what does it take...

since i've just started back to running (my half marathon in amsterdam is exactly 2 months away!) - you might be wondering "what does it really take to get out of the house for a run these days?"

in the picture above - you can see graham on the scooter, helen on her loopfiets, jayden on his bike, and jillian in the jogger. but as i'm sure you can guess - it doesn't take long for helen to get tired and ask to ride in the jogger..... it doesn't take long for graham's one leg (from scooting on the scooter) to get tired... and finally it doesn't take long for jayden to agree to switch with graham for a bit to give his "tired leg" (yep - just one leg) a rest! it's no wonder my overall pace time is so slow for my runs! but at least we're all outside together and i'm getting SOME training done.

as you can see from the picture - we have beautiful paths to ride and run on here... truely a runners dream! (this path is literally right next to our home - you can see the fence on the left that borders our grounds) the path that the kids are on in this picture is actually a formal bike path (running, walking, etc is also allowed on this path). however to the right of the path is a place specifically for horses. yep and i'm sure you know what comes along with horses....... poop! it's kind of nice that the horses have a separate path though - that way when you are riding your bike or running - you don't have to worry too much about dodging poop. so the kids know to stay clear of the horse path for sure!

happy girl ready for a ride!

yep - helen got tired and is riding in the jogger ALREADY!

these signs are all around the area near the bike paths. the sign states the distance between the different towns (in kilometers, of course). it also helps the bikers follow the paths without a tomtom :) we believe the bike paths used to be actual roads (perhaps for horse drawn carriages) because many of them have actual street names that can be found on a map and the trees that line the bike paths are very tall - planted many, many years ago. pretty cool!

i snapped a picture of a farm along our running route.

G.J.H. Eiffel

the boys picked 2 facts each about the Eiffel Tower and wrote them on a poster board

jayden expresses his thoughts as to how we should begin building our Eiffel Tower

helen helps too!

A.G. Eiffel may have designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris - but i bet he never thought to design one out of Kit Kat and Twix bars! G.J.H stands for Graham, Jayden, and Helen :)

Since we recently visited Paris, I thought it might be fun for the kids to obtain some facts from the internet about the Eiffel Tower and then build a tower out of chocolate. The kids picked out the candy bars at the store and Ross helped them obtain the facts about the tower. We built the tower together as a family... even Jillian watched the kids working. Although I'm not exactly sure that our Eiffel Tower turned out much like the real one.... it was so much fun to do this with the kids!

picnic tafel

as it seems with any task that i take on lately- it's going to be an adventure for sure!

although the summer is almost over - we decided that we needed a picnic table for the back porch. so the kids and i tried to track down a picnic table and chairs.... but as i started to go to the few stores that i know have these kinds of things (boy where is a lowes or menards when you need one?)

.... i found that the summer season is almost over!.... and picnic tables and chairs are hard to find. so the kids and i found the perfect picnic table at a nice outdoor garden store nearby.... it was even on sale! ... however the store did not have enough chairs for our family. i knew of 1 other store that had some chairs that i though might work.... so off we ran (or should i say - drove the car!... too far to run!). i tried my best attempt at speaking dutch to the sales person at the store to hold the picnic tafel for me while i checked another store for the chairs. (because i could not return the table once i bought it!).....

success! we found 6 chairs that i thought would look ok with the picnic tafel from the other store. so i bought the chairs.... and we drove back to the other store to buy the table. now i wondered if the table, chairs, and all 4 kids would fit in my van? .... not to mention the stroller that was already in the van. yep! just barely!

i must admit i have enjoyed using the picnic table outside... the biggest advantage ..... i don't have to clean up nearly as many crumbs on the dining room floor in the house!

and the tea cup pot - how cool is that? i know my sister, jenny, would absolutely love it!

my big girl!

forgot 1 picture for my last post - helen's little friend taught her how to make an ijse (dutch word for ice cream) with her bubbles. now when helen blows bubbles - she tries to catch one on the top of the container and says "ijse!"

my jillian is ready for some cereal!

sorry for the bad flash off the box of rice cereal.... i can't believe my baby girl is ready for some solid foods!

well.... maybe not! at first she was not sure about this stuff...

after multiple swipes at my yogurt dish and spoon during lunch for the last week or so - i decided it was time for jillian to try some solid food... after after she'll be 6 months old next week.

just a taste the night i took these photos - however she did try some more rice cereal with milk last night and loved it! i was reading somewhere (can't remember the source now) - but the author actually stated that you don't really have to start with rice cereal as the "1st food"..... kind of makes sense to me.... since we have been lucky enough that the kids have no known food allergies i decided that tonight we would try carrots - at first she was excited... but after about 5 spoonfuls she decided the spoon was more interesting.

you might be wondering why carrots as the first food? - well i'm going to tell you anyway even if you weren't wondering... with the other 3 kids i have always done sweet potatoes as the kids 1st food.... after searching the baby food aisle today at the store for at least 5 minutes ... i could not find sweet potatoes... so we opted for carrots as jillian's 1st foods!! i can make the kids fruits in the "puree" form... but have never had good luck with the veggies!

my last baby is growing up! sniff.... sniff

summertime

today as i was hanging out some laundry - i just had that sense that fall was coming.... the air was crisp not humid like the middle of summer

helen and her friends (the 2 girls are sisters... grandchildren of our neighbors nearby) blowing bubbles in the backyard... i am amazed at how well they play together.... helen speaks english and the girls speak dutch... yet they LOVE to play together and manage to communicate pretty well without many words.

as the days get shorter here (by that i mean it's actually dark by 10pm and not completely light until almost midnight!) and the temperatures get a little cooler (the temperatures are now averaging about 65-70 now) - i feel like summer is really coming to an end! i had one of those moments where you can just "smell that fall is in the air". the air is crisp... no longer humid.... this sky is really blue and the clouds are puffy.

only 2 more weeks and the kids go back to school already... summer holiday goes by so much faster when the kids are only home for 6 weeks though. however, the kids also get a one week break in october, a one week break in february, two weeks off at christmas, and two weeks off in may - so overall the time away from school seems to be the same as in america.

the boys have been very busy with their "summer reading program". each week they have a goal to read a certain number of books and at the end of each week we have a "ceremony" where we check off the number of books they have read and talk about the prize that they have earned for that particular week. each week the number of books that they have to read increases. they record the title of each of the books that they have read in a little notebook... this not only gets them some reading practice with the books ... but writing practice too!

so far they have earned: a pair of soccer shorts, a t shirt from disney, and an ice cream cone @ the italian ice place in town.

the boys have also kept a "journal" of some of the places we have visited. about once or twice a week i have them write in this journal and then they draw a picture above their words. on the 1st pass - i do not help them with any spelling or words. then we sit down together and talk about their entry... on the 2nd pass we work on correcting the mis-spelled words. graham (as a suggestion from his teacher) then writes the words that he mis-spelled 4 times so he can learn the correct way to spell the words. jayden usually does a pretty good job trying to sound out the words as he writes them down too... i'm pretty impressed since he will only be starting kindergarten this fall.

i promise - this is the closest i will EVER get to homeschooling :)..... i do not have nearly enough patience! i have enjoyed working with the boys over the summer though.

we must not forget helen and jillian in all these activities too... usually helen is trying to draw her own picture next to the boys and sometimes jillian sits on my lap while the kids are working. helen has been working on her colors and numbers this summer..... now that she realizes that everything is NOT purple or pink - we have moved on to the letters of the alphabet.

Disney (part 3 of 3)

i love the look of happiness on jayden's face - we were at the playhouse disney show.

seriously - how can these headbands be comfortable? i saw so many people wearing these headbands around the park all day...... i personally think wearing a headband is so uncomfortable! oh and they only sold minnie .... no plain mickey ears!

my blue-eyed beauty and her handsome blue-eyed daddy!

jayden talked about going to see the Cars movie characters weeks before we arrived at disney!

jillian and her big brothers.......helen and ross are standing in the background waiting for a stroller.... we decided on our 2nd day at disney that it would be best for helen to ride in a stroller

Disney (Part 2 of 3)

such intricate details on all the characters... even down to the make-up...... this photo was taken at one of the many parades we watched

my princess waiting for her signature from cinderella

she told me she wanted to "pose" for a picture!

sisterly LOVE!

mad hatters tea-cup ride! jillian and i sat this one out!