St. Nicholas Day!

Although there were no chocolate letters, we did celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 5th- keeping up our Dutch traditions! The kids loved finding candy in their shoes. And Evelyn asked me to snap this photo after her ballet class that day in front of her favorite Christmas tree.

 

Halloween

We kept the pirate theme for Halloween as well:

Edward's birthday

Ahoy! For Edward's third birthday, we invited all his mateys over for a pirate party. I made seven seas cupcakes, a Captian Hook / Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake, served Ye Ole Salty Taters (chips), Sea Water, Pirate Punch, Shark Bait (goldfish), Cannonballs (BBQ meatballs), Watermelon Sails, and Hot Dog Boats. Roger built this awesome pirate ship out of an old picnic table, pallet wood, a 2x2 and a sheet of plywood using borrowed tools. It is a playtime favorite! Sturdy enough for years of fun. Happy birthday to our little guy.

 

  

Pottery

One of the nicest handicrafts here is the pottery. Here is our trip to A'Ali pottery when we bought our clay pumpkins and a ghost- less expensive than the real thing! We got to talk with the potters themselves. Here is an oven / kiln just opened to cool full of ghosts and pumpkins. Evelyn got to stick her fingers in the clay out back!

Scientist

My little guy is a scientist! He loves the Bahrain Science Center. He loves They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science- a DVD full of science music videos and he sings a really cute version of the element song- he knows we are made of mostly carbon, oxygen and nitrogen! And he can name  all of the planets in our solar system correctly (most of the time, when he feels like it:).

  

Ev's birthday

Sorry I haven't been blogging this year- here is a catch up of the last four months starting with Ev's birthday. We had it at a ceramics painting place and it was a lot of fun!

Grandparents

One of the highlights of our trip this summer was getting to spend time with my grandparents. I already posted pictures of the Walkers with my Utah trip entry- so I thought I'd include some of the Neyenhuis side too. We had some great visits and we sure love them and miss them!

 

Lizard

Don't you hate it when the lizard that fell in your bathtub (in between bathers!) loves your house so much he clings to you so you won't make him go? Thanks to my own Captain America for being brave enough to handle this one!

  

First day of school photos

Here is my lovely third grader outside her classroom on her first day!

And later that day- Edward had his first day of Joy School at his friend Charlie's house. He was supposed to take an item to share and picked his Bob the Builder hat- but ended up not wanting to share it! 

in ireland

I thought I would finally get around to posting pictures of Dublin. We were there when they were having a tall ships festival. It was neat- very pirate like for Edward. This was our favorite- it was so beautiful!

Notice the crying, unhappy two year old and the broken flip flop tied together with odds and ends string from the kid's craft station where Evelyn made her bow. Awesome.

 

No matter where we go in the world we manage to find cool parks. This one was at a castle that was supposed to be the number one family must do in Dublin. It included a train and dollhouse museum- something for all. But it was closed for renovation until October- something not mentioned on any of the many tourist websites we visited to gather information for the trip. Oh well- at least they had a zip line!

And is this not the coolest slide ever? Edward flew off it! Very steep, fast and fun!

 

As you can see- smiles all around!

 Never get tired of taking swing pictures!

 

Ah, a walk in the Irish countryside!

 And this was really, really cool- we got to see an exhibit of the Book of the Kells- one of the earliest illuminated Bibles. (We'd seen the movie- so even Evelyn was excited about it!) They had three other very old illuminated Bibles too. And the library was incredible! Part of it is an exhibit too- so old! Loved it- love, love, love libraries. So much old book smell!

We bought fish and chips and ate in our hotel room. It was a place full of locals getting take-away that we just stumbled on by accident- authentic!

And this was a neat fountain thing that the kids found in the downtown area- it was probably gross to let them climb it! Oh well!

Ireland was great- but I felt like we were a little too jet lagged on our second trip to really appreciate Dublin. But we still had a great time and were so thankful we got to go!

The face of jet lag

Yeah- we were pretty wiped out when we got to Dublin on our way to Bahrain. Love this photo! Thanks Rog.

Catching up on summer pt. 2 Victoria!

In order to get enough days out of the country, for taxes, we needed a few days in Canada. We headed to Vancouver Island and spend time in Victoria. It was beautiful! We had great weather and a wonderful time.

Evelyn loved this sculpture at the Butchard Gardens.

They had a carousel there which cost two dollars to ride. Edward wanted to ride in the chariot despite my best convincing an animal would be better. He didn't get it. Until we got going. And then he wanted a second ride. So we forked out more for a ride on a bear.

 We loved the totem poles.

 And I want my garden to look like this some day.

 Evelyn wants a fountain. Italian preferably!

 And a nice lady offered to take a photo of us all together in front of the Japanese garden gate. Usually one of us in doing a weird fake smile, but we all look pretty genuine in this one!

Some Young photos!

I was able to find some pictures of our time with the Young family! I am so excited. The kids had a great time with their cousins. Edward keeps asking to go to on an airplane to see grandpa's house, Aunt Karina's house and to see Joseph and Cash. And I know Evelyn is going through girl cousin withdrawal!

 Here is Evelyn with Liam and Emily at Liam's birthday.

I love this photo of Thor!

 Cutie Kailey!

And this is Uncle Ted's new digs- Evelyn, Karina and Kelsey in Kelsey's room.

Catching up on summer pt. 1

We had a crazy but wonderful summer. We were staying in Beaverton, but made several Salem trips, two Quincy trips, two Utah trips, two beach trips, two Seattle trips, a Canada trip and Roger also went to Japan. We saw a lot of family and friends, but didn't get to see everyone we wanted to. There is just never enough time. Looking back through the photos, I realized what a spotty picture taker I am. I forgot to take pictures of our Quincy trips and didn't take any during our Salem trips and our beach trip with Roger's family! Roger didn't even take a camera to Japan. Yikes! Here are some more photo highlights of our beach trip with my family:

Cameron, Evelyn and Oliver on a driftwood dam

 Lisel, my mom and Lucy

 Marisa (my cute sil) and baby Ivy

 Cam, Lisel, Lucy and Edward

Evelyn in the tidepools

 Edward touching a starfish

 Edward and my dad looking at the waves

My nephew Calvin