over the hills and through the woods to helen's school we go

yet another great "adventure" story from this euro-mom....

today was helen's first day of preschool. we have enrolled her in a dutch preschool 2 mornings a week and today was supposed to be her first day. as i have learned, here in holland the best way to get around is by bike. so yesterday i took the kids in the bike (along with the tom tom) and we found her school. when i got home, i told ross that i thought the school might be a bit far away by bike to get helen to school and then drop off the boys at their school. i thought i should probably take the van. ross told me that with traffic (currently a main road near helen's school is closed due to road construction) - it was probably better to take the bike. (bikes get to go everywhere! - even when roads are closed.)

helen's school starts about 30 minutes before the boys school, so we headed out 30 minutes earlier this morning to get to helen's school. well, i knew the ride home (from our "trial route") was too easy... it was downhill :) there is a short-cut literally through a forest and open cattle grazing area - so we set out on that path - UPHILL. by the time i got near helen's school i was in a complete sweat! phew! or should i say p-u!

at the school, i had a hard time figuring out which classroom helen was supposed to be in for the morning .... once i figured that out - helen decided she did not want to stay! ugh! this was not part of my "plan"this morning. this is coming from a girl who attended preschool in the states and barely waved goodbye to me when i dropped her off :) i guess i don't blame her... i was a bit confused as to where to drop her off and it seemed that many parents were staying for the morning with their children. i still needed to bike the boys over to their school... with more UPHILL biking. so, after talking with the teacher i decided to take helen with me to the boy's school (and yes the boys were late for school) and bring her back later in the morning.... AFTER i went home to get the van!!!

that's exactly what we did. we went back to the school, jillian and i stayed with helen while she attended that last hour of her preschool. she had a great time playing with her new friends.

now i sit here tonight..... my legs are still burnin'from all those hills...... and i know we'll take the van on thursday to drop her off.... i will drop her off AFTER i take the boys to school until helen is comfortable with the drop-off process.... and me too!

i've included a picture of the kids in the bike.... it's not from this morning - but from a few weekends ago when we watched the bike race. the kids were so tired that they fell asleep!

i will get a picture of helen at her preschool on thursday for sure!