my beach beauties

graham was the sand castle "master"... he wanted me to take a picture of him next to his "creation".... later he made a sandcastle for everyone in our family... so thoughtful of him :)

jillian stays close to the chair at first :)

helping jayden... jillian moves a little closer to the ocean now

making a water trench

a very brave little girl!

it was a nice afternoon - so i packed up the kids and took them to Zandvoort Beach... about an hour drive from our house..... 4.50 for parking... priceless time watching my beach beauties play in the sand and ocean together :)

g and j - unit work

jillian in a choke hold.... i mean - jillian, helen, and her friend carolina at graham's fashion show

graham snapping to the beat as he walks in for his fashion show to raise money for endangered animals. each child chose an endangered animal and decorated a tshirt. (graham's class is currently studying a unit on endangered and extinct animals)

graham gives a high 5 to helen

and a low 5 for jillian :)

graham and 2 of his friends

graham shows off his "war paint"

i love graham's smile in this picture :)

graham's back view of the tshirt he decorated (those are dolphins)

graham shows us how we can save dolphins

save the dolphins group!

jayden's class is studying a unit on transportation.... he made this "rescue vehicle" at school... notice the "european" licence plate!

jayden says the green tube in front is a smoke stack....and another licence plate on the front :)

umbrella quilt

i have been the class mom in jayden's class for the second half of the school year. i decided to make this quilt for his teacher's gift from the class. 20 handprints - turned into 20 umbrellas (why umbrellas? - it rains a lot here in Holland!). can't wait to give it to her in about a week!

4th of july in Holland

for obvious reasons - Holland does not celebrate the 4th of july.... but that didn't stop these American's from having a BBQ in the evening.

in the backyard

who says you need a big swimming pool to have a lot of fun?.... ok - i really miss our swimming pool in kenosha but the kids don't seem to mind the little pool we have here in holland. with cold water coming out of the hose - everyone got the chance to cool off on a hot afternoon. i love expression on jillian's face when the kids jump into the pool or when she gets sprayed with the cold water - she is not really afraid of anything and wants to be in the center of all the action.

as a kid - i can remember making "sand slippers" with my wet feet - since we don't seem to have any sand in our back yard... just a lot of very black dirt - jillian made "dirt slippers"!

ever since we dressed up and watched the Royal Wedding in April - jillian wants to wear a fancy hat and pink gloves everywhere... even outside on a very hot day :)

jillian loves to "catch bubbles" and can say the word "duck" for duck, duck, goose - but she cannot say duck yet. she says duck and starts running ... so that's our clue that she means goose! helen especially loves to play duck duck goose..... she asks me all the time to play - even if they boys are at school and it's just me and the girls .... helen still wants to play duck duck goose.... let's just say it's more running around and chasing then actual sitting and ducking :)

family game of duck duck goose

da girlz

some clips from our girl's weekend--- ross took the boys to a concert in belgium on friday and saturday..... so we spent part of the weekend doing girly things... manicures, pedicures, breakfast tea parties, and dancing in the living room!