Where Does Money Come From?

I knew this day was coming, when we would have to sit down and have The Talk.



You know the one - about money.



For the last six months, Kev has been really aware of the concept of paying for things. He also loves to assign value (usually in cents) to things - one thousand eighty hundred million is currently a favourite number when something must be really expensive - like an inflatable boat.



I've had to explain the concept of paying for things to Kevin, maybe earlier than 'normal', becuase we get by on my single income. So, while I want to do fun and special things, I also have to explain that mommy can't "do" special every weekend, becuase well.....going to the swimming pool or amusement park or indoor jungle gym all costs money. Which was ok at first, but then over the next few months as he got his 'cents' for his piggy bank (the contents of my change purse when I got too many 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces in my wallet), he wanted to make connection between these 'cents' and what the things he liked to do cost. When it became clear that the cents I gave him had no real buying power, it was time for The Talk.



The only piggy bank he has now is a can sytle one that you can't open, so he have to wait until it's full before we take the lid off with a can opener and head to the bank. Recently, the bank where I opened a savings account for Kevin after the divorce sent Kev a piggy bank and decorating kit with a plastic stopper in the bottom.



The nice thing about this savings account is that you can take your piggy bank into the bank and put all your change into a big machine that sorts it, tells you how much you have, and deposits it directly to your savings account. No coin rolls needed, just dump the contents of the piggy bank in one go into this big machine...it's like magic to a four year old.

Kev has figured out that the plastic stopper in the bottom of the piggy bank means we can take the money out anytime, which we can't do with his old piggybank. Now he's torn between saving his money in his piggy bank so he can take it to the magic machine at the bank, and spending his 'cents' on bubbles, and the inflatable boat costing (of course) one thousand eighty hundred million cents. Tough choice, I know.......... the self decorated piggy bank though was a cool idea, and now mom has a cool memory from it all, too.

It took two days to decorate the bank. One day to draw the all the flowers and details and shapes, and then it took about 5 mins the next day to 'color' all his drawings in.....coloring in the lines is a concept that still needs some work, and you'd never know how detailed all his petals on the flowers were :-)




I think he's come really far on writing his name for a 4 year old. How does he rate, other moms?

Making Brownies

This weekend, Mom was recovering from the flu, but while Little Man does his best, sympathy is a challenge to the attention span of a four year old.

So, while mom wanted to be housebound, Kev wanted to go to the petting zoo. The only activity I had in my distraction arsenal was...Making Brownies.



This was his first time to use the electric mixer, and this was also the time introduced him to the joy of getting to lick the mixer attachments afterwards.



The hard part was waiting for the brownies to bake, so while they were in the oven, we set about melting some chocolate on the stove to drizzle on the finished brownies. His concentration where chocolate is concerned is impressive! Once the brownies were cooling on the counter, we drizzled chocolate on the top, a small spoonful at a time. The end result....mmmmmm, and it provided a nice treat in all the brown bag lunches this week:

Oma & Vivi, Week 1 - Leiden, Den Haag and the North Sea

At the end of the first week of the Oma & Vivi visit, we decided to go palace/castle hunting. ...we made our way from Leiden, to Den Haag (The Hague) to Scheveningen (at the North Sea). Our total route of 50 kilometeres would take over one hour to drive one way, but since we stopped at each location, and took some back roads along the way, it was much longer than that.

On this trip, we went to 4 places:

1) Leiden Castle , 2) Paleis Huis Ten Bosch, 3) Noordeinde Palace, 4) Scheveningen Boulevard

1) Leiden Castle - Leiden Castle began as an artificial hill, was constructed in the 11th century (that's the 1000's!)and an wooden fortification was built on top of it. Around 1150 this wooden fortification was replaced by the present stone castle.

Archeological excavations showed that Leiden Castle was probably never used for permanent habitation and only served as a refuge for the people of Leiden and their belongings in times of peril. In 1203 and again in 1204 the castle was sieged by the Spanish and suffered considerable damage. As the town of Leiden grew around the castle it lost its military function in the beginning of the 14th century after almost 500 years in existence!

In 1651 the castle was bought by the town council of Leiden.
The castle was built on a strategic spot; in a bend of the Old Rhine river. Nowadays that river is reduced to a canal through the city of Leiden and can't be seen from the castle anymore due to all the 18th century buildings that surround the raised hill.

No matter how long I live here, it is amazing, awe-inspiring, and mind boggling to me that within 30 minutes of my house I can see something that is has existed for over 1000 years.

From there, we drove through Den Haag (and some very confusing summer time construction, which meant my GPS was no help at all!) and arrived at 2) Paleis Huis Ten Bosch - The Paleis used to be more accessible, but since the attack on the Royal Family on Queen's Day this year, it was no longer possible to get anywhere near the gates for a photo. We waled parallel for 5-10 minutes in a nearby wood, but there was no way to get close enough to take a picture, and while we could see it (much like this) from where we parked, there was a big closed gate now, and the two armed policeman guarding the gates and noting my license plate didn't seem like they were willing to pose for a photo op, so I'm going to have to settle for a photo I found in my search on the net, taken pre attack:

The Palace dates back to the 1600's. It has only been used again as a Royal residence since 1980, when Queen Beatrix, the current Queen, made it her residence. Before that, it had fallen into disrepair since the the Germans plan to demolish it failed in 1943. The renovations to what is seen today began in 1977.

While we were in Den Haag, I took mom and viv to 3) Noordeinde Palace- in the center of Den Haag. The oldest section of the palace dates from before 1533. In 1795, it became property of the state, as it is still is today. It has been used as the offical royal residence since 1817, except during the German invasion during WWII in 1940.

Right aross from the palace, there is a square with artwork, and various statues and memorials. One of the artworks in particular caught Vivian's eye.....here is it from the front, and then from the back..it made for an interesting photo!

From the center of Den Haag, we drove about 20 minutes to get to the North Sea and the seaside town of Scheveningen to watch the firework on the along the boulevard (totally by accident - every Friday in summer they do fireworks - who knew?!) So, that how we ended up sitting outside on the curb, at the Boulevard, sharing a pizza, watching the sunset and eating pizza on Friday night.

After all the excitement of the fireworks, pizza and being up way past bedtime, it was time to end the day on a good note.....with lots of kisses from Oma (who somehow still had enough lipstick on to leave her mark :-)

What a great end to the week!