Good Books?

Ella is ready for some new books, and I must admit that I am too. Turning the pages is just a formality now that we have them memorized. Please let us know what the favorite books are in your house.
(photo from Amazon)

I AM STERDAM

[If it didn't take so long to upload pictures, I would find a way to make a slideshow. Instead, we'll just do it the really long post way. lucky you.]

Phew. We now have a solid understanding of why some people choose not to take their kids on vacations other than Grandma's house or the local community pool. There were times where Wayne and I would look across the madness at each other with those eyes that say "WHAT are we doing?" , and then there were plenty of times where we'd look at each other with eyes that said "We are the coolest for doing this!" :) Although, truthfully, I am now craving a vacation of lying on the beach and watching Ella and Jack dig holes in the sand while I just lay.

We divided our time between The Hague, Amsterdam and driving around the northern part of the country. My favorite part was definitely the country. From our research, I gathered that most of the tulip fields were blooming in the south and that they would be "past prime" by the time we got there on our second attempt. This part of our information was correct; however, what we never knew was that these fields are also grouped in the north and bloomed after the south. The grass was green, the sheep were big and wooly, the tulip fields were in their prime, the windmills were turning, the rain was drizzling... it was great. Growing my hair out never felt like a better choice. With wind and rain at some part of every day, a ponytail was undeniably perfect.

While most of our trip was filled with "Dutch" things to do, we loved spending time doing anything that wasn't African. Eating normal food, even if it was a salad from Hard Rock, or playing in local parks with huge slides. The last part of the trip, and admitably one of the best, was visiting the family my family was neighbors with when we lived there nearly 25 years ago. I was mostly doing this visit for my parents. However, it was clear to see that they were in love with seeing me and my family. We felt as though we had known them this entire time. A gift that I would love to work on possessing, making anyone feel completely welcome.





Celebrating Queen's Day in The Hague. Definitely not African.
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This was a miniature version of Holland. Jackson and Ella loved it. I was surprised how well Jack did with keeping his cool about not being able to play with the airplanes and cars!
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We drove along the coast but the dikes keep the ocean from view. Getting out and walking along the dike with all the wind. Wind turbines in the sea. Great view. Sheep grazing along the dike make it even more serene and beautiful.
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Amsterdam was great to walk through. Would have loved to bike, but there are far too many serious bikers for me to attempt it with my kids on the front end of a bike. Canals. Bikes. Amazing architecture.
I want to live in The Netherlands.
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We pulled off the side of the road and asked this man a couple of questions about his field. She felt unbelievably lucky when he gave her a tulip. This came after we had just left a large park that showcases all the different types of tulips and other flowers grown in Holland. The entire time we kept explaining why we can't pick the flowers. Then this guy just up and gives her one. Thanks buddy.
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This is the house my family lived in when I was Ella's age. It did feel familiar. I wonder if my kids are going to come back and find the house we're in now. :)
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Sign Here...

Ella had plenty of time to perfect her "A" while we waited in line after line in the Johannesburg airport. Pretty soon she'll be forging my signature. :)

Hopefully she won't have as much downtime on this next attempt at our vacation.

Volcano Vacation

Travel insurance? It's not as though a volcano is going to erupt and ruin my vacation. Right? Wrong.

We were headed to Holland to enjoy the tulips in their prime on April 16th. I've gotten out of the habit of watching the news and rely on my family to let me know if anything huge is happening. Caroline called me to ask about my flight and whether or not it would be effected by the volcano. This was all news to me. We looked it up and were reassured by the fact that only the UK, Norway and Sweden were closed. We packed our suitcases. A friend here informed us on the morning of the 16th that Amsterdam had closed its airport. Still reassured by the fact that it would open again at 18:00. We wouldn't even catch our connecting flight through South Africa until 23:55. We went to the airport and flew to South Africa that morning. With a ten hour layover, we booked a room at the airport hotel.

This room would be our home until Monday. Like the other 6 bazillion passengers stranded around the world, we waited with the promises of opening in the morning, the next evening, soon.... queue after queue. We waited. Finally, we headed back to Harare.

I was sure that my vacation was out the window. Who knew when the skies would clear up and these tulips weren't going to wait around forever. With everyone at work trying to schedule vacations around each other, this was our small window of time to leave Zimbabwe and now it was over. When would the season, Wayne's work schedule and our family life line up again to get us to Holland to enjoy the tulips in bloom?
After HOURS on the phone and with flights opening back up, we've re-booked our flight on April 28th. Instead of returning to wait with the masses in South Africa, we're going to fly through Nairobi, Kenya. Fingers crossed that I feel safe with their planes and that another natural disaster doesn't happen... at least not until I am in Holland and just get stuck on vacation.

Hide & Re-hide & Re-hide

All week we've enjoyed our Easter eggs. When it's sunny, we hide them outside. When it's raining, we hide them inside. Again. And again. And again. It's actually very entertaining to watch her get better. She eventually decided she wanted to be the one to hide the eggs. I went into the kitchen and peeked through the windows to see where she would hide the 25-ish eggs. Apparently, if you find one good hiding spot, why waste your time looking for 24 others?

JUMP-DANCE- LOVE

Not too unlike other kids her age, Ella loves to JUMP. She jumps on anything possible: beds, couches, down the stairs, through a game of hopscotch, out of the car, off the swing, like a rabbit around the yard, the trampoline, flat on her bum in the grass (ouch)... jump, jump, jump...

(don't ask about the curtains. it pains me just to think about their ugliness. i'm working on it...)

And if she's not jumping, she's dancing in her Cinderella dress. In the past 4 months, she's worn it just about every day. It's starting to fall apart and fray, so it's on the shelf until I can fix it. Tears. And then I convinced her that Cinderella likes to dance in her "normal" dress, too.



And when she's not too busy in motion, she takes a little time for Jack.
He absolutely adores her.