running tour of amsterdam

on saturday morning, i did a runing tour of amsterdam as part of the activities during the amsterdam marathon weekend. the tour started at the museumplein area in amsterdam

the back of the rijksmuseum

my tour group

the flower market... i remember walking through this area when ross and i came over in november 2009 to look for a house!

the only wooden church remaining in amsterdam

a view of the area next to the church

dam square

dam square

a men's bathroom :)

corridor at the university of amsterdam

picture of a canal

city hall and opera in the same building - the tour guide said it was called the Shopera

famous bride that was built over a canal - story behind the bridge is that 2 wealthy sisters lived on either side of the canal but were too lazy to walk down the side of the canal to cross the bridge that was near their houses so they had the bridge built so they could meet each day.

guy dressed up during the tour

finish of the amsterdam tour run

olympic stadium in amsterdam... finish of the half-marathon - my finish time - 1 hour 38 minutes ... beat my time last year by 8 minutes!

randoms

big kids working on their workbooks while i fix dinner one night

jillian decided she wanted to color with the kids

then she decided my cabinet was her coloring book! ugh!

ross made jillain some nutella toast for breakfast last sunday -

i don't think she got any of it IN her mouth :)

jayden makes some leaf rubbings for his family tree school project

his simple family tree (assignment instructions did not want aunts/uncles/cousins included)

graham celebrated his birthday at school on friday

only 3 cupcakes left!

i haven't updated my blog for a while... here's some pictures of what we've been up to lately!

helen's swimming

when we first moved here - i noticed the tags on these strollers all said "BAD BUGGY" - i thought they were just broken.... turns out they are actually the only stroller allowed in the swimming area :)

helen enjoying some extra playtime after her swimming lesson

helen swimming under the noodle and counting to 10 with her fingers while she stays under water

helen has learned so much in her swimming lessons and is very brave when it comes to going underwater. i'm so proud of her and i think she will enjoy the swimming pool in our backyard in sturgis.

The Amazing Race - Hilversum

the boys race to find their first clue

they read the first clue to determine where they would go next to find another clue

Helen's Dutch preschool was the site of the next clue

on their way to the next clue (the french bakery)

helen opens the envelope

jayden reads the clue

the next clue takes them to the grocery store (Albert Heijn)

this clue is a little tricky - it contains 4 letters that they must arrange to figure out the next stop

HEMA was the 4 letters that they had to unscramble

jayden reads the final clue

the final stop in our amazing race- the butcher!

they didn't win a milion dollars - but they did get a 1 Euro ice cream cone from McDonald's!

Ross and I decided it would be fun to say goodbye to Hilversum by playing our own version of the Amazing Race. Ross came up with the clues and we took turns biking around with the kids to each of the clue locations. the kids told us how to get to each location all on their own! I was amazed that they knew all these places without our help or even the help of a TomTom! now that's better than I could do! :)