Spring is Nuts

Last spring, for 2 months, we lived in the car, ate dinners in the car, and were basically late to everything due to traffic and trying to get places at 5:30pm.

This year, come spring, it's the same old story.


Christian has:

• swim (1x)
• piano and science (1x)
• soccer (3x)
• baseball (3x)

Olin has:

• swim (1x)
• chess (1x) 
• soccer (2x)

We survive, as it's only 2 months out of the year, and the rest of the year we do close to nothing :)

He loves baseball. Considering the fact that we have practiced baseball at home with him a grand total of 3 times (?), I'd say he's pretty decent. If it weren't for his little league coaches, he wouldn't really know how to throw, catch, or hit. ha! He's still on coach-pitch (we didn't have him try out) but he hits the ball well during most of his at-bats.

Playing catcher. He pretty much sat there and didn't attempt to catch any of the balls.

The kids got so excited for this meal, I had to take a photo. Good old rice, tofu and broccoli.  They do not like every healthy meal I prepare, but they do love rice, tofu and broccoli.

Olin got so excited for Bike Day at his school.

The badminton net is up and running! Here they are on Sunday at 5pm, still in PJ's and shoes. Sunday we did absolutely nothing since we were running around for the prior 6 days.

Friday night HHS baseball game. Little league night where the little leaguers wear their gear and get free entrance and a hot dog. HHS won a double header against their in-town rival RHS!

Ear cleaning is the funniest. They make the funniest faces...a combination of pain and loving it.

Come 6pm Sunday Olin was out. That's how I felt Sunday at 6pm...

Back in the USA

But first, a couple more photos from Amsterdam:

These entrepreneurial guys walked around the main square with a sign saying Magic Trick 1 Euro. They were pretty good with cards and the kids really enjoyed the magic. 

One of the best restaurants. 

Brunch at the Lobby Nesplein. We were fighting over the pancakes.

Iceland Air gives the kids these little welcome bags with headphones and crafts. They also get a meal pack at every flight. (Adults aren't quite so lucky with the meals!)

Kids still love their suitcases from gong gong

Olin's dinner time drawings...Gups

Christian's dinner time drawings...portraits of me (on the right) and Dae (on the left)

A quick pit stop in Bellevue to say hi to Meimei and Tyson before driving home from Sea-Tac. Dae did really well, driving the whole way home after having taken a flight from Netherlands to Iceland to Seattle.

We love Onnie. Christian learned the star-spangled banner and loves playing it.

Olin asks for Spelling tests every time I give Christian one so I think up words for him. His P's are still backward.

New (needed) bike helmet 

They don't hate ASE anymore. Finally, 3 seasons later, my persistence paid off. hahaha! They don't love it like Leelee loves baseball, but Olin looks forward to games and stuff, and Christian doesn't complain nearly as much as he used to.

Easter Brunch at Bookwalter with the Safranskis

Easter Egg hunt at home. This year the eggs were filled with Starburst, Skittles, dollar coins, and matchbox cars.

Puops in town for one night to get her teeth cleaned, lunch with me, sushi with the family, and to try out her new Waterpik.  :)

A post would not be complete without crazy faces.

Americans in Amsterdam, soon to return to America

We'll be leaving Amsterdam in less than 24 hours. Sad. What a wonderful first family trip to Europe. We got kind of lucky in randomly picking Amsterdam (based on flight prices, pretty much). Because of the bicycling here, the boys got to ride around (like kings!) and got a great view of the city and taste of local life, without the inevitable fatigue that comes with small children walking around for hours on end.

Anne Frank House tour yesterday morning. It was very moving, and hard to believe what people went through and endured.

Melly's

Waffle shop right next to Melly's. The waffles were so good.

Keukenhof tulip fields, or more like a park. Rick Steves rated Keukenhof as a can't-miss but in my opinion it's missable. haha. It was really touristy and it's hard to get to - you have to take a train to the airport, and then walk around to the bus stop and then buy tickets for a bus and wait in a big line for the bus, and then ride a 40 minutes to the park. I expected tulip fields past what we could see, and instead it was kind of like a horticulture park. I wanted fields of tulips! Anyway, there was a nice park for the kids to play, and a petting zoo, and some more Dutch pancakes so it wasn't too bad. We encountered a huge amount of traffic on the ride home in what coincidentally was the world's hottest bus. I felt bad for people who were standing the entire ride home. 

Studying these scavenger maps at Keukenhof

Very excited about cotton candy. This was the first time in my memory that I said each kid could have their own cotton candy and Dae said he thought one was enough for them to share. He's coming around...

The ham known as Olin has been monopolizing our otherwise picturesque photos

Squeezed amongst Asian tourists.

Another pic opp monopolized

Zip line at Keukenhof

We had a hard time finding bike parking at Centraal Station, and I got a "warning ticket" the first day we parked! I didn't realize I was double parked. It was an orange sticker they place on your handlebars telling you they're going to tow your bike away if you don't move it. haha.

Olin didn't pop any balloons but they gave him a great elephant stuffed animal anyway.

Our house is the white one in the middle. The turquoise jacket you can just see is Dae in front.

My new (secondhand) front rack! The nice shop owner gave it to me for free. 

FEBO, round 2

Chinese and Kornese, in Amsterdam, eating Chinese take out. It was popular, and delicious.

Outside our apartment. I'm wearing my new lace shirt from a shop on Haarlemmerstraat. It's a little risqué but ok for Europe. ha!