October

Football (soccer for all us Americans!) in the rain.

Kaelan started playing soccer back in September with a team of 4 year olds. He was a little young but the coach let him join. Since this is his first exposure to soccer he has a lot to learn but he seems to be catching on a little more every week. 

About 70% of the practices have been in pouring rain...it is Holland after all.

Coco likes to go to Soccer Practice too...especially if she gets to hold brothers umbrella!

Some of the kids getting ready for the scrimmage or Mob Ball!

The kids and I have started a music class once a week in Eindhoven. This is something I have been wanting to do for Colette for a long time so we decided to test it out this fall. Kaelan really seems to like it too but he will start school full time in January so it will be some good girl time for Coco and I when he's busy with school.

Halloween

We went to a bday party/trick or treating party. The Netherlands really doesn't celebrate Halloween but there are a couple neighborhoods in Eindhoven that do pass out treats so Colette was able to trick or treat for the first time!

Caterpillar and a Pirate

Coco with the Birthday girl and her best friend!

Trick or treating is very different here! The houses were decorated very scary with scary music and most of the home owners were dressed scary. All the kids costumes were bloody or goulish. Oh, and the candy they passed out was not wrapped. A gummy, cookie, licorice etc all unwrapped and in this big neighborhood only 15 or so houses were passing out candy so the kids had to really work for their loot!

Scottish Highlands Part 2

Day 6 & 7

Day six we drove to Ft. William to catch the famous Jacobite train that is featured in the Harry Potter movies. It starts in Ft. William and takes a beautiful 2 hour journey (round trip is 4 hours and the kids did great!) stopping in a small sea town called Mallaig. 

Kaelan was in Heaven! 

To tell the absolute truth...we drove to Ft. William on Day 6 and weren't able to get tickets. So we bought tickets for day 7, our last day, but seeing the train depart from the station in Ft. William was one of the highlights of K's trip...mine too for that matter! It was really incredible when the train began to leave and all the people, including ourselves, disappeared in a cloud of steam! K and I watch youtube videos of steam trains all the time but it was so cool seeing it (and not being able to see through the steam) in real life!

On the Train

K and Coco got a cool steam train from the gift shop on the train to play with for the train ride.

Girls out numbered the boys on this trip! 

Coco liked her train too but it kind of became K's an hour into the ride!

See what I mean. He NEEDED both of them if he was really going to do this right

The scenery 

The Glenfinnian Viaduct was featured in the Harry Potter movies too.

Mammy had a first class car named after her!

We made it to Mallaig

On the drive home from Ft. William we decided to take a slight detour to see the famous Glen Coe. Parts of Braveheart were supposedly filmed here. It was just a drive but one of my favorite days in Scotland. It was exactly what I had always imagined Scotland would look like, so beautiful!  

Glen Coe

Random Photos

Only group shot taken- Glen Affric

We saw a few herds of the hairy Highland Cows

They were so cool!

Yep we did...a couple times.

Kaelan touching Loch Ness

Scottish Highlands - Part 1

Kaelan, Colette and I took a trip with Mammy and Aunt Nan to Scotland and I have to say that it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (just like the movies!). It completely lived up to every expectation and I'm so glad Mammy and Aunt Nan were willing to make the trip with us because it isn't so easy with two toddlers! 

Day 1

 We started in Edinburgh and this picture is of the Edinburgh castle from Princes Street Gardens

We came across a couple bag pipe players making our Scotland trip complete!

K playing his bagpipes! 

He seemed to like them from a distance but one evening at dinner we had a band play with a bagpipe player and Kaelan left with his hands over his ears! Little too loud for him in doors I guess.

Loved the Royal Mile but, unfortunately, it was one BIG hill and that was a little too much with kids on our backs!

Edinburgh Castle

We only gave ourselves a few hours in the big city because that was the hardest to do with kids but I would really love to see it all someday.

After Edinburgh we drove to Stirling Castle on the way to our apartment in Aviemore

We all took turns with Colette in the backpack

View of the William Wallace monument from Stirling Castle

Kaelan being brave like William Wallace!

A lot of sleeping (and SCREAMING) in the car for both kids!

Day Two

Urquhart Castle over looking Loch Ness

Kaelan has climbed on a lot of ruins in his 4 years so he had to include Urquhart Castle to the list!

Yep, I was there too!

After seeing the castle we went on a much anticipated Nessie hunt by boat!

Searching for Nessie out on Loch Ness

Don't let Aunt Nan fool you, she is searching for Nessie too! 

This was about the time Kaelan handed half his sandwich to Aunt Nan and asked her if she would throw it in Nessie's mouth when they saw her! He was a little afraid to do it and thought Aunt Nan was really brave!

Coco and I did our Nessie hunting from the deck below

On the boat

Urquhart Castle from the water

After Loch Ness we drove out to Glen Affric for a small, slow and rainy hike! It was beautiful and fun to play in the puddles so it was worth the drive!

Examining the beautiful heather that covered this and many other Glens. 

Scotch Pine

The Thistle of Scotland

You can kind of see the hairy, highland cattle in the background

Day 3

We took a drive to Inverness but Colette fell asleep so we kept driving north and ended up in Fortrose where we stopped to see Moray Firth and the North Sea. We also stumbled on the ruins of this cathedral and found a nice little cafe for fish and chips.

A beautiful light house perched out on Moray Firth 

We finally made it Inverness for a little sight seeing and shopping

Mammy got to drive for a few minutes in Aviemore! Every day we would end our day in Aviemore at our resort swimming and eating dinner! The indoor swimming pool was so much fun for the kids to look forward to at the end of a long day of touring! 

Day 4

We spent the day at the Highland Folk Museum near Aviemore

1930's school  house

Even Colette had her own seat in the front row. She got a little scared when the teacher demonstrated, on a desk, how he uses the leather strap on naughty kids. She never cried or ran to any of us she just sat really still, with her head down, looking out of the corners of her eyes to see what everyone else was doing. It was so sweet!

It was a beautiful museum on one end we had the 1930-50's homestead, school, sweet shoppe and train station and then we walked through some beautiful woodland paths to a recreation of a 1700's village! 

Looked just like a set in brave heart! Houses didn't change much from the 1200's to the 1700's (according to the movie!)

Nancy drove a lot! Thank goodness because I was getting tired of driving!