Another School Year Done

It was late this year...summer vacation. Not only the weather (we do live in the Netherlands, after all), but school went this year until July 20th. I think that's a good 6 weeks or more after I started seeing all the postings on facebook from my state-side friends.

Little Man really felt it this year, too. Group 3 is full of daily work in all subjects, much less playtime or free time then last year - these are full days, and it took the first couple of months for Little Man to hit his stride and get into the swing of ''real'' school. It only gets more intense from here.....

When I compare it to the US what strikes me about the school systems here is that while the work done at school is pretty intense, there is as yet no concept of home work. Outside of school, kids are free to play, do sports, clubs, etc.....be kids. There are exercises sent home with the kids on the last day of school to keep kids from having the ''dip'' that comes from being out of school for 6 weeks, but it more about encouraging behavior such as writing free association poems, small stories, practicing time tables, etc.....all journal style rather than only doing worksheets.

He's grown so much!

As long as it took this year to roll around, and as short as it can sometimes feel,  I also overall really do like that the breaks here are spread out. It's not 3 months summer vacation (although 6 weeks can really fly by!) - but 6 weeks in Summer, a week in fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week between Feb and March, another week at the end of April/May and a week usually in June. I think it works out that roughly for every 6 or 7 weeks of school, there is a week free -  it seems to keep the freedom itch to a minimum, as there is pretty much always a break to look forward to.

The last report card of year was a good one. He's making leaps and bounds in all subjects - he's above the average level in all subjects, but his standout is reading - he's currently reading, at the end of group 3,  at the middle point of group 5, so he's a full year and a half ahead there.

Our nightly bedtime ritual, we read out lound to each other.

He's also done very well on the 2x per year CITO or standardized tests -  that starting from this year help determine which level of school he will go into after group 8. His one big improvement area for next year remains his attention span and listening. On one hand, I think 7 year old boy - what do you expect?! :-) And I think sometimes, alot of the people in his life (teachers and mom included) hold him up to a pretty big yardstick because of his intelligence - this is one area where is ''just'' 7 - and I have to remind myself as grown up as he can be, he really is still 7 and is allowed moments of fruit fly attention span.

Unlike a lot of kids his age, he doesn't talk about what he wants to be when he grows up - the usual firefighter or police officer isn't there, and while he LOVES football (soccer), he's also told me he isn't sure he ever wants to play in a big arena in front of ''all those people''. I love that, for now, each day is it's own adventure, and he's always busy doing, learning, being active.

1st live football match seen in a stadium (Amsterdam Arena)

What has also solidified this year is those parts and characteristics of him that are neither his father nor me, but just - Kevin. Of course, I hope at some point there will be some direction, focus and drive...and that whatever he wants to do will align to his talents and skills, but for, we're both going to take a deep breath, capture these 6 weeks of summer and not yet think about group 4 ..........

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!

Vacation @ Disneyland Paris

For once, Mom is going to post pics while the memories are still fresh, and before life interferes with good intentions.
We had a great week this last week. Some quality time just Mom and Little Man, lots of fun and busy time 3 days at the disney parks, one whirlwhind day in Paris, and we took as many pictures as I could remember to (or whenever Little Man asked for the camera).

So, in this post, I'll put up some of my favs, staying somewhat in order of the agenda and the days we were at the parks.

We arrived Saturday night, so Sunday was our first day to hit Disneyland, which is what we got up and did, arriving at opening time. We stayed most of the morning in fantasyland (Peter Pan, Teacups, It's a small world, etc) before moving to discoveryland to take in Buzz LightYear, and then off to adventureland with Pirates of the Caribbean. We managed to end the day just in time for the Parade, which Kevin got a good view of and gets the photo credits for these pics.

Monday we took a more relaxed day and hung out at the swimming pool at the resort in the morning before heading to a nearby village and visiting the Sea-Life aquaruium.Kev's highlights were the tidepool area where you could 'pet' the rays and fish as they swim by, and the big aquarium where there is tunnel like area you walk through and the aquarium is on all sides. This was the shark tank, and we had to take a pic, but no flash allowed, so he looks a bit like a smurf!

After we finished at the aquarium, we headed back to the resort to make it an early day, becuase Tuesday was Walt Disney Studios day!

Sunday we had reasonable luck with lines for the rides we wanted to do, but that was not the case at the studios. There were long lines for everything. We waited at least 60 mins per ride, and to do the one roller coaster that he met the height requirements for and that didn't go 360, we had to wait in line for a whopping 95 mins!!! No line dimished his enthusiasim, and we had a great day. We managed to take a few snapshots, and don't let the sunshine fool you...it was 2 degrees celcius in the morning, warming up to a whole 5 degrees in the midday!

The following day, we headed back to Disneyland with Winnie and Lars, who joined us at the resort to spend one day with us at the park. We stayed at Disneyland, did the 'best of the best' rides as recommended by Little Man, and ended the day with a hoedown high tea and a meet and greet with some characters. It was a long day, but we all had a blast. The lines were longer than Sunday by a bit, but we still managed to squeeze in everything we wanted to do and still got to see a street parade and the high tea.
The following day, Winnie and Lars headed back to The Netherlands, and we headed into Paris for the day! That is going to have to be the next post, which I promise I will try to follow up with soon!

Countdowns - a.k.a. 'how many more sleeps until'

We have a couple of events coming up that merit the question of 'how many more sleeps', which in turns seem to be worth the effort of a countdown calendar, so Mom doesn't have to calculate or count the days on the nearest calendar.

The first event we have to look forward to is a trip to Disneyland Paris in the spring vacation. We´re going to be staying for a week, so i also plan to take him into Paris, and this way we can spend multiple days at the park, doing a few fun things each day (or evening) that we go.


MySpace-Countdowns

The trip to Disneyland is intended to be a Birthday present, since we have to plan all trips in the vacation times, but this trip does fall a few weeks before his actual birthday, so I know as soon as we get back, the next countdown will be for his birthday, so here we go:


Birthday-Countdowns

After that, the next countdown will be for Easter, and then I'm sure we'll need one for the next trip to the US.....Here's to a year full of fun things to countdown to!

Summer Vacation Update - Our US visit in photos

As many of you know, this summer has been an interesting one. Firstly, our vacation got off to an early start this year due to Andrea and Eric's wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony at a great location on a wonderful day, and we were very lucky to be a part of it - Kevin as a ring bearer and I as a bridesmaid.

Leaving before the official end of the school year meant behind the scenes manouvering for the last 6 months to get permission from Kevin's School (the easy part) the School Board and the ultimately the city hall/council. Our offical permisson came through at the beginning of May, which might have been after the airlines tickets were already purchased........

Two days before we were due to leave, I got called into the office and was greeted with awful news - I wouldn't have a job when we came back from vacation. It cast a pallor over the final preparations and there was a lot of pressure to get things sorted out for myself in the less than 48 we had before we caught our flight to the US.

We arrived on Wednesday night after almost 24 hours of door to door travel. Once there, the first few days were a whirlwind of pre-wedding activity - final fittings, secuirty tags on the ring bearer suit that were missed in a post christmas clearance sale and now needed to be remomved.....a rehearsal dinner to meet the rest of the wedding party and see the location - which while beautiful, was a little remote and took a lot of back and forth driving......

....and before we knew it it was Saturday, the day of the wedding. I can't wait to have some pictures to share, becuase it really was beautiful in every way. Saturday night we all had the opportunity to stay at the venue and not travel back to Roseburg until Sunday.

The week following the wedding we tried to fill with family excursions....We got to catch up with Holly, there was the Enchanted Forest trip, the visit and small hike to Toketee Falls to see the impressive 120 foot waterfall as well as Crater Lake on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend. We did as much of the rim drive as was open, and even in early July we got hit with a snow/hale/ice storm during our picnic lunch at approx 7,000 feet up.





We wrapped up our visit with fireworks and a small birthday gathering on the 5th before it was time to pack up and hit the road before 7am on Wedensday morning to catch our flight back home out of Portland.

Even though it was two weeks and you think before you leave home you'll have enough time to do all the things you want, and see everyone you want, there will still items left on both the to do and to see list this time. It was such a whirlwind of activity our whole visit - it went by so fast!

Summer Travels & 5 year old logic

Little Man has been looking forward to getting on an airplane and going to 'Amerika' for months. Exactly why the prospect of such a long plane ride would be so thrilling, I'm not exactly sure. So, a few days before we flew, I finally asked him and he told me it was because he could watch all the movies he wanted to - plus he wanted to sit at the window and look outside while we were really high up.

So, when we flew on the 23rd of June, I let him sit at the window in the row of 2 where we were seated. As soon as we'd leveled off, he looked out the window - and he didn't like what he saw at all! He declared we were too high up, and he was scared...Mom had to lean over and shut his window shade - and so it remained for the rest of the flight.

For the next 10 hours or so, he would occasionally sneak a peek, only to lower the shade again........By the time of our return flight 2 weeks later, the idea of being on a plane for 10 hours was no longer exciting. Welcome to how the rest of us feel, Little Man!

Over the next few posts, I'll be posting pics and sharing stories from our visit -we covered a lot of ground this time!

• Andrea's Wedding @ The Big K Ranch, Elkton


• Visit with Holly and Robbie (and a girls nite!)


• Feeding the ducks at the duck pond (by Fred Meyer, of course!)


• Trip to the Enchanted Forest (Salem)


• Walk to Toktee Falls


• Visit to Crater Lake


• 4th of July


• My 32nd B-day (complete with sunflower cake!)

This has to be the earliest summer vacation I've had since my own wedding, and it feels a bit strange to come back and still have the whole summer ahead......but looking forward to it, and hopefully some extra time with Little Man during his 6 week vacation that started Friday afternoon.

I hope everyone else is having a great summer!

Vacation Pictures

This Year, I couldn't resist....I bought Little Man a four piece suit for Christmas. Velvet vest, clip on tie, the whole nine yards. As his mommy, am I allowed to call him adorable?

Posing for photos is something he's getting better at, or at least he now has a *little* bit of patience for.

Here he is 'working out' with Vivian on Oma's treadmill

This trip he was even more Vivian's Little Shadow.....when it came time to leave, he first spent almost 30 minutes trying to convince everyone 'Vivi' needed to come with us, and when that didn't get a yes, he next option was to say he wasn't going to go if Vivi didn't go, because he wanted to stay with Vivi!

Together in their OSU sets from Oma for Christmas.....

...and playing with "auntie' (Andrea)

The Big hit this Christmas was his Singing Spiderman and echo microphone......

Almost the whole family was together this Christmas......3 of my 4 aunts and uncles were all together on Christmas day to spend time with Nana. Aunt Cathi, Aunt Carol, Mom, and Uncle Jeff are here with Nana. Only Uncle Mike is missing from this family photo.....

The morning we left, Oma was the one to wake Little Man...here are some of the last snuggles of the trip.

Oma Promised to come visit us with Opa and Vivian this year! Watch this space! :-)