Late Winter in Feb/March

In one month's time were were lucky to have two visits from great friends of ours.  The first was in mid-February when Luke and his lovely girlfriend Victoria came our way.  They traveled from London to spend a weekend with us during Carnaval.  The town was crazy with its parties and all day binge drinking of cheap beer.  Everything shuts down (except bars) at this time.  So we had a great time hanging out with them!

Dancing to the oompa loompa type music at a local pub.

The glorious band

The kids loved seeing Luke and meeting Victoria.  We spent a nice sunny day walking into town for lunch.

Sylvie playing peek-a-boo

Our second visit was from our friend John from Seattle.  He was in Amsterdam for a conference and we went up to spend a day with him in the city.  It was a beautiful day with sun and warm enough weather.  We had a great time going to some kid-friendly cafes and chatting.

Our good friend John! We can't wait to see more of him, his wife Katie, and the super cute son Jack.

And since we are moving and the kids are growing, I have made several trips to IKEA for various things.  And this time the kids were with me.  IKEA is genious since it has 1 euro soft serve ice cream cones at check out.  So we had to have some.

Our little girl Sylvie and her "bay-wa" or roughly translated "bear-a"

I tried to get them to show me their hugs

Archie and his best friend "Reginald" the rock.  Seriously.  He came up with the name on his own.  Not even sure where he heard the name from!  We keep him in a special drawer so he doesn't get lost with other rocks.  Reginald is of course colored on because he is special.

Archie at the school music preformance where they sang "Eye of the Tiger", the great 80's hit.  He and Sylvie have been singing the lyrics for weeks until I realized what they were singing.  The preformance was super cute even though he was nervous having his mom and dad watching.  Sylvie just hid in the corner.

Out for lunch with Mom at a local place that has a little play store/kitchen

So big in a big chair!

I picked up a reindeer costume at Christmas and the kids found it to try on.  They loved it of course!

Posing for mom

Posing again!

And we are back to hugging again.  They start of hugging and then end up rolling around the floor giggleing and wrestling.  

A this point, things are wrapping up here in Breda.  We will be heading back to Seattle soon.  I am trying to enjoy all this fun with the kids in the craziness of getting ready to go.  I am hoping we all settle into our new routine and way of life with ease. 

This might be the last trip we had in our bike trailer.  It will be sold soon before we head back to the US.  I have LOVED using it with the kids although it is a lot of work peddling them around even in a flat country!

I can't seem to get one picture where they are both just smiling!  Some one isn't looking or the other has a finger up the nose!  Oh well, at least I have a photo that makes me smile.