Familiar Faces

We have seen more old friends in the last few days than we did our entire 2 years in Michigan. We drove to Amsterdam last week for a few days and met our friends with their 3 children also in tow. We spent two days together exploring Amsterdam and that was long enough. There aren't many child friendly places to visit there, but it was great to hang out with friends and at least experience another country. And it is a whole other country. The Netherlands and Belgium may be neighbors, but they are very different. Amsterdam has a very small town feel to it and reminded us of college, but that is probably because we haven't lived any place where it is possible to smell pot on a daily basis since college (yes, we know it is probably possible in Dallas and Detroit, but we lived in the 'burbs so we have been very sheltered these last few years...) The streets and sidewalks were filled with bicycles and their very aggressive riders. Because we have 3 children and our friends have the same we paid most attention to the parents in our same situation and the particular bikes they were riding with 1, 2 or 3 children strapped on. I must say I admire the Dutch. I don't know that my biking skills are good enough to pedal myself along with my children in a skirt and heels, no less. Our "American-ness" was apparent as we discussed the safety (or lack there of) of each of the different child seats attached to the bikes and the fact that we rarely saw helmets on anyone.

We visited the Anne Frank house which really helped the book come alive to me. It really makes a difference to actually see where history happened. Of course it was so sad to see the pictures and read the commentary, but still fascinating to see where they actually lived. We didn't visit any of the other museums because we were sure our children wouldn't have much interest in Dutch art or where Rembrandt lived, but we did a lot of walking and had a fabulous time just being with and enjoying our friends.

We met up with our friends from college, James and Sydney, who were kind enough to hold our place in the never ending line to visit the Anne Frank house and even spent the first part of their European vacation hanging out with two families of 5! They intend to end their vacation here with us in Brussels and we are really looking forward to seeing them again.

We visited our friend, Simi, who has been living in Amsterdam the past 2 1/2 years and she took us to dinner on one of the canals after we changed our plans multiple times. She has become one of "them" and rode her bike to meet us. We were told that she has kept the same bike the entire time she has lived there and most go through at least a bike a year...we were a little nervous when we were given bike duty for a few minutes while she visited an ATM, but we managed to keep up with all 6 children, our personal belongings and the bike regardless of the pick pockets, thieves and junkies we were assured are rampant in Amsterdam.

We enjoyed our dining experiences in Amsterdam, though we did visit Mickey D's a few times. Hey, we have kids. We went to a fabulous pancake house at the recommendation of our friend and the kids were thrilled to get toys along with their pancakes even better than those at Mickey D's. Of course, the price indicated these were very special pancakes, but after we saw the toys, we understood. Nathan got the "surprise" pancake which came with a clay set. Hannah got the "princess" pancake complete with tiara. (Although it only lasted one day because a certain older brother managed to sit on it and break it...we dried the tears by reminding her we were about to go back a second time, but had to disappoint because the crazy place was closed on a Friday until noon!) That was just another European moment for us (I plan to blog on our European moments at a later date). We had been there the day before at 11 and the sign on the door said open daily at noon...we never did figure it out and searched through all of the "coffee houses" for a place that actually served breakfast and not the "happy breakfast" with menus not appropriate for growing families.

We finished out our stay in Amsterdam by visiting a park and had our daily ice cream, which seems obligatory when on vacation. It was nice to see another part of the city where the regular people live.

Our friends joined us back here for one night before heading back to England. They had been traveling for an entire week through France and Belgium before meeting us in Holland and were ready to get back home. The kids all had a great time playing together. It was wonderful to see our friends again and actually meet each other's kids.

This weekend was gorgeous. The kids were out in the garden each day swimming in the little pool and slipping on the "slippy slide" as Hannah says. We were able to visit another friend we hadn't seen since last fall in Michigan. She was here working in Antwerp all week and stopped by after a little sight seeing to visit.

Daddy worked hard to put together a couple of screens for the bedroom windows to help with the bug bite problems. We have managed to get everyone to fall asleep in our room with the a/c on while it has been warm and then move them to their beds once the rooms cool off at night. We are still learning as we go in this area.

Sarah has tried her first pears and loved them. She had a lot of help eating from big brother and big sister. They are excited that she has another 2 teeth coming in along with the first!

We missed celebrating Nana and Papa's 35th anniversary this weekend, but send lots of hugs, kisses and love to the happy couple. We miss everyone so much and can't wait until we get to see our family and friends who haven't made it this way yet. It helped to ease our home sickness to see so many friendly faces, but we honestly can't wait until the next friendly face shows up on our doorstep or for us to show up on yours!