A glimpse into our European life

Pictures and words do a great job at telling most of our family stories.  But sometimes, a video is the perfect way to capstone life's events.  This year is no exception.  I invite you to watch our family video and catch just a glimpse of what the past 9 months has been like for us.  (It is over 11 minutes long, so you've been warned!) Enjoy!

Apenheul, or fondly referred to as, "The Monkey Zoo"

Last Friday, May 2nd, we went out on what very well might have been our final family adventure while living in The Netherlands.  We traveled on 2 buses and 3 trains to get to our destination, which was Apenheul, a large primate park located in Apeldoorn.  This park began as a revolutionary zoo in the early 70's, and it is the only zoo in the world where monkeys live free in the forest, but can also walk around the visitors.  You read that correctly: "walk around the visitors."  My pictures will give you a better idea as to what I am talking about, and not all of the monkeys were freely roaming; I was anticipating a bigger percentage to be climbing all over us, but this was not the case at all.  Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised as to how well Maddie and Geoffrey took to this entire situation.  We had been talking to them about the concept of monkeys walking around and climbing freely among us for several days, but I was prepared for a few panics here and there.  Thankfully, none happened!

Tentatively peeking over the stroller as we approached the entrance to the park.

We visited Apenheul with some new friends, which made for a very enjoyable and fun day for all of us.  Maddie even went to bed that night saying, "Mama, I'm so glad I got to play with my four new best friends today!"  So sweet!  Our friends back in Pasadena have family who live in The Netherlands.  I have been in touch with them throughout our stay over here, and we finally found a good time to meet up and get our families together.

Geoffrey's head whipped around so fast when this little guy jumped onto our stroller.  Thank goodness Maddie had just made her way out of the back seat!

Our stroller was a big hit with the monkeys.  They can find bits of food in between crevices that I didn't know existed.  And they are fast little creatures! I'm pretty sure that Geoffrey had decided to get out of the stroller by this point. 

Our new friends are old pros with the monkeys, and were quick to show us what to do.

I was pretty surprised when Maddie did not hesitate to stick her arm out and offer it to a monkey.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?), no monkey took her up on her offer.

Someone else was the lucky winner.

He kept asking, "Are you getting this?  Did you get a video/picture of this?"  I think he was amused. :)

Apparently, I'm no good at getting the right angle of this picture, because Brant had 3 monkeys perched on his body at this point.  I had my arm out between pictures, but like Maddie, the monkeys wanted nothing to do with me.  Geoffrey did not even make an offer.

Pretty unique experience!

Kind of on the monkey's schedule; this little guy was hanging out with Brant for several minutes.

The park had dozens of things to climb and play on throughout the grounds, making monkeys out of everyone!

Not long before another monkey jumped back on Brant's arm.  He was quick to bring his arm down to Geoffrey's level in the stroller.

He was a little startled when this happened...

...but not as much as when this happened!

The monkey jumped right back onto Brant's arm.  I was beginning to wonder if he had extra bread crumbs tucked into his jacket.

Monkeys, I'm not sure what type, hanging out in their natural habitat - it was such a cool thing to see.

This monkey is looking in my direction, and tucked under its arm, you can see a black head of a baby.

My favorite type of monkey.

An excellent way to keep warm.

My favorite experience of the day, was watching the gorillas being fed their lunch.  There is a very large island in the middle of Apenheul, where the gorillas live.  Across the water, the audience sits in an amphitheater, where an employee chucks large fruits and vegetables over to the island to the gorillas.  It was great fun to watch these primates chase after the flying food, or leisurely reach their giant arms into the air and catch a carrot.

How sweet are they?

The big guy in front is Jambo, the silverback, or leader, of the troop.  

Maddie, with her new best friends. :)

This is my other favorite type of monkey.

Just monkeying around!  Haha. Oh, c'mon.  You knew I had to get that in there someplace! 

Cute baby chimp, eating lunch.  He carried his carrot up to this perch, and proceeded to tuck all of the hay neatly around him.

More monkeys.

There was no mistaking we were at a monkey zoo.

Two little monkeys, on monkey bars, while monkeys swing in the trees behind them.  Yup.  It was that perfect.

Monkeys, hanging out in the rafters above the pathway we were walking along.

So many different kinds of monkeys.

And the final capstone to a great day?  A ride on the free carousel at the end of the park.  Yes!

We had such a terrific time with the entire Teutsch family!

Chalk this day up to another successful European family adventure!  What fun memories we continue to make over here, even up to the very end.

King's Day Celebrations

Last Friday morning, April 26, began like most every other morning in our household; busy, loud, and frantically trying to get on the bikes in time, in order to get Maddie to school.  As Maddie and I were cycling, I began to notice the large amount of orange attire adorning the fellow bikers and pedestrians surrounding us.  There were orange shirts, tights, headbands, face-paint, hats, necklaces and glasses.  I knew that King's Day was going to be taking place over the weekend, but I had a growing suspicion that we had missed something.  My suspicion was confirmed when we walked into her classroom.  The tables were all pushed together in the center of the room, creating a giant banquet table, with breakfast food spread across it.  Children were pulling out plates and cups from their backpacks and putting them at their places on the table (which was the next indicator that I had clearly missed something, as we had not brought anything with us).  They were all anxiously giggling and smiling, clearly excited about the festivities of the day, which I had quickly come to be informed about when the teacher showed me a schedule: singing/dancing outside, breakfast in the classroom, and parent volunteers organizing field games outside for the remainder of the school morning.  Huh??  Yes, this is how I felt.  Did I miss something??  Yes, I did.  How could I have not known about all of this??  Um, I'd like to blame the language barrier on this one!  Thankfully, Maddie was clueless and just happy to be at school with her friends, on such a happy day!  Each child was also given an orange bandanna, which was awesome, since I had neglected to dress my daughter in anything orange that morning.  I headed outside, to where all the parents were gathering, and quickly called Brant and asked him to come to the school with the camera, as the weekend festivities had started earlier than we had expected.  And so kicked off our King's Day Celebrations!

I don't know where Maddie is in this picture, but these are the school kids outside, singing and dancing for King's Day!

Can you spot her in the middle?  She's the one in the light green vest.  Haha!  At least she was wearing a red dress that day - red is close enough to orange, and is also one of the colors of the Dutch flag, so we were in the ballpark.

Heading inside, so very happy, and ready for her second breakfast of the morning and lots of games.

After I left the school, Geoffrey and I headed to the store, where I spotted a few cheap orange leis and red, white, and blue bracelet leis.  I did not hesitate and swiped some right up.  After what I had seen that morning, I wasn't about to have our family not get caught up in the spirit of the festive celebration!  Maddie and Geoffrey were very happy with this decision!

Hooray!  It's King's Day!! (Well, not technically, but the entire weekend felt like one giant day.)

We spent the afternoon resting up for all the activity we were about to embark on for the next 24 hours.  Both kids took good naps, in order to stay out late for the parade that started after 9pm, in the heart of Kampen.  It was a real treat for them to be able to stay out late!  (Honestly, it was a treat for all of us - we are never out anywhere after 7:30 pm over here!)

We found a spot along the route, and shortly thereafter were joined by several more friends, including one of Maddie's good friends from school.  This particular family also had toy lanterns in tow.  Our kids were crazy about them, and had to work hard on the act of sharing with others.

Clay, Ever and Tom also joined us for some parade fun.  My husband is such a good sport, wearing his orange loudly and proudly! ;)

Let the parade begin!

The entire parade lasted about 30 minutes, with cars, bikes, tractors, and random little floats.  It was small town and really cute.

No, we're not in Disneyland.  Yes, that is the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.  Who knows why.

All sorts of pretty lanterns to light up the nighttime parade.

One of several marching bands - we're talking 30+ people per band, so not too big.

The lanterns were certainly the highlight for one little girl.

On Saturday, we woke to a beautiful day, luring us to go "downtown" and check out all the activities going on.  As we cycled, Maddie counted dozens and dozens of Dutch flags flying proudly from houses, along with orange streamers reaching from one side of a street clear to the other.  Party!

We had been told about a community sing-a-long that was taking place, so we stopped by to take a look.  There was a big stage, live music, words projected on a big screen, and it sounded like great fun.  However, seeing as we did not know the tunes or words to what they were singing, we did not stay very long. 

Look who we ran into!  The Cooke family was out and about as well, so we joined forces and meandered around town together.

A friend of the Cooke's let them borrow this flag for the day.  I love this picture. :)

Just this last week, baby Owen (9.5 months) is now seeing the world from a new vantage point - and a new front seat!  It's been amazing watching him grow this year.

Maddie, sporting the flag as a cape - why not?

This boy doesn't seem to mind costumed animals.  Perhaps it goes back to the fact that we started him young, with his first introduction to a costumed character being at 1 week old?  Hmm..

Yes, this happened, too.  Happy King's Day!  With lions!

Geoffrey and Tom, checking out the clown on Oudestraat, making balloon animals.  He was randomly choosing kids from the crowd to create free balloons for.  This was a bit of a problem, because we had three eager kids in our group, along with a growing crowd, with several more eager children.  Needless to say, we were doubtful we would be too lucky to get a balloon for all of them.

Ever was picked from the crowd, and the clown began to make a horse for her.  She was pretty tentative standing there, when suddenly, one of his balloons popped.  Poor girl, it scared her and she wanted nothing to do with the clown or the balloon.

Bekah began comforting her distressed daughter, when suddenly, the clown (who was only miming, not talking), had her come forward to finish the product.  She was a great sport!  

We headed down to the waterfront to enjoy a bite to eat of a few treats from the market.  Geoffrey loves his Fristi drink!

After lunch, we headed across the river to find a giant flea market.  We were told it stretched out for 3 miles.  Seeing as we are about to leave the country, we did not get anything, but it was still fun to see.  I guess this sort of thing happens all over the country on King's Day, like a giant garage sale!

 We returned home mid-afternoon, to once again rest up (are you seeing a pattern here?).  After dinner, we returned for a final parade, only this was showcasing marching bands alone.  Right up our alley!  It was good fun, and an excellent way to conclude the festivities!

In between bands, all of the kids would run out onto the street, sort of dancing and playing around.  Suddenly, the next band would round the corner and every kid would run, screaming and yelling, back to their parents.  It was hilarious!

I like this particular picture, because of the bell tower off in the distance, over the heads of the band members.

Starting to run back, just a bit before everyone else. :)

Finally, the bands ended in the square, where they "presented" themselves to the crowd, as they were announced over the loud speaker.

A beautiful and fun weekend.

Typical Dutch, no?  What an experience we have had.

Happy King's Day!