A Glorious Adventure

I cannot put into words, what a great day we had today.  The sun was shining, and it was WARM.  The locals were in singlets (Miss A and I sensibly dressed in puffer jackets, we’re yet to become fully acclimatised).

Miss A dressed herself.  I told her we were going on a picnic adventure, so she sensibly chose a tutu.

Unfortunately, our playdate cancelled on us (family emergency back in Ireland), so Anneke and I set off on our own adventure.  A 30 minute bike ride later, Miss A and I parked the bike and went for a walk.  Miss A was in fine form, singing and dancing.

Haarlem (and Holland in general) has loads of woods to explore. They are well maintained and sign posted.  Now, if you know me, you know I love a good bush walk (something about being brought up bordering a National Park and my mother sending me out to entertain myself for hours). I think Miss A loves it too.  Though she prefers to run or skip.

After our adventure, we ended up at Tante Sientjes (how did that happen?) and Miss A had a pannekoek and I had a cup (or 3) of coffee.  We were jacket-less and soaking up the sun.  It goes against everything I know – to sit in the sun.  In Australia, we would be in the shade, putting on sunscreen, but here, it’s a different sun, it doesn’t burn and we totally need to soak it up whilst it’s on offer.  

At home we relaxed in the backyard.  Miss A watered the garden and played for an hour with a bucket of water.  It was the delightful.

A big nap was in order (a result of 2 full days at preschool) then some grocery shopping.  After dinner and a bath, Miss A insisted on putting her tutu on over her pyjamas.

Cousin Liena visited (with devilish delicious biscuits), she’s trying to coerce me into joining the annual 40km walk from my Mother’s village to Apeldoorn.  I don’t know if these old knees can take it.  I’ll think about it.

The kid went straight to bed.  Her last words “I had a wonderful day today Mama”.  My last words “I’m just going downstairs, I’ll be back in a minute”.  That was 2 hours ago and she’s asleep.

Daddy is home tomorrow.