Kaelan is 3 years old!

We had a Thomas the Train themed party and Kaelan was a big help with all the preparations! 

As you can see, the theme colors are blue (Thomas), Red (James) and Green (Percy) 

We gave all the kids a red bandana and hat like Kaelan has on and Coco even got to be an engineer too!

This is Kaelan's present from us. He is so good with his pedal less bike we thought it was time to try  pedals. He has figured it out but it might be awhile before we can take the training wheels off.

Kaelan and friends enjoying some Mac and Cheese!
We can't get it here so when my Mom and I drove to Antwerp we bought some at the American store.

Opening presents

We had his party on the Saturday before his bday but on Monday, his bday, this is what he did!  He was playing in his room and hit the bedpost. He cut it really deep so I took him to our neighbors (a retired GP! We are so lucky to have them next door!) and he called the hospital and used his position to get us in. Unless you are dying, it is really hard to go to the emergency room and get treatment in any reasonable time! Plus you have to call in advanced and we can't understand the menu options in Dutch! So we got there and got treated all in about 45 mins! They had to glue him back together. Too bad because he can't brag about how many stitches he had...glue is just not as cool! 

This was 3 days later after we took the bandage off. He got a shiner too! 

Santa...not Sinterklaas

We drove south to Valkenburg to a Christmas market they have in a velvet cave, a really big cave the Catholics used for an underground mass during the oppression. And we found Santa, even before Sinterklaas had gotten on his boat to go back to Spain! Since it was Colette's first Christmas and Santa experience we had to get a photo and, as you can see, she did great. We wanted to take Kaelan's too but he sensed danger! He still has a love/hate relationship with the men in red! 

Sinterklaas came to town!

Every year, mid November, Sinterklass (No this is NOT Santa!) comes to Holland. He stays for 2 weeks or so and then on the evening of Dec. 5th he leaves sweet treats and presents for the children in their shoes to find on the morning of Dec. 6th. We have seen him and his Zwarte Pieten (these are like Santa's elves only VERY different!) all over our village and around the Netherlands. 

It is a significant Dutch holiday, unfortunately even bigger than Christmas, and they are one of the only European countries who REALLY celebrate Sinterklass (they all used to to some extent). 

He arrives to the Netherlands by boat (barge) coming from his beautiful home in Spain where he and all his Zwarte Pieten live together. In the Dutch towns that live on the sea or the canals, which there are a lot in these low lands!, he rides his white horse off the barge to all the eagerly waiting children who are singing Sinterklaas songs and cheering wildly. The "Mayor" of the town welcomes him to stay in the village where he and his Pieten will then make surprise appearances at schools and all over town.     

The children dress up like the Zwarte Pieten on the day Sint arrives in November and you see them in costume until Dec. 6th. 

Here they are! So different from elves! 

There is quite a history, a little confused about where they come from and why they are black, about the Pieten. They bring with them Kruidnoten, little spice biscuits, they pass out to all the children. They used to carry a bag where they would put the bad children and beat them with a broom and then possibly carry them back to Spain. (Learned this on Wikipedia!) 

Love this one!

Cracked me up when I saw that most of them had very dutch blue eyes!

Travis and Coco had to stay at the back, away from the wild crowds.

Kman and I fought to the very front where he could climb on the fence to see all the action.

He has a love, hate relationship with Sinterklaas and the Pieten, as he does with Santa!

Sinterklaas came to school and he loved the Kruidnoten, or pepernoten as the kids call them, and was so excited to tell me about it but hid behind me when Sint and Piet came out into the lobby to say hi to Coco!

Here is more info on Sinterklaas if you are interested.

Travis would REALLY like you to see this satirical version, by David Sadaris, on youtube. It is hilarious and true...in a very funny way! Click here to see the first part of 3 segments. Make sure you watch all 3!

Christmas Photos

My Baby Doll!

Thomas the Train

Thomas came to the Netherlands!
Actually Kaelan thought we went to the Island of Sodor and we didn't argue.  

He spent a lot of time examining this train

It had 2 engines, one on either side, and they had to give them oil on every stop. 

Reminded me of the Tin man!

Yeah! He got to ride!

Then we all rode on one of Thomas' friends to go to another train station where there were more activities.

Even a Thomas bouncy house!

He finished the day as a tired boy with a very cool painted face and lots of fun memories!

Monschau, Germany

We took a long weekend to drive to this cute little Medieval town in Germany.
Such a cute little village 

The Red house

Kaelan loves churches! He always insists we go in them whenever he sees one. In this one he walked right up to the rack of Bibles, took it to the kneeling bench to sit down and read it. 

A perfectly quaint, little village! 

Coco spent a lot of time in this backpack.
It was cold too! 4 Celsius and below and this was in October!

This castle looms over the village. The village is down in a ravine along the river.

We are hiking up the road to the castle. 

We made it! 

We celebrated the October Birthdays while Mom and Jeff were here.
All mom wanted was to go to Germany during Octoberfest and drink a beer!
She got her wish!

Jeff likes them dark!

You can't really tell but this dog was huge! He belonged to the hotel and spent most of the time in the lobby. Kaelan didn't quite know what to think of him, especially after the dog was playfully chasing him and knocked Kaelan's shoe off. 

Side trips

This is the only US WWII cemetery in the Netherlands. 
It was beautiful and very moving.
Have to give my mom the credit for finding this one.

IDAHO
We found 2 men from Idaho.

Kaelan enjoyed running through the cemetery.
I'm pretty sure all these guys would love to know that kids are enjoying the cemetery too...and there was hardly anyone there so we weren't being disrespectful (that was for all of you that were tsk tsking us!)

This tree couldn't be missed in the entry!
So beautiful!

The next week we headed northwest to a national park that has 1700 free white bikes for use in the park.

We first discovered it when Grandpa and Grandma Custer were here and had to come back!

Kaelan rode half the trip behind Mammy and the rest behind Papa!
He is heavy!

Beautiful Fall!

Can you tell I missed seasons?
I have so many pictures of the trees changing. It's as if I hadn't see Fall for years!

The original owners of the property, that is now the National park, had this hunting lodge built in the early 1900's.  As with every church/castle/ home built before the 20th century, the owners/builders only lived there for a few years before they died.  

You can't see it very well but Colette actually rode in her car seat strapped in a contraption behind my bike. She slept like a baby, as she should!