Into Everything!

I am afraid of the day that Andrew walks on his own. Even though he can only cruise and crawl, he gets into everything.

The Land of the Dutch

As most of your know our family is considering an expatriate assignment in Maastricht, Netherlands. It is a wonderful career opportunity for Ned and an exciting opportunity for the kids. Two weeks ago we went to check it out.

Maastricht is the oldest city in the Netherlands. There are, I believe, about 150,ooo people. There are a lot of surrounding "suburbs" so to speak. More like villages or very small towns, most with their own "city center." It was very quaint. We found the people to be very friendly and everyone spoke English.

There was a lot to see and do. Tons of sightseeing (if we didn't have two small kids in tow) and fabulous shopping! We mixed productive tasks like house-hunting, looking and preschools and dinner with Ned's future colleagues with fun things like Kinderstad indoor playpark, a couple castles, and Gaipark Zoo.

If you would like to check out more about Maastricht... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht

Katie by the castle

Ned and Katie at the castle

Maastricht - restaurant lined streets

Market day in Maastricht

At Kinderstad

SMILE!

Katie looked so cute a few days ago. Hair done, no visible food on her face, cute dress and shoes. So, I put her on a stool and told her to smile. OK. Seems easy, but how do you teach someone to smile? Katie gets and "A" for effort but I think she has some practicing to do.

So NOT into it

Katie's school had a Halloween Parade last Friday. Ned took the day off to participate in one of Katie's school functions. She has been a little less than enthusiastic at drop off and Ned and I are both trying to be as supportive of her "bravery" for going to school as much as possible.

The kids paraded from the school down to City Hall where they collected candy and then sat on the steps and sang Halloween songs. Or, were supposed to, as was the case with our daughter...She was so not interested in walking. She wanted to be carried. And, then when the sitting on the steps and singing was set to start... Well, see for yourself. (note where Katie is sitting...it is as close as we could get her)

If looks could talk...I think Katie's would say "there are so many other places I would rather be!"

Happy Halloween...a Little Late

Andrew is a Lion and Katie is Tasha from Backyardigans (Nick Jr cartoon)

Dr. Seuss and Thing One

Katie was very interested in carving pumpkins this year... Like last year, she loved to scoop out "the guts" and smell them and say "it stinks!"

Andrew, too, got into it. He liked sticking his hand inside the pumpkin. It was messy and gooey...what more could a little boy want!