Eliot's Travels

Today we had traditional pannekueken for breakfast - though I think the Dutch only have these for lunch or dinner. There are only 1-2 restaurants open for breakfast here. The boys had theirs plain with butter and syrup, but Jim and I had apples, bacon and cheese on our pannekueken. After a lazy morning, we biked over to the Markt to have a light lunch at the Waag restaurant. There were marching bands of school children performing on the square. The number of people out was amazing - tourists everywhere! It's easy to spot them - either on yellow tour scooters (think razor with handle bars) or standing in the middle of a bridge or road looking at their map. Isn't it a little funny that we aren't the tourists? I like getting out on the week days because there are still tourists but the town doesn't seem to be overrun with them - at least not yet! Summer is coming though. Jim went to the store and I took the kids home.

Gina and Ap (short for Albert) invited us over to their house for dinner Saturday night. Their children are Merrick 2.5 and Martijn, nearly 6. They live on a nice quiet street. When we arrived, Martijn was playing with other neighborhood kids on the sidewalks and in the alley behind their houses. It's nice that they can play safely outside with other kids. This hut is a community area for the street. It is decorated for Oranje voetball World Kup (of course). Gina and Ap have a nice backyard that the boys all played in. It was lovely weather and we ate outside. We all had a very nice meal and visit. Our dessert was fla - a pudding/custard. Eliot exclaimed "Mommy, I tried the fla and I liked it!"

Several of the toys that Gina had were checked out from a toy library. Basically, a non-profit/volunteer organization checks out toys to families for 3 weeks at a time. Each of the parts for the toys are numbered, so you'll know how many pieces to return. They had checked out puzzles, water toys, sand toys, and games. Pretty neat idea for all those toys we have to get rid of and worry about how they can best be used. I can't remember whether she paid a joining fee or maybe a nominal fee for each item.

posted by Whitney @ 2:28 AM