A Saturday in London

Ever since we moved to England, the kiddies have been asking to visit Daddy's office (something we could do weekly in Switzerland.)  So we took off to London to show them where Daddy disappears to everyday.  Highlights:  picking out their favorite skyscrapers, playing hide and seek, raiding the pantry for cookies and apples and video conferencing each other.  We spent almost 2 hours there and they had no intention of leaving until we mentioned Hyde Park and ice cream.  Needless to say, they think Daddy has a great job.

I wish I had taken a picture of them on the Tube.  They love the train and make friends with everyone around them, that is unless they are openly discussing how "stinky" it smells.  

We spent the rest of the day at Kensington Garden's Princes Diana Memorial Playground.  It was great.  We were so busy enjoying the park that we didn't take many pictures.  However we did document Will's first taste of sand.

Portugal

Anthony and I escaped to Algarve, Portugal for 4 days to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary.  We did a whole lot of this:  beaches, pools, napping, tennis, surfing, massages and golfing.  It was amazing, just what a vacation for two should be.  

Marsh Farm

We took the kids to a really great petting zoo while Chelsi was with us(a great au pair with a too short visit to London).  We all had a ball and enjoyed a near-empty park on an overcast day.

Three

Matthew's first "friends" birthday party was a complete success:  kiddie pool, trampoline, sand pit, bubble machine, "pass the parcel," cupcakes and presents.  Anthony made fabulous BBQ for the parents and our friends Sam and Sam even brought their pet gerbils for added kiddie entertainment.  And we couldn't have asked for better sunny weather, the famous English rain held off until at least 2 hours after the party ended!

Our "Little Bear" isn't so little anymore.  And as if the natural growing up wasn't enough for a mom to cope with, he has officially told me not to call him Bear anymore, he is now "Big-kid Monkey."

Chicken Pox

It was the season for Chicken Pox at our pre-school and Matthew brought it home and shared it with his best buddy.  Thankfully Matthew finished it before his birthday party, and Will, although 10x worse than Matthew's, wasn't bothered at all.  We are happy to be a spot-free house now!

Dressing Up

a girl date

"How to Train a Dragon" 3D

First Golf Lesson

Jammies

There is something about freshly bathed, pajama'd kids that just makes me happy.  Especially when it's these four.

Easter Break - Brugge and Kinderdijk

First stop: Brugge, Belgium. We can't decide what we enjoyed most:

The food...

...the architecture...

...the statues (especially climbing on statues, which became Andrew's favorite sport over the course of this trip. Don't worry, we didn't let him climb on Michelangelo's Madonna and Child)...

...or the company.

Next up, Kinderdijk, Netherlands, which has a great collection of windmills.

This was the view from our hotel room. A true photographer would have woken up at 6AM to capture the sunrise. This shot was taken at around 8AM.

We figured this would be a good setting to take some good family pictures. Unfortunately, the weather (windy and cold) and the kids (not willing to hold still, smile, or look at the camera) did not cooperate.

Anthony lingered to take pictures, while everyone else ran back to the car to get warm. This ended up being the best family picture we got: four people looking at the camera if you include Anthony's reflection.

Easter Break - Delft

After Kinderdijk, we stopped for lunch in Delft, which, besides being a cute town, is famous for its pottery. We weren't a fan of the pottery so none is pictured here, but here is the cute town.

Also more statue climbing, and a new event: door climbing.

Easter Break - Zandvoort

We stayed a few days in Zandvoort, just outside of Haarlem.

Hat and gloves, 4 layers of clothing: not exactly the ideal apparel for a beach holiday. Fortunately we had a nice pool where we stayed.

Easter Break - Aalsmeer

The Aalsmeer Flower Auction takes place in the third largest building in the world. Trainloads of flowers move through this place on a daily basis. It was a pretty amazing sight. Anthony has toured a lot of plants and factories for due diligence trips at work. This was by far the best smelling industrial complex he's ever seen.

Easter Break - Keukenhof

Although the first half of the trip was great, we questioned the wisdom in vacationing in mid April, especially in a place as windy as Holland. At the Keukenhof we remembered why we planned it for when we did, and had no regrets.

7 million flower bulbs in bloom. Simply amazing.

"Who can find the best smelling flower?" A game that could have kept us busy all day.

Looking up, it was easy to imagine where Van Gogh got his inspiration for his "Almond Blossom"

The Lilly pads were our favorite. Andrew liked doing something more dangerous than smelling flowers.



After watching our family attempt about 10 family portraits with the tripod and self-timer, onlookers must have been amused. After about 20, they just felt sorry for us and offered to make noises and push the button so our kids would look at the camera. Almost got everybody (except will) looking this time (center picture).

Aalsmeer and Keukenhof in the same day make for a lot of flowers (and a lot of photos) (if you are really interested in actually seeing these photos, you can click on them a couple times to make larger).

Easter Break - Edam

A relaxing day in the charming towns of Volendam and Edam, North of Amsterdam.

Easter Break - Amsterdam

Final stop on our tour: Amsterdam!