Last Day of Y10

Finally. The last day of Year 10. And yet we don't want this year to end. Zoe and Mayu are both moving away and next year is going to be so incredibly insane. Here's to a gorgeous year. Thank you everyone who made it so special. 

Ellie, Amelia, Nora, Lizzy, and Fiona eating lunch at Mike's Place

Sitting near the back of the field, eating chocolates in the sun. What a great way to end a great year. 

Last English class. We got to play charades on the bridge. 

Nathalie, Emilie, Me and Kelly

Throwing Ellie in the recycling bin.

Bye Zoe. Zoe's moving to Singapore. 

Amelia, Ellie, Zoe, Fiona and Lizzy

Adelina and Emilie worked really hard to make us each a photo frame with photos from the years. 

Goodbye everyone. Have a good summer! I'll miss you!

Top - Adelina, Emilie, Nora, Zoe, and Lizzy

Bottom - Me, Nathalie, Amelia, Ziyoda, Ellie and Mayu

The CPC

Once again it was time for the CPC, the City Pier City Race through the center of Den Haag. Daddy and I decided that we were going to run the 5K while juggling and Ashlynn did the 2.5K for the last time (next year she'll be too old). Ashlynn and I ran the CPC for the WWF. We got sponsors and together raised 300 euros. (Ashlynn raised 2/3 of that and I raised the other part..) 

Ashlynn did very well in her race, coming first of the girls and winning a trophy. Daddy and I weren't running for time, but I was still pretty impressed that we managed to cross the finish line at about 30 minutes while juggling. (Yes, I did drop the balls occasionally, but no, I didn't kill anyone because they tripped over one....)

Dressed silly for juggling while running!

Posing with the WWF people...

Snowy Sunrise 3

Here's two more pictures of the sunrise... 

pretty windmill.

pretty sunrise.

 

Snowy Sunrise 2

Waking up early on a Saturday morning is not a fun way to start the day, but to be the best photographer, sometimes you have to sacrifice your sleep. Daddy and I got up early to get more photos of the snowy sunrise, this time instead of taking pictures from the road, we took them from in the field. We stood outside for awhile, letting the cameras get warmed up before we could take pictures. And while the cameras were adjusting to the cold, we were freezing our fingers off. Daddy wanted to show me something on the camera, but to do so he'd have to take off his gloves and he couldn't without freezing his fingers off. 

When the sun finally came up, it was so bright that it made the surroundings dark through the camera. The sunrise was still very pretty though, but we didn't stick around very long because we were FREEZINOURBUTTSOFF. 

:)

Snowy Sunrise I

School cycle rides in the snow are slow going and cold, but what makes them better are when there's a beautiful sunrise. So I took my camera with me to school a few days on my way in and I took pictures of the windmill with the sunrise in the background and the snowy foreground in the...foreground. 

When it snows...

Ain't it thrilling....

Though your nose make a chilling.....

To frolic and play, the Eskimo way....

Walking in a WINTER WONDERLAND

The snow FINALLY came. After a LONG time. In FEBRUARY. So not the right time for snow. Oh well, it was still very pretty. So being the random photographer that I am I went out and took a bunch of photos of the snow:

Snow Crystals

Spider web covered in snow. Beautiful!

The Adorable-est

Here's one of the seals that was playing with us. He was so cute! He would come to the underwater window and watch us. And then he would look at us upside down. ADORABLE!

 <3

The Seal Nursery

One weekend, we went up to Groningen to visit a Seal Nursery where injured or sick seals are brought from the Wadden Sea. There were lots of very cute seals and Ashlynn adopted one called Morning. 

These seals are in quarantine. When seals are brought into the nursery they get put into a quarantine so that possible diseases don't get spread.  

Leiden Race

Ashlynn is participating in a "circuit" race, which means that she does multiple races and then at the end, she could win in her age category. It was pretty cold as we left for the race in Leiden on our bikes. That cold weather took an impact on our runners. Ashlynn claimed that there was "no oxygen in the air" and that David had "stolen it all when he ran past." 

Ashlynn and Andrew with the balloon dogs that they made

David

Daddy 

Andrew

Ashlynn

Just hurry up, take the picture and let's get back up to the warm tent.....

The title may give you the idea that we were freezing, but it was surprisingly not cold. Okay, it was cold, but not as cold as I'd thought it would be. Daddy dove right into the water, but Mommy, Ashlynn and I only got in to just above our knees. As we were walking back up the beach, Ashlynn and I were already contemplating doing it the next year. We came up with the idea that we should bring a fold up coat rack so that we could hang our clothes. 

 :)

New Year's Dip

I guess those crazy Dutch have really influenced us because we were up and out of the house by nine in the morning after staying up till about 2:30 the previous night. (or would it be considered morning?) We rented a Greenwheels car and drove out to Scheveningen to participate in the New Year's dip in the North Sea. After getting warmed up by dancing, we ditched our clothes and waited to begin the run into the freezing cold sea (fine then, not freezing, but 8 degrees C so pretty cold). Daddy had the go-pro camera to get these shots: 

Running towards the sea with the 10, 000 other people who got tickets

Happy New Years!

One of our favourites, the "Roman Candles."

At midnight the fireworks started going off and we drank our kiddy champagne (fizzy apple juice) in plastic glasses next to the bonfire. Eventually we went back to David and Andrew's house to light off our own stach of goodies. 

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Crazy Daddy

Daddy decided that to get the best photos, he had to get as close as possible to the mass of burning wood and christmas trees. At the start of the bonfire, we were able to stand quite close without feeling burnt, but soon we had to start backing up so that we weren't to be burnt to crisps. However, Daddy managed to get closer to get some pictures. The experience ended well, with him almost getting blown up by a firework that some stupid kid had light off really close to Daddy. 

New Years Eve Bonfire

Our New Years Eve was drastically changed when the tram never came. We were meant to go to one of Mommy's friend's house for a party, but after standing for over forty minutes at the freezing cold tram stop, we decided that we may need a change of plans. I suggested that we call David and Andrew and see if they were doing anything. We were pleasantly surprised when we found out that they were at home and that we could do something with them. So, we stuffed our massive bags of fireworks and firecrackers into our bike bags and cycled over. One of the main things that I had wanted to do on New Year's Eve was to the see the massive bonfire in a parking lot near our house, (turns out it was tiny compared to others in the Netherlands) so at about 11:45 we started walking over. 

Gingerbread House *2*

*Continued from previous post*

8. Put the candy onto the house using the royal icing like glue, use licorice for the roofing tiles. 

9. Take lots of pictures

10. Let sit for a few days

11. Eat off all the candy and then feed the gingerbread to the ducks

Our gingerbread Chateau!

Gingerbread House

One of the many projects that we had in mind for the Christmas Holidays was the making of a Gingerbread house. When Daddy asked for Ashlynn and I to make templates for the different parts, I suggested we make a Gingerbread Chateau! Here's our step by step guide on making a Gingerbread house:

1. Make the gingerbread dough and using the templates cut out all of the different parts. If you fail, re-roll the dough and start again.

2. Put the gingerbread in the oven and let it bake.

3. Make some royal icing.

4. Once the gingerbread is dry, stick the bits together with the royal icing. Make sure the sides are dry before attempting the roof.

5. Get Daddy to help you with making windows and applying them to the window holes.

6. Attach the roof.

7. Buy a LOT of candy.

*To be continued...*

Dancing...

After Secret Santa we started dancing and singing along with the playlist that Nathalie had made on her iPod. Some people (like Adelina) liked slow dancing, while others liked moving around as fast as they could....and others just weren't bothered to dance at all *cough* Nora *cough* :)

Not sure if this counts as dancing, but it's funny anyway.... 

Adelina & Emilie

Fiona and Ellie

Adelina and Ziyoda

Secret Santa

The whole party began when some of us came up with the idea that we wanted to do Secret Santa, where we each had to get a present for someone else (we picked names from a bag), and they wouldn't know who was their 'Santa.' I had Zoe and I themed her present on 'Safari'

We put all of the presents in the middle of our sitting room and Ashlynn handed them out. Below are some photos of the different presents...