Summer Vacation 2010 Part II -- The USA

Hello Summer 2010! Tubing on the lake in Dad's new boat.

Dara, our previous babysitter from Cambodia came to visit us. She now works as an au pair near Boston. We all miss her tons and are so happy she could visit us.

Lets go FAST!!

It is chilly here when you get out of the water. We have gotten so used to warm weather and water in Cambodia!

We went hiking at Swallow Falls with Dara.

Time for a snack.

Family photo with the tall fall in the background.

All the snow from last winter made the falls and water high.

Back at the house. Nothing better than a free kayak ride!

Dara and Charlotte together at the lake. Two worlds colliding. Dinner at Steve Senior's house.

One last boat trip before Dara has to fly back to Boston!

Happy Fourth of July!

The annual Fourth of July MMLane parade! Complete with decorated

bikes,homemade necklaces, painted faces and people on stilts.

Jim proudly riding his new bike, named "The Kennedy" after playing

football by bike, much like the Kennedy's did once upon a time.

Part of the parade!

Watching Holland play another victory during this sweet World Cup.

Our friends B and E in Baltimore were happy to go orange with us when we visited them.

S has watched every game possible and kept score in her sticker book.

The final against Spain has just started here.

Intense game. Almost too hard to watch...

We ran into Bill at the Dulles airport when we arrived this summer. It had been 4 years since had seen him. We had just arrived from our detour to Holland and Bill had come in from India. We were able to convince Bill to come see us with Donna at the lake to catch up and rehash Cairo stories. They arrived just in time for the final and effectively consoled us with some wine and funny stories after Holland's loss to Spain.

Chef Jim cooking up a storm. The part of the deck behind him has a

restored buffet but the roof was installed later that summer.

Lets hope winter 2010/11 will do less damage to our lake house.

We are going on a hike to Swallow Falls because it is Nana's birthday.

Birthday picnic lunch by the falls.

Cake and presents tonight after a bbq dinner.

Birthday girl and two of her granddaughters.

Jim, Cathy and S at the top of the falls.

We still need to find one of the boxes hidden by the falls.

Can you read it again please Uncle John?

We're going on adventure with Kim and the kids. Drive to the river, hike down and cross the railroad, reach the river bank, swim in the water falls and have a picnic. Bask in the sun on a rock and listen to the silence of nature. Pure heaven on earth.

The current is strong in this part of the river. Swim baby, swim!

Summer Vacation 2010 Part I -- The Netherlands

So great to see Oma and Opa again! Oma is showing S some herbs, Opa is getting some help with the dishes from E. Of course the kids showed off their report cards and received a few Euros. S is not looking her usual best. We only found out a week later that she was in the middle of full blown Mono (Pfeiffer) while visiting Holland. We thought the end of the school year and the jetlag were just harder than usual...

Summer 2010 was all about Football!

These pics are at the beginning of World Cup 2010.

Hup Holland Hup!

Even the youngest learn to be fans from an early age.

Our nephew M. sweetie!!

Harry Potter Birthday Party

S choose a Harry Potter Birthday Party this year. We had a lot of fun planning it and the kids had a great time. Some kids came dressed up as wizards and witches, one girls was in uniform and one boy had the official Quiditch cape! They all started the party by making magic wands with real feathers inside.

The Sorting Hat came alive again and sorted kids into the two Hogwarts houses represented: Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. You guessed correctly that S ended up in Gryffindor.

The two houses played each other in a game of Quiditch on real brooms with lots of "flying" balls and a golden snitch. Unfortunately it was almost 40C outside so after 10 minutes we had some Butterbeer and popcorn at the airconditioned Leaky Cauldron.

Creating Lava Lamps during science class with Professor Snape.

Decorating goblets with gems during art class.

After writing class with quills and a dragon egg hunt in the forbidden forest with Hagrid, it was time for the traditional party highlight: the birthday cake and Happy Birthday sung in two languages.

Presents made the day complete. While the parents lingered at pick up time with a cold drink and appetizer the kids got comfortable inside and watched the first Harry Potter movie. We had let S watch it once on a long plane ride before and she was impressed I had actually bought her the movie at the Russian Market. So far she has only read the first and second book. I guess she's a real fan now and is probably old enough to move on to book three...

Birthday Girl

S turned nine years old this month. Could it really be true? Nine already? Was I walking around the streets of Maadi with a big pregnant belly nine years ago? It really feels like yesterday. Happy Birthday oldest daughter!

Giving is as much fun as receiving. E picked out a white fluffy stuffed dog for her big sister.

The traditional cupcakes to bring to school and treat the class. Decorating them is half the fun.

S in her third grade classroom
(which is really a 2/3 combination class.)

S and Ms. Andrea, her wonderful teacher who is from Canada.

Koninginnedag / Queen Beatrix's Birthday

(Meester Willem giving kids instructions)

Every year the Dutch celebrate Queen Beatrix's birthday. It is actually her mother's birthday on April 30 but Bea has kept this date in her honor.

The Dutch abroad tend to go a little crazy for all things Dutch and orange. The Queen's birthday has quite a budget from the Dutch school and embassy in Bangkok. The day for Dutchies in Phnom Penh was spend at Gasolina, a local restaurant that rents out its large garden for events.

Kids and grown ups alike spend the day at traditional games like tug of war and walking on stilts.

There was a bike decorating contest.

And poffertjes (mini pancakes) to eat!

The queen's birthday is also the only day in the Netherlands when you are allowed to sell your junk on the streets without having to pay taxes. It's called a vrijmarkt. E helped me sell of some of our old toys but mostly kept shopping at other people's stands. I think we left with more than we came.