Fall Photos

The clocks went back here last weekend, and all at once, it's fall.
In summer, I love the long days from being this far north, but in winter....

We recently took advantage of once of the last few nice days to visit the Dutch/American Air Force base in Soesterburg. Kevin loves looking at planes, and on Sundays the mueseum is open free of charge.

The other places Kevin loves to visit are Schiphol Airport - the panaroma deck to see all the 747's - and the children's farm and petting zoo that most Dutch towns have. These are typical weekend activities.

There is also a large indoor playground (they call it a castle) in nearby Hoofddorp. For the price of admission kids can play on all kinds of equipment, the parents get a free drink voucher and you can order simple fare like grilled cheese sandwiches. There are also motorcycles and a small indoor track that you have to pay to use. Kevin loves riding the motorcycles! He can already weave in-between parked cycles, and puts his foot as far to the floor as he can.

I can't believe how fast everything seems to go now. He's growing by leaps and bounds, really he is.


This photo says "mom, enough already with the pictures!"

Where Did The Weekend Go?

This was a weekend that just went by too fast......I woke up this morning (Monday) sure that I'd been shorted a free day. Kevin was protesting, too, tell me "it can't be a day care day, I still need a mommy day! I get two mommy days!" (we break up the week as follows: 2 day care days, 1 school day, 2 day care days, 2 mommy days).
I explained that we'd had our 2 mommy days already - we talked about all the things we did this weekend, and he agreed that he'd indeed has his two mommy days. Then he promptly asked for one more mommy day. I wish........

I don't know why it went by so fast. Saturday we went shoe shopping. He's pretty much reached the age where I think he can have the occasional say in what he wears and puts on his feet. So, we measured his feet, and I made a selection of the shoes I was willing to pay for (no Nikes, no way) and he made the final selection. The winners were Spiderman shoes ( hiking boot style, but then with velcro) and lime green galoshes for rainy days and trips to the children's farm.

Sunday we went to Schiphol Airport. He loves to look at planes, and they have at Schiphol a 'Panaroma Deck' and restaurant. He ate a dutch pancake with powdered sugar in the shape of an airplane, then we went to watch the planes.
As an avid fan of "Diego' he's all about binoculars right now, and at Schiphol they have them all around the deck....the kind you have to pay 50 cents for 2 minutes use. This weekend I put a coin in for the first time so he could actually see something, and then of course he wanted to have a coin for each of the approx. 20 viewfinders on the deck. What was Mommy thinking?!

After the walk around, it was time to pay for the parking (the only downside to this excursion - 2 hours cost 9 euros in parking!) and then we went to the children's farm.

Kev was brave enough to pet the cow this time, where he normally doesn't venture too close to, and he even tried feeding the geese and chickens, but he really didn't like how agressive they were taking seed from his hand. From there we went in to the rabbit pen in the barn, and at the end of the trip of course all the playground equipment has to be tried out and approved......

It was really an enjoyable weeeknd, with some of (possibly) last nice days this year, and somehow it just wasn't long enough, on that Little Man and I totally agree!