Friday, November 30, 2012
Updates
All right family, you have been fully updated and bombarded with photos, hope you enjoy!! Tomorrow we are flying to Iceland for 4 days and there are so many fun things I have planned (as you can imagine). Hope to hear how much you love the pics soon, hint hint!
Last Full Day in Amsterdam
We had a perfect final day here! We were quiet this morning, doing homework on the top bunk,
and while I was doing laundry and packing Tasiana gave herself whiskers.
Then at 3 we made new friends with a friend of a friend (yes I was set up before leaving Colorado!) and her two boys - Jack is 5 and Luke is 3. The kids played, we went to the cafe, the kids played some more. We had to tear the kids apart at 6 only because it was so frigid outside. Makoa said he was happy and sad, happy to make a new friend but sad to be leaving him.
You can see the sad and happy faces he drew in chalk, ah how sweet :)
On the way home the kids and I ducked into a pizza and pasta place and Don walked by a few minutes later to join us. There are so many more things I have on my list to do here, so we must come again!
and while I was doing laundry and packing Tasiana gave herself whiskers.
Then at 3 we made new friends with a friend of a friend (yes I was set up before leaving Colorado!) and her two boys - Jack is 5 and Luke is 3. The kids played, we went to the cafe, the kids played some more. We had to tear the kids apart at 6 only because it was so frigid outside. Makoa said he was happy and sad, happy to make a new friend but sad to be leaving him.
You can see the sad and happy faces he drew in chalk, ah how sweet :)
On the way home the kids and I ducked into a pizza and pasta place and Don walked by a few minutes later to join us. There are so many more things I have on my list to do here, so we must come again!
Jewish Historical Museum
When Don and I came to Amsterdam in 2005 visiting the Anne Frank House was the #1 thing I wanted to see. I remember reading her diary in school and her courage in such a terrible time was amazing and her descriptions made the whole thing so real. Not just another war story, but an actual diary of what one girl went through. To see where she lived for two years was amazing, but I didn't think that it would be a good fit this visit so the kids and I opted for the Jewish Historical Museum instead. We read the Story of Anne Frank (an Early Reader book I brought with us) and I answered a gazillion questions on our walk.
The entire museum would probably have been awesome, but we stuck to the Kinder Museum which was fantastic. It is set up like a house and every room as an activity and video. The kids watched the wall talk in the hallway.
Learned how to write their names and some other key words in Hebrew.
Hear about the main meaning of the Torah.
Bake bread in the Kosher kitchen.
And then eat it!
And play music in the music room. Tasi made up a whole song for me too!
On the way out I wanted to be in a picture too :)
(Hey look at me, I was there too!)
We had lunch downstairs at the cafe - I had the best brie sandwich on a bagel EVER and the kids had a "so delicious" sandwich according to Tas. On the walk home we stopped at the candy shop, again! And got some groceries for a homemade dinner (so nice to be staying in an apartment with our own stove and washing machine.)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tun Fun
We HAD to get out today. It took some convincing (and 2 horrible tram rides) to get the kids to Tun Fun, but we made it. Tun Fun is a tunnel converted into play center.
It was great with ball pits and jumping castles and mazes and climbing areas and slides and . . . well you get the idea :)
Tasiana was singing songs on this stage to the bouncy castle! And of course the place was decorated for Christmas with 'Welcome Sinterklaas' above and a lot of these hanging around . . . different.
We decided not to tram it on the way home so we walked and stopped along the way. The kids were great through the candy store (of course!) and grocery store and I even found Makoa a cheese sandwich for dinner. Tasi was so tired but she kept saying the nee-oh sound of the sirens, little did I know this would mean so much in an hour.
I walked in the door at about 7pm, hoping my phone would work for just a minute to unlock the door (a cool technology where you call a number to open the door). As we looked up the front door to our apartment was open so we were a little nervous, then we walked in and the window was open too, all of a sudden the neighbor was behind me handing me a phone saying "owner" who then yelled "do you have a death wish or something?" It is still a little unclear but what I figure is that somehow the gas on the stove was left on (the 'off' and the 'lowest' are opposites of each other and look very similar), Don came home at 6:30 to drop off his computer and when he opened the door must have let out some of the gas smell, alarming the neighbors who called the fire department who came in and opened the house up. Needless to say it was a bit chaotic when the kids and I came home and after then meeting the owner who wanted to check on things and apologizing profusely and being so worried and looking up scary things online, all is good now. Don came home about an hour later and I had a lot of venting to do!
It was great with ball pits and jumping castles and mazes and climbing areas and slides and . . . well you get the idea :)
Tasiana was singing songs on this stage to the bouncy castle! And of course the place was decorated for Christmas with 'Welcome Sinterklaas' above and a lot of these hanging around . . . different.
We decided not to tram it on the way home so we walked and stopped along the way. The kids were great through the candy store (of course!) and grocery store and I even found Makoa a cheese sandwich for dinner. Tasi was so tired but she kept saying the nee-oh sound of the sirens, little did I know this would mean so much in an hour.
I walked in the door at about 7pm, hoping my phone would work for just a minute to unlock the door (a cool technology where you call a number to open the door). As we looked up the front door to our apartment was open so we were a little nervous, then we walked in and the window was open too, all of a sudden the neighbor was behind me handing me a phone saying "owner" who then yelled "do you have a death wish or something?" It is still a little unclear but what I figure is that somehow the gas on the stove was left on (the 'off' and the 'lowest' are opposites of each other and look very similar), Don came home at 6:30 to drop off his computer and when he opened the door must have let out some of the gas smell, alarming the neighbors who called the fire department who came in and opened the house up. Needless to say it was a bit chaotic when the kids and I came home and after then meeting the owner who wanted to check on things and apologizing profusely and being so worried and looking up scary things online, all is good now. Don came home about an hour later and I had a lot of venting to do!
Travel Day (again) to Amsterdam (again)
Today we went on a train to Paris, followed by a wonderful lunch outside the train station, then rode the high-speed train to Amsterdam. Under 3 hours, love it! We weren't all sitting together, but Makoa and I were by a nice retired couple from the Netherlands and there were lots of MineCon attendees in our cabin who all smiled at Makoa in his Minecraft shirt and never ending chatter about the conference!
We made it to Amsterdam and to our Air B&B apartment without too much fuss and Don ran to the store for the fruit and vegetables we were missing so much at Disney and we fell into bed after eating.
Disneyland and Minecon
With our MineCon tickets we also got a reduced fare to Disneyland and we could not pass up 29euro for the day so off we went! I finally felt better after lunch time, thank goodness Mommy did not get that flu the family had. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean that was not Jack Sparrow-ified like in LA and while Don and Makoa went on Star Tours (yes the same as it was in the 80s!) Tas and I went to check out the snow-characters.
Much to our pleasure the Christmas parade came by! It was so magical for Tasiana. She got to stand right at the end of the sidewalk and Santa even waved at her. She made me hold her up and continued to watch Micky and Minnie dance until the were too far away.
After quickly going on Thunder Mountain we left to catch the end of MineCon. We took pictures by the animals, checked out the haunted house like Mob Cave, and watched the closing ceremony. Makoa was heartbroken when it was over.
So sad little boy tears.
It was dinner time and we had to make up for last nights ice cream cone let down so off to Planet Hollywood we went. Don's coworker was at MineCon as well so he helped sing Happy Birthday and share a ginormous brownie sundae!
It was 7 but we were not done for the night, with more Disneyland to visit are you kidding?! Disneyland Paris is celebrating its 20th year, and it is Christmastime - I love visiting at night and seeing all of the lights.
A few more rides,
(this is what Don and Tas do in line!) And a few more photos.
And time to call it a night!
Much to our pleasure the Christmas parade came by! It was so magical for Tasiana. She got to stand right at the end of the sidewalk and Santa even waved at her. She made me hold her up and continued to watch Micky and Minnie dance until the were too far away.
After quickly going on Thunder Mountain we left to catch the end of MineCon. We took pictures by the animals, checked out the haunted house like Mob Cave, and watched the closing ceremony. Makoa was heartbroken when it was over.
So sad little boy tears.
It was dinner time and we had to make up for last nights ice cream cone let down so off to Planet Hollywood we went. Don's coworker was at MineCon as well so he helped sing Happy Birthday and share a ginormous brownie sundae!
It was 7 but we were not done for the night, with more Disneyland to visit are you kidding?! Disneyland Paris is celebrating its 20th year, and it is Christmastime - I love visiting at night and seeing all of the lights.
A few more rides,
(this is what Don and Tas do in line!) And a few more photos.
And time to call it a night!
Birthday-Minecon-Disney Studios- Oh My!
My baby is 6 today, wait, what?!! I cannot believe that it is Makoa's birthday and he is 6! Yay, happy birthday kiddo!
We had Makoa's favorite breakfast, buffet. When I asked him what he wanted on our trip he replied, 'choose your own breakfast buffet'. Done!
Back in our room Makoa got to open his presents that the Grandma's sent with us. Minecraft, Ninjago, and generous spending money were the themes. Thanks family it really made it special to have presents and you thinking of us!!!
After a brief play with new toys it was time for MineCon. I love that the kids wore their costumes to MineCon! I worked so hard on Makoa's dwarf and Tasiana's Steve costumes. It made me so happy to see them on.
They even made it on the big screen!
After the opening ceremonies, some computer play, checking out an Enderman and Minecraft animals,
and generally being overstimulated paired with not much sleep the night before meant we had to go home for a nap. Makoa was so mad he pouted, hid himself, and promptly fell asleep - under the bed!
Disney Studios was open for MineCon attendees at 8pm. We did not however, leave enough time for dinner in Disney lines so Makoa's birthday dinner was a fast food cheese sandwich and a Cornetto ice cream cone that he so nicely shared with his sister. Not ideal, but we did sing Happy Birthday.
Disney Studios was SO FUN! I wasn't feeling well though so Don took the kids on every ride, and I took pictures while sitting down saying "please don't be sick, please don't be sick".
Then home to bed . . . at 11pm!
We had Makoa's favorite breakfast, buffet. When I asked him what he wanted on our trip he replied, 'choose your own breakfast buffet'. Done!
Back in our room Makoa got to open his presents that the Grandma's sent with us. Minecraft, Ninjago, and generous spending money were the themes. Thanks family it really made it special to have presents and you thinking of us!!!
After a brief play with new toys it was time for MineCon. I love that the kids wore their costumes to MineCon! I worked so hard on Makoa's dwarf and Tasiana's Steve costumes. It made me so happy to see them on.
They even made it on the big screen!
After the opening ceremonies, some computer play, checking out an Enderman and Minecraft animals,
and generally being overstimulated paired with not much sleep the night before meant we had to go home for a nap. Makoa was so mad he pouted, hid himself, and promptly fell asleep - under the bed!
Disney Studios was open for MineCon attendees at 8pm. We did not however, leave enough time for dinner in Disney lines so Makoa's birthday dinner was a fast food cheese sandwich and a Cornetto ice cream cone that he so nicely shared with his sister. Not ideal, but we did sing Happy Birthday.
Disney Studios was SO FUN! I wasn't feeling well though so Don took the kids on every ride, and I took pictures while sitting down saying "please don't be sick, please don't be sick".
Then home to bed . . . at 11pm!
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