What a Difference a Hair Cut Makes.....

I don´t know why it is, but every time we give Kev a haircut, I feel like he looks Older. Like, goes from a cutie to Little Man in a few minutes. Why does a trim make such a difference in the way he looks? Is it just me?

For about a year now, we´ve been using a ´thuiskapper´, someone who has a kind of mobile salon and comes to your house, during the week on evening or even on Saturday. I started using the service because it saved me a fortune compared to the salon prices for a color and trim, and then I discovered the hidden benefit of Kev not freaking out when it was time to get his hair cut.

This is no small thing. I mean, since his first hair cut just before his second birthday, and every subsequent time since, walking into a hair salon-barber shop-supercuts type establishment caused a meltdown. We even tried it once in the states, with the same result. He didn´t inherit mom´s curls, so when his hair gets longish, it just hangs....except for the place where he did inherit his dad´s cowlick.

So, imagine my relief when we discovered that when covered with a mickey mouse safari cape while perched on our step stool in the kitchen, all signs of trauma just melted away. It makes having to sweep and vacuum up afterwards yourself more than worth it, and just look at the results! Of course, by the Official Mommy Code, I have to declare him a handsome little boy, but feel free to agree! :-)

First Football (soccer) Practice

Part of the rite of passage of being 6 in the Netherlands seems to be the joining of sport teams. It starts as early as age 4, but by age 6 here, there are more organized options, real teams and plenty of options. For Kevin, it's been all about football for at least a year. We put it off due to my crazy schedule at my former employer - trying to manage swimming lessons was already enough!

This winter though, the new job and more flexibility meant there was time for something else. We started in the winter with skiing lessons on Wednesdays, and when those finished we stepped up the swimming lessons to 2x per week in hopes of getting his swim diploma this year. Now in addition to swimming, he plays in his first soccer team every Saturday. Since the season was already running, he will be until the summer vacation playing and practicing on Saturdays with the 4-6 year olds. After the summer, He'll move up to the 6+ and have in addition to practice, weekly games.

So when we found a team where he could join right away, and two weeks ago he had his very first Saturday practice. We had soccer shoes thanks to Aunt Vivi (and Oma for shipping them over so they were waiting and ready to use!) and I wanted to wait until Little Man had had at least 2 practices before signing on and making the investment in a warm up suit and all the kit needed for an future football superstar.

On Saturday, we had to be at the field by 10am, practice goes for approx 50 mins. Luckily it was cool but clear on the day, and the sun was shining so mom could stand on the sidelines and take pictures!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but they line up all the kids, have them run lines and then they work in groups of 5-6 kids, doing exercises kicking goals, dribbling the ball with your feet between cones, kicking the ball to the goalie and then running a small loop….they mix it up really well so that the kids are busy about 10 mins at each activity.

They finish up with about 15 mins of a 5x5 game, and on his first team play, Kev scored two, count them, two of the five goals scored total between both teams! Not that Mom was proud or anything………..

Birthday Boy - Party Time!

Kev's views on Birthdays are very clear - they are fun, should be counted down to in 'sleeps' long before mom is ready to think about party's and gifts (did we not just have Christmas?!)and are a thing of joy and much discussion in the weeks leading up to the main event.

Mom's views are a little more ambivalent...I know it's not supposed to cost much to do a kids' party, but it always costs more than I think at the onset...in terms of time, money and effort. It's these times I feel like single momness (very technical word, I know) pretty much kicks my behind. It's also when the juggling act I somehow always feel between being a mom and full time employee (then throw in party planner)leaves me feeling pretty stretched.

All this is to say that somehow I got talked into doing a party this year not at a venue like the last years (Bowling, play castle, community building) but at home. My Home. For eight 5&6 year olds.

I couldn't resist Kev, who due to my schedule has the one of the least number of playdates in his class, and almost never where kids come to us - Kev always goes there. So how could I refuse when I could in effect get 8 playdates in fell swoop and earn some points with little man?

So, we agreed on a theme (spongebob) and a date (his B-Day which was on a Friday when school ends at noon) the guest list and the games.

When the big day came, I knew I couldn´t do this on my own.....I needed backup, and Richard agreed to take a half day free to be on hand to help me keep order. He was also the pinata hanger, photographer and drew the dreaded ´keep mom sane´ duty.

We had lunch, played a spongebob variant of Pin the Tail on the Donkey (involving stickers of jellyfish and trying to get them closest to spongebob´s net), twister, beat the heck out of a spongebob pinata, opened gifts,

ate Spongebob cake,

played bingo, painted sea themed sun catchers, and signed a spongebob t-shirt. It was a full afternoon!

Everyone went home happy, and Little Man had a great birthday Party

....and a great class party, and a great party at daycare.....

almost a whole week's worth of celebrations have left mom very happy that b-days come but once a year!

1 (long) day in Paris and the last lazy day of vacation

On Thursday, we had our one day to visit Paris. It was a bit overcast, but not raining...and not as cold as the previous days. We took the train from Disneyland into Paris, and from there got on the Metro to where we needed to be to get our tour.

When we arrived at our stop and checked in for the tour, we were almost 2 hours early, but we were right next to a park with a playground, so we took a break from Kevin to play (and mom to snap pics) and from there Kevin had his first lunch in a Parisian cafe.


It was everything you hear about - the service was not great, the food was expensive and not exactly tasty - and it was wonderful to be just the two of us, sipping cola and making our way through lunch. Also, it turns out that a croque monsieur is not exactly to comparable to a tosti or grilled cheese.....but Kevin bravely made it through most of his plate with the help of ketchup!
From there, we wandered back to meet the bus, and started our tour around the city in the top of a double decker bus. Kevin and I traded camera duty as we made our way around the city.
Once we were at the Eiffel Tower, the bus tour was over and our package included tickets to the second level.
I´ve been to the second level on previous visits, and Kev found it very cool. However, it turns out that you can purchase an additional ticket on the second floor to go up to the third level. If you look at a picture of the eiffel tower, the third level is really high up there! Kev really wanted to, and I´d never been, and we were there.....so we bought tickets and got in the very long line to get to the top. Almost 40 minutes later, we were in the lift, which is glass like on all sides...and Little Man didn´t want to look out! He was hugging me with his face in my jacket, and I was trying to tell the butterflies in my stomach that it wasn´t really that high up. Once we got out of the lift, it was a single flight up to the highest observation deck, and we walked around twice, snapping a few more pictures before getting in the line to go back down to the second level as the sun was just starting to set.
Back on solid ground (and very proud of ourselves for braving the third level) we walked across to the river to get on the next available river cruise. We timed it just right, and with less than a 15 minute wait, we were on one of the first cruises of the evening, enjoying the city we´d seen during the day by bus now at night from the boat.

We snapped plenty of pics, and at 8pm when we were back at the eiffel tower, we braved public transport to head back toward the disney parks and our resort. It went smoothly, but took longer than we thought.....we were back at the resort at 10.30pm, tired but triumphant!

Friday was supposed to be our 4th and last day at Disneyland Paris, but we were both pretty done after the paris day, and Kevin decided he really wanted a house day, to play games, stay in our PJ´s and be lazy. Mom was very grateful that even 5 year old batteries need recharging after a fun filled week!
Saturday we snapped our last pictures of the resort, packed the car, stopped at the village bakery for the last croissants and baguette for the road and then started the 5 1/2 hour drive home.

Lucky for Little Man, he didn't have long to wait for the next big thing - his birthday party last Friday!

Pics and a new Post to follow!