Update

Pretty uncreative title isn't it...sorry my brain is slow this morning...
We had a great time celebrating Queens Day! I heard people setting up their tables for the rummaging around 4:30am so they were ready for the 6am start. We were ready by 9:15 which I thought was great. It is usually a pretty challenging feat for me to have us up and out of the house before 10! We spent the morning trying to navigate our way through the massive amounts of people. Imagine Summerfest at night while trying to push a double stroller. Needless to say I didn't spend too much time looking at anything because I was just trying to get through the crowds! While at Vondelpark I did find the Little People House for 2euro 50 cents! It retails for $45 so we were thrilled! All of the pieces didn't come with it, but it has been a huge hit so far. Both Kaylin and Shane have spent quite a bit of time playing with it.
We all went home around lunch time to eat and take naps and then we went over to Chelsea and Aaron's for a pot luck dinner. This time I put Shane in the sling, carried a back pack and pushed Kaylin in the umbrella stroller. A bit better!
Next year I would like to try and get a babysitter for a portion of the day so we can go to the center and check it out. I saw a lot of orange and many flags. Nothing to really take a picture of though. The streets were just full of people and tables with what ever they were selling. If we were in the center I am sure there would have been more photo ops. Maybe next year!
What I am most impressed about is the clean up. It was such a mess Thursday night and by Friday morning it looked as if nothing happened the day before..at least by us. Matt said that they don't put garbage cans out because they are afraid of bombs.
Overall a great day although I really missed not having Matt here!

There is some awful news to report though...a crazy man tried to attack the Royal Family in the city of Apeldoorn. Since I don't watch the news here, well, because I can't understand it, I didn't find out until the next morning. 5 people were killed and the rest of the celebrations throughout the country were cancelled. I thought the streets looked a little quieter than I had imagined they would be on our walk home that night. Awful.

We have been keeping pretty busy. Last Monday I hosted the playgroup for the American Women's Club. It was great! I met a few moms who live close by and the house was chaotic. Wednesday I had a babysitter from 12-4 and had intentions to go to the Amsterdam Historical Museum, but decided against it because it was such a nice day. Instead I walked around here a bit, picked up some coffee and headed to the park and knitted. It was so relaxing. I am knitting a baby blanket that I was going to give away, but the stitches are pretty uneven so I am going to keep it here. We'll see how the next project goes.
I (along with some help from Kaylin) made two pairs of pajama pants for Kaylin and Shane and I have to say I am pretty proud of how they turned out. Kate gave me the book, "The Creative Family" (http://amandasoule.com/book/) before we left and I love it. Very easy pattern and very cute. I'll have to take some pictures... I am going to use two of the blankets I made when Kaylin was small to make more pants, so the blanket I am knitting will get some use!

Matt is doing well. He is very tired and frustrated. The start up of this project has been very slow and the language barriers are making for LONG days.
He keeps telling me that he is going to update the blog, but I'll give you some examples of what he is experiencing:
All bus drivers and cab drivers wear white gloves
He has to wear a suit to work every day. The problem with that is the temperature in the offices can not go below 82 degrees for environmental reasons so he is hot!
Not a lot of space in the office. He had to work in the cafeteria one day
They are not allowed to walk through the lobby unless they are with a client
Can not talk amongst themselves if a client is in the office
If someone is with a client and getting onto an elevator he can has to wait for the next elevator
Just a sampling...

Anyway, that is all for now! Mom, Dad and Sean will be here on Friday!
Hope you all have a great weekend!