. It was a beautiful spot with a glacial river draining into the crystal clear waters of a deep, trout filled lake. Huge boulders along one side mixed into the trees, a playground on the other, a bridge, and even a man with a row boat to take us around the lake. It was a short visit, but we had lots of fun and plenty of good food. Claire was a bit surprised by how much we all eat!

Since we got back, we have been getting plenty of little things done around the house and garden. They have been piling up. Feels good to get on top of things again. Amélie took a renewed interest in roller blading, so we went to the skate park yesterday. It was almost 70 and sunny! The day before we had a bonfire in the back yard and cooked sausages and marshmallows over it. Now things are cooling off and it is time to carve pumpkins. Nice to have the time change this weekend!

A great day at a lake in the Alps.

The girls did well in the car.

Vacation Needed

This is the start of our fall break. We get a week off. Much needed. This has been a pretty good week though. I was a bit worried about the trip our school (just the staff) was planning for one of the Dutch islands because it was such a long day and I was out of energy, but it was a lot of fun.

We took a ferry over to Texel, the biggest island, and were met with an old American school bus. Brought back lots of memories. Had a nice lunch, and then spent some time at an aquarium/rehabilitation center. They focus on seals. Abigail felt betrayed that I would go without her, because she loves seals, so I took lots of pictures and videos for her. Even brought back a few presents from the seal infested gift shop.

After getting lucky with avoiding much of the rain, we took a nice walk in the dunes and went down to the beach. There was a restaurant there with some Green Eggs that they fired up for a BBQ. They did a nice job of keeping over 80 of us happy. Then we were chased off the island by some big thunderstorms. The wind on the ferry was so strong that I couldn't stand up. Ended up being a really good day.

Sure am tired now though, and not able to get much rest since we are prepping for our trip to Switzerland. We will visit Claire and Matt for a few days. Should be a lot of fun, but there is a lot to do in order to head out straight away in the morning.

Big boat for such a short distance. Two levels of cars.

Leaving the mainland - you can see the island (and the other ferry) on the horizon.

Blue Bird!

Lots of seal pictures and videos for Abigail.

Would be cool to have a tank like this in the dome some day.

Whale jawbones.

Sick seals that they are helping.

Very windy on the beach.

Thunderstorms chasing us back to the mainland.

Day of Rest

Yesterday Naomi took the girls to visit her Dad in Amsterdam. They had a really nice time. I needed to recover, so I had a day on the couch. Starting to feel a bit better now.

Also had some resolution with the conflict at work. Should be able to move forward, but feeling rather demotivated. On Friday the staff is going on a field trip to one of the Dutch islands. It will be a really long day, but hopefully fun. My energy levels are really low, so it makes me a bit nervous.

Finished up making sawdust bricks. The ones in the shed won't dry though because it won't stop raining. Today should be the last warm day of the year though, so hopefully we can make it to the skatepark again!

Always fun to get mail!

Thankfully, Dad's hip surgery went really well this week!