The boys have been busy doing lots of different sorts of art projects at school.  This month’s theme is the farm, so they made farm animals out of clay.  They also walked over to the “children’s farm” to visit some real farm animals.  They brushed the guinea pigs.

William made a goat and Henry made a pig (whose ear needs some glue).

William's Goat

Henry's Pig

Henry and a girl in the class named Maya made a big ship out of blocks.  Juf Yvonne let them keep it up overnight to play with it again the next day.

Henry's Ship

Henry has been ordering (as he says) a bike since the day we got here, especially when we pass a bike shop, which is quite often.   Now he’s got his own sparkly green bike.   The boys had a “bike traffic lesson” at school, so he knows what to do.  But this is his first two wheeler, so he’s still practicing.  Here he is on his first attempt at riding his new “fiets” at the dunes down the block from our apartment.

Henry's First Bike Lesson

One of the boys in our class invited us to his birthday party on Saturday.  It was a surprise party so we all sat in the dark and when he came in we yelled “verrassing!” and sang the Dutch birthday song.  Then we played some traditional Dutch party games.  In one of them you have to eat some Dutch gingerbread that’s hanging off a string.

Hanging Cake

You’re not allowed to touch it with your hands and it’s ok if the grown-ups holding the string move it around!

Limbo Cake Eater William

For another game, you tie a gummy candy in the shape of a key on a piece of string and tie the string to a belt.  Then you put the belt around your middle with the gummy in the back.   Then you have to get the gummy into the mouth of an empty bottle.  Again, no hands!  It’s not as easy as it looks, but Henry did it right away.

Dutch games

Grandma and Scottie have come to visit!  We’re so happy they’re here.  That’s them behind the herring cart outside our local fishmongers.

Grandma and Scottie

Scheveningen has always been a fishing port, so on Friday we went to the harbor to see the fishing boats.  They’re really big!   And the fish at the snack shop is really delicious.

This is Good Fish!

These Boats are Big!

The Plant Tunnel

William and Friend

On Wednesday we took the double-decker train to Leiden.  Naturally we sat up top.    

Dutch Train

In Leiden we went to the fabulous natural history museum, Naturalis (www.naturalis.nl).     

 The room that we liked best had a host of stuffed animals and birds as well as a tunnel of pressed plants.  It was called the Theater of Life.  

Henry Tries on a Helmet

The boys had the week off school, so on Monday we took tram #1 to Delft to see the new exhibit on Tournaments at the Army museum (www.legermuseum.nl).  The whole museum is full of fascinating things like swords, pikes, helmets, shields, bluderbusses, canon and guns.   We could try on a medieval knight’s helmet and a sixteenth-century soldier’s helmet.  They were both made out of metal and very heavy.

But the best part was the special events about knights.  First there was a children’s tournament.  About 50 kids put on knight’s tunics and helmets (plastic this time). 

Crusader Brothers

  Out in the courtyard they got bouncy horses and foam swords.  Then it was time for the melee! 

Animals (velcroed on to the helmets) were flying everywhere.  Before the end Henry had several bigger knights on the run. 

Waiting for the Melee to Begin

After the melee we saw the exhibits on the 80 Years War and the shift to guns, then went to see two knights demonstrate how they put on their armor and how they fight with pikes, swords and something with a complicated Dutch name that had claws and spikes on a long pole.  They broke two pikes!   William was right up front and could see sparks flying when they fought with the swords.   The boys got to hold one of the swords after the demonstration and report that it was heavy.

The museum goes up to the present day, so we also saw plenty of tanks.  There was even a small artillery carriage pulled by two dogs from WWI.

With Ridder Bart