Second to the last trip

Can you guess where we went last weekend? Our original plans were to see some tulips, but apparently they bloomed and died early this year. Other things that we saw included, the Vincent Van Gogh museum. Micah was surprised and impressed to actually see "original paintings?" from the artist himself. I think my kids would recognize any of his paintings after the experience.

We also floated by Anne Franks house on the many canals of its capital city. We took a trip to the home town of Corrie Ten Boom and saw her house (the author of the Hiding Place). We tried the beach, again, but were blown off by the fierce winds (we are not having luck with our beach trips out here) and landed in a park that was dangerous by American standards, but fun for all, including Mom and Dad. Many of the rides were self-propelled, or parent propelled. We all got our exercise. Taylor informed some friendly locals that he "doesn't speak Spanish, you know." I got laughed at by some other kids, when I tried to speak to them in German. I guess German isn't as close to their native tongue as I thought. I should have learned the phrase "don't cut in line, kiddo!" before coming to this country. (Well, actually that would be great in any language.)

Any guesses?

The birthday party that wasn't

When I imagined being a parent, I expected to love party planning. It turns out that I stress out about having people over and planning fun games for a pack of children. Fortunately, Greg and Micah planned Micah's 9th birthday party, with several fun games that young boys would enjoy. Micah and I made the invitations and got them sent out. Everything was set up with little work and little stress.
The one problem we didn't anticipate was that it memorial day weekend and we live in Europe, where most American take off to Italy, France or the Netherlands when school and work are out. Fast forwarding to the end of this story, everyone chose to travel. No one came, even those who said they could.
It turned out to be one of those hard life lessons. Greg and I quickly discussed plans A/B/C, to redeem the day. We debated calling "back-up" friends, gathering German kids from the neighborhood, and making a trip to the store for a new DS game for a distraction. We decided to keep it low key and it turned into a family party with all the party games and treat bags to ourselves! Micah got to beat-up the pinata all by himself, bombard his parents with water balloons and there was plenty of treats for all! We played a couple of more party games, had a family movie night, ate cake for dinner and ended the day at the park.
Micah did go to bed with still a sting of sadness. We chatted for a bit to help relieve some of the disappointment. I assured him that he would feel better in the morning. Also, that his friends would rather have spent their weekend with him, than in Paris or Rome. We are going to line-up a few play dates before we leave and will probably deliver some of the treat bags.
Of course, I feel pretty guilty about dropping the ball. With hindsight, I realize I could have been more aggressive in pursuing hard "yeses." Part of the problem was I don't know the parents of most of the kids we invited and had no phone numbers and or any contact information. We invited kids from School and no one from church, where most of my friends are. I need to get myself out there more and get to know the parents of Micah's school friends. Ugghhh.....

Pinewood Derby

Ibiza revisited