albert heijn

the picture above was not taken in the grocery store... it was taken in a separte house that made cheese

These pictures show a replica shop of the first Albert Heijn grocery store here in the Netherlands. The original store was located in Oostzaan and was built in 1887. The original shop was only 12 square meters and almost all the stock was kept in barrels, cases, and tins in the shop. The only storage outside the shop was a shed for soap, salt, soda, and oil. The pictures show the shop's inventory just as it was in 1887.

A few more interesting facts from the brochure that we picked up while visiting the replica store..... Clogs were displayed in the attic and customers usually came to buy clogs on Sundays after church. The paper bags were made in the local jail by prisoners and the grocer stamped them with his own name.

wooden shoes

.... and a few other "typical dutch" images. we visited a town called Zaanse Schans just north of Amsterdam and along the coast.

laundry!

my (clean) laundry pile is so big thats it's swallowing Jillian......hhhhheeeeeelllllllpppppp!

sint marteen dag (november 11th)

I am a little behind in my blogging - but on Thursday, November 11th - we celebrated Sint Marteen Dag here in the Netherlands. I've cut and pasted the story below from a website that i Googled. I've also attached a clip of a song that Jayden learned at school (he insisted that i take a video of him singing this song! - and sorry that it's "sideways" - bad camera operation on my part!). The kids made this "lantern-type" craft at school too.

Our Dutch teacher told us that in the neighborhoods around the netherlands on Sint Marteen day - the children carry around lanterns and go to their neighbor's houses to sing songs and receive candy.

As we were driving home from swim lessons on Thursday night, we saw some children walking around with their parents. Unfortunately we do not have any neighbors where we live - so the children were not able to participate.

In The Netherlands, the feast of St Martin of Tours is celebrated as Sint Marteen Day, with festivities especially for children. Comparable to the observance of Halloween in North America, children fashion lanterns and wear costumes as they go from house begging for sweets in areas of The Netherlands and Belgium.
St Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier born in the first millenium of the Christian era in what is now Hungary. He refused to serve the Emperor and became a monk and later a revered bishop. He is one of the most revered saints in Christendom, in both the east and west. Tradition holds that during a cold winter, he encountered a poor beggar who was nearly naked. St Martin cut his cloak in half and gave it to the beggar and later had a vision that led him to a life of charity and service to the Church.
At one time, the feast of St Martin began a 40 day period of fasting. This was later to become the observance of Advent, or the preparation of the coming of Christmas. Therefore, Martinmas - as it was once known in Britain - was a carnival ('farewell to meat') much as is Mardi Gras in advance of Lent.
Children sing traditional songs in commemoration of the charitable former soldier.

Dutch version:
Sinte, Sinte Maarten,

De koeien hebben staarten,

Geef een appel of een peer,

Dan kom ik dit jaar niet meer.

English version:

Saint, Saint Martin,

The cows have tails,

Give us an apple or a pear,

Then we won't come back this year.

nooooooooooo!

caught!

she gets the angle of the foot JUST right....

she is laughing in this picture because she is so proud of what she has done :)

i knew this moment would come......jillian is pulling herself up on the furniture!

Free time?

what's free time? i don't get much of it - but when i do - i love to be creative! the first picture shows some items that have been waiting for "repair" for a while. the next picture shows some bibs that i made for jillian.

fall color

i love the vibrant reds of the maple trees in the fall!

here are some pictures of the last few days of "fall color" here in hilversum. for several days last week - the forest had what looked like a yellow glow to it. last weekend we had a lot of rain and wind - so the leaves are pretty much gone from the trees now. winter has settled in for the next few months. i am hoping that the "costal climate" proves to be much milder (and significantly less snow!) than the chicago winters we are used to!

the last picture did not come out very good... but i was trying to show that the leaves were up almost to the top of the tire on my bike! that's a lot of leaves!!!