New Career Path

Today the Young Eagles had their annual rally where kids could ride an air plane. We started going to those six years ago, and we have gone almost every year after that.

 

This year was Sylvia's first year, so she was super excited. After so many years of seeing her siblings get to go in the air plane while she had to wait on the boring ground, so was sooooooo ready to finally get to fly.

 

Erik got to ride in this plane, he lucked out and sat in the front.

 

The three girls got to ride in a sea plane. When the pilot met them, he was all like "Did you bring your swim suit?" to which Sylvia replied "I'll just swim in my clothes."

 

It's amazing how high off the ground this plane was.

 

In this plane Sylvia got lucky and sat in the co pilot's seat. Not only did she sit in the seat, but she got to actually steer the air plane, which gave her her first official half hour of flight training, since her pilot actually is a flight instructor.

 

After all this Kate was expressing that maybe she wants to become a pilot. It would be cool to have a pilot in the family, so let's see how that will work out. There seems to be a push for getting more females into aviation, so she might be at the right place at the right time.

 

Of course, being 13yo, she could change her mind one or two times still.

 

I am just happy that this program exists and that the kids got to experience the joy of flying. They saw many places that they recognized from the air, including "I almost saw our house!!!" from Kate ^^

 

Day at the Beach

 

Sylvia spent a day at the ocean and had an awesome time!

 

 

 

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Jane and Erik took part in a Shakespeare workshop, organized by some students at Dartmouth College. They had a blast!

 

The camp was four afternoons weekly, going on for six weeks. They started with studying Shakespeare and theater in general, then later moved on to a specific play, in this case a Midsummer Night's Dream.

 

Erik shared the role of Peter Quince, Jane played Flute. She played a guy who didn't want to play a girl, but in the end played a girl after all. We have been making many gender identity issues jokes :p

 

When they were still studying the play and she tried to convince Peter that she didn't want to play a girl, her famous line was 'I have to play a guy! Just look at my manly curves!!!!!'

 

It was a low budget production, so they told all the kids to dress in black and then added some splashes of color for the costumes. It worked amazingly well.

 

I am happy Jane and Erik got the opportunity to participate in this, and both of them want to do it again next year.

 

The disadvantage is that we now have yet another death scene to be played out at the dinner table. Don't even ask...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer = Swimming

In the summer we spend a lot of time in our town pool. The kids always enjoy the water, their friends, and their growing mastery of swimming.

 

Ever since we moved here many years ago, we have been doing swimming lessons via the park and recreation department. They are always three weeks in a row, daily lessons, and dirt cheap. I am happy to say that they definitely are worth their money, because all my kids have learned to swim this way.

 

I used to be on the deck with one or two (or more ^^) younger kids while the older ones had swimming lessons. For a few years now, Sylvia could be part of the lessons, so I would be hanging out with the other moms, or even reading a book without interruptions. One summmer I was into letter writing, so I wrote letters to family and friends and had a great time too.

 

But now swimming lessons are winding down. I have only three left in lessons, and they are progressing fast. For this year we only have 1.5 weeks to go, and I expect there is only going to be one or two more summers after this that we need lessons.

 

The end of a period, but on the flip side, this also means that I now can go swimming without having to be within close distance of the youngest ones who can't swim. Which means I can actually swim LAPS when I am in the swimming pool with them. The start of a new era!

 

When I was a teenager, I would spend all my afternoons in the swimming pool. Partly because I loved to swim. Partly because all my friends would be there and we would hang out together. I still fondly think back to those happy times.

 

This being the Netherlands, I would bike to and from the pool. Which had the interesting side effect that in the winter I would often come home with frozen hair... Too bad my kids are missing out on this :p

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piano Catchup

 

Well, we never found all fifty pianos, but we did find around 45 of them. Not bad at all. We had a blast traveling all over town trying to find the pianos and of course playing every single one of them.

 

 

One time we forgot our papers at one of the pianos and Kate had to chase them all over the place when we came back for them.

 

I don't know why we had to forget them on a windy day like this! I stayed in the car (there wasn't quite an official parking space there, so that was my excuse) and took pictures of Kate chasing the papers.

 

She did manage to retrieve them all, phew.

 

We should have taken our bikes to this piano, a nice bike rack to accompany it.

 

 

This piano had hand and foot prints, so of course the kids had to try to match up their hands to them.

 

 

In case you wondered, this is your brain on music.

 

 

So many pianos, so much fun!

 

I am half sad that the project is over now, and half happy that I don't have to drive all around town anymore to find the darned pianos ^^