A few weekends a year the water tower in Aalsmeer is open to the public. As it is no longer in use, it is now a monument and beautiful landmark in the village.
215 steps take you right to the top and yesterday we were rewarded with beautiful views as it was a clear day.
Hard to see in the picture but you can see Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Arena, the hoogovens in IJmuiden and amazing looking down on the Westeinder.
A bit of delay because of thunderstorms over Houston.
A selfie at the airport before boarding.
Girls all settled on the plane. Happy travels!
Just like last year we made a list of fun things we want to do this summer. Got started on a few already.
The World Cup has started!!! Exciting times in our household :) Two different 'pools' have been completed and Thijs and I are also competing in the FIFA Fantasy league. Famke is keeping track with her own schedule.
We did the same four years ago and had a lot of fun with it. You get a 100M virtual money to buy a team of 23 players. Then you 'play' your team and earn points based on how they perform in the 'real' games. Both of us were really not up to speed on the current players so the last few night were spent doing 'research' on our iPads. Below the results of our deliberations.
The first one is Thijs' and the second one mine.
To be continued - or not if I do really badly, Thijs got a good head start by choosing Neymar today :)
A few weeks ago we had a girls night out to say goodbye to Anita, one of our friends who is leaving Texas and moving back to Holland. Never nice to say goodbye but nice to have an evening out together. Usually most of our parties and dinners are held in Houston but as Anita lives in Katy we decided to stay closer to 'home' and show the Houston girls some of the Katy sights.
One of our stops was the margarita drive-thru on Mason Road. Yes, you did read that correctly, a margarita drive-thru!
It is a very small building where you can pull up with your car on either side and place your order. Their menu is quite extensive! We stuck to the original lime margarita - size small :)
Just stick a piece of tape over the straw hole; container closed, problem solved!
Cheers!
Last Thursday was the last day of school for the girls. Summer vacation until August 25th!
To celebrate this arrangements were made to meet up in the play park for a water balloon / shaving cream fight. There weren't too many kids but the ones that were there had a really good time!
Floortje and Brooklyn, before and after.
Famke wanted nothing to do with either the balloons or the shaving cream but managed to get a hold of a water gun somehow and took care of business from a distance.
With Gerda visiting we were able to take advantage of her cooking skills and she offered to make a 'rijsttafel' for us. For those of you not familiar with this, it is a combination of lots of Indonesian dishes. Most of them take a while to prepare so it is a big job to prepare it.
Gerda brought most of the spices and some other ingredients from Holland and started cooking about two weeks ago by making the atjar (pickled vegetables), seroendeng (crispy spiced coconut) and rendang (spicy beef) which she put in the freezer to make the flavors come out even more.
In the last week she prepared several more: Babi ketjap (pork in salty sweet sauce), ajam (spicy chicken), sajoer (green beans in spicy sauce), sambal goreng telor (eggs in spicy tomato sauce), gado gado (vegetables with satesauce) and of course sate sauce. All of this accompanied by white rice and Heinken beer!
We invited Lori and Justin to enjoy this meal with us as they had not had Indonesian food before (and there was enough food to feed half the street).
It was wonderful, thanks Gerda!
Selamat makan ('enjoy your meal' in Indonesian)!
I have been meaning to share this with you but the lists got buried under other stacks of paper. While cleaning up all the end of school papers I came across it again so here it is!
As Sinterklaas, Christmas and Floortje's birthday are close together Floortje came prepared around the end of November with three different lists of wishes she had. Some wishes are duplicated as she wanted to make sure she got it, so if Sinterklaas didn't bring it she would, in this way, make sure one of the other days covered it. Good thinking Floor!
However, the thing that made me smile the most was the fact that she had figured out that there was no point in putting the iPhone (ifon) on her Christmas list (Santa only comes for English kids so not to our house) or her birthday as she knew we would not get her one. However, no harm in putting it on the Sinterklaas list because 'niet geschoten is altijd mis' (roughly translated 'if you don't shoot, you always miss' or 'if you don't ask, you don't get)! Unfortunately for Floor, Sinterklaas decided as well that 8 year olds really do not need an iPhone yet.
Today we had Famke's celebration of learning. As she is in fifth grade and all the kids are leaving Stanley Elementary for Seven Lakes Junior High school, this was a more formal affair in the school gym.
The official program showed us the order of events. After the pledge of allegiance to both the American and Texas flag, the school song and a speech by Mr Stanley all students were recognized for their achievements.
Mr and Mrs Stanley, after whom the school is named! play a very part in the day to day life of the school. All the kids look up to them and they attend every special occasion at the school and more! So nice to see their involvement.
After school Famke came home with this framed print. All of the words around her name are words that her classmates used to describe her. Wow....even more proud of my girl now. Famke you are amazing! We are so proud of what you have achieved this year! You don't like it when we tell you so I am writing it here so you will read it at some point anyway :)
At the end of every school year a celebration of learning is organized for each grade. Last Friday was for 2nd grade. Mrs Roach did an amazing job of a making each child feel special. She had a special 'candy award' for everyone. Floortje got the 'life saver' award.
After receiving their award the kids got their minute of fame by walking the red carpet with their shades on! So nice to see each one be so proud and so funny to see them feel awkward at the same time :)
