Our first Queen's Day

Wow! What a crazy holiday this is! In honor of the Queen's birthday, The Netherlands celebrates Queen's Day. It's like the 4th of July in the States but much crazier. The Dutch really know how to party! And everyone dresses in orange in honor of the Dutch Royal family - the House of Orange-Nassau. We took a walk this morning and witnessed the largest yard sale around - all over the city people can sell whatever they like. And in Vondelpark, one of the most famous parks in Amsterdam (I liken it to Central Park in NYC,) the area was designated to children - where only children can sell items- and it's great. We were met with kids of all ages selling everything from food, to toys, clothes, games and they even performed. Some quite well, I might add~ lots of Michael Jackson fans here. Lots of dancing, singing and fun times. Bryce, Carolyn and I walked the length of the park and checked out tons of used toys and items. We stopped at a cafe for lunch and had a nice hot cappuccino and sandwich and then headed toward Museumplein where a radio station had set up a huge sound stage and pumped in lots of music. The concert is supposed to end at 9, but we'll see if the party ends there (I doubt it~ if it's anything like New Years', this could last all weekend!)

Queen's Day

Video of first swim class

Videos

First Dutch Swim Class

Since Carolyn loves her bath, we signed up for a parent and child swim class at a nice pool that's a short tram ride away. The idea was to have Bryce take her into the pool for the lesson once a week so he could get some quality time with her (and mom could get a break!) This being our first class, we wanted to bring the camera and video camera along (Okay, so I don't get much of a break) and since the changing areas are a bit small, I'd change Carolyn and get her ready while Bryce got ready. We got there on-time and Bryce came a little after me by bike. Seeing an opportunity to get a picture taken, this nice man offered to take a picture of Carolyn and me. Right after he took the shot, and just as I was looking at the picture he just took, Carolyn yells, "Dah!" and swats the camera out of my hand. It fell on hard ceramic tile lens-down. To say it's broken is an understatement. The front is all banged up and dented! When Bryce came and I told him, he was really bummed. But at least we still had the video camera. Once inside for the class, Carolyn was overwhelmed by all the new sights, sounds and smells of the locker room and shower area. I passed her to Bryce when he stepped under the shower and she started crying. We made our way into the pool area and she continued to cry through half the class~ poor thing! There were about 12 other parents with children and the class divided into younger and older (6-12 months) and 12-18 months, so there were about 6 people with babies per side. They swam in a big circle, sang songs and moved gently up and down the pool with babies in hand. Carolyn started to like it once the instructor gave her a small ball to play with and she turned and could face daddy the whole time. Too cute! I'll have to download some video as soon as I figure out how to get the camera to download. For now all I have is the picture I was able to salvage from our destroyed $300 camera.

Easter

The Easter bunny came for Carolyn at Kristen's house in NJ this year. We had a great 3 week visit seeing the family and having Carolyn meet all her cousins, aunts, uncle and relatives. We were so excited too to have our friends Kellie, Peter and Wil stop by on their way back to Massachusetts after visiting family in Pennsylvania. What a fun day.

Easter 2010

Baby it's cold outside

It's really cold and icy here in Amsterdam, but we decided to take a walk anyway today since it was sunny. Aside from the bitter cold, we had fun sliding all over the streets and saying good morning to people we didn't know around town. We stopped in to a cafe for some tea to warm up and Bryce and I enjoyed our first "tosti", a grilled cheese sandwich. Carolyn had more fun with us once we got home though, as you'll see from the following pictures. Enjoy!

Shopping

I think we're really stuck in the 80s. I took this picture at V&D, a Macy's-like department store at a mall in Amstelveen, a town just outside of Amsterdam. The brands we loved in the US back in the 80s are all the rage here and so is the fashion! Take for example, Esprit - it's a major brand here and if you look closely, you'll see this mannequin is wearing leg warmers over a pair of jeans with short black boots. Other great labels include Benetton, Tommy Hilfilger, and Ralph Lauren and not at the Marshalls prices you'll find back at home. Oh no, these are with the full retail price in Euros. I just keep asking myself WHY??

Carolyn Rolls over!