July 4th weekend

Wow! What a busy weekend! We started our weekend with a bike ride to the beach. It was a little warmer this time but for some reason we still did not bring our swimsuits. We just brought some wiffleballs, a bat and a frisbee. Unfortunetly, it was much more crowded than last time too, so playing was a bit difficult. This was our first real experience at a "European style" beach. We saw a lot of men wearing speedo's and a lot of women only wearing the bottoms of their swimsuits. This was a first for me. I've been told to expect it, some of the swimwear is only sold as bottoms. Suprisingly, the kids had no questions about what they saw and why they were seeing it.

Today we went to Efteling, a fairytale style amusement park. This was a lot of fun. The kids loved it and did really well. We were there for about 7 hrs and the kids walked the whole time, no stroller. We had poffertjes (dutch style pancakes) for lunch. The kids were able to decorate theirs with sprinkles, jam, mini chocolate chips and nuts. They loved it. Jason and I had ours the original way, with butter and powdered sugar. Not a lot of food, but delicious! Jason went on all the spinning rides with the kids while I joined them for the more "easy going" rides. The park is aimed for families with younger kids, so this was perfect for us. We will definetly visit again.

It was a wonderfully exhausting weekend. The kids should sleep well tonight! Pictures will follow tomorrow. I have to charge my camera battery before I can upload.