That's In My Book

Fall is in the air

Fall is definitely upon us. It is my favorite season and Holland's autumn is incredibly beautiful. Here are the sure signs of fall around my house.

Fresh wreaths on the door. Flowers are CHEAP and abundant here in Holland. I am enjoying it while I can, because the same is not true in Houston.

 

Pumpkins and gourds are everywhere, in all shapes and sizes.

 

Leaves are falling, and fast. I am afraid after another big storm, the trees may be bare.

The rain has started and probably won't stop until sometime next spring. I opted for some retail therapy to help me through the impending rain and found these adorable rain boots.

 

Halloween Rewind

Halloween if over and I am happy to say goodbye to it for another year. It's not that I don't enjoy Halloween. I can get behind any holiday based mostly on candy. It just caught me off guard this year. We got back from Berlin and bam! it was Halloween. For some reason in my mind I would have another week between those two events.

Sam was the only child who really participated this year. Helmut was at a Model United Nations Conference all weekend and only came home to sleep. He played a few games of Xbox with friends in lieu of trick-or-treating. Josh ran around with his friends and mostly stole candy from our candy bowls. Sam seemed to really be enjoying the trick-or-treating for the first time. 

At one point during the day she turned to me and said, "I really hope I have made some friends in Houston by next Halloween so I have someone to trick-or-treat with." We are all so excited to move home that I think sometimes I forget what a drastic change this is going to be for her. She has lived almost half her life here in Holland. Evidently, it has been weighing on her mind.

Here are a few pics from our Halloween, including a few of the 40+ spider cupcakes I made, a diva devil and our jack-o-lanterns. Helmut had the boys carve their pumpkins as a Young Men's activity and he was kind enough to take Sam with him. That meant, all our pumpkins got carved and I didn't have to clean up the mess. Little Helmut carved the skull. Josh carved a character from the Saw movie (free hand from a picture, he may have a career in his future) and Sam and Helmut worked together on the "dead" pumpkin.

Bookworm

I have been in a real reading funk lately. It seems I have read one dud after another. For some reason, books are the one thing I can be really cheap about. If I have spent the money on a book, I am sure as heck going to finish reading it. Even if it is really boring or stupid or poorly written. I just don't seem to be able to put it down and walk away. I recently bought and started reading To Kill a Mockingbird once more, just because I knew it was a sure thing (and it is incredible yet once again). 

So, I loaded up my amazon.co.uk shopping cart, and it arrived yesterday. I am hoping I have better luck with this batch.

Fall Photo Shoot

As I mentioned a few days ago, I forced the kids to partake in a fall photo shoot during their school break. They were not too happy about it. Sam was fine, but the boys had friends over. I know, how embarrassing! They have a mother AND she takes photographs of them. How will they ever appear normal to their peers? I wasn't taking no for an answer and I even made the friends come along for the fun. I was feeling pretty good about my victory, until I realized how difficult it is to shoot the kids when they are so distracted. Even I was having hard time focusing when the kids were playing tag all around and through my shots. My favorite place to shoot (the bunker hill in the forest) was a bit too overcast. I like this location because on sunny days it gives good shade. On this super cloudy day, it took me a very long time to find the best light. Don't tell the kids, but I think I may make them do a reshoot.

Anyway, here are a few of the shots I got.

Berlin Day 3 and Magdeburg

On our last day in Berlin we shopped in the area around our hotel. Sam got a new coat at Zara (cutest kid's clothes!) and the kids picked out some cereal at the grocery store. For some strange reason, the prices and selection in Germany are SO much better than Holland. 

We headed home, but decided to stop in Magdeburg (a town about 2 hours outside of Berlin) at a huge cathedral you could see from the highway. Berlin lacks a bit of old world charm (since it was pretty much leveled during WWII) so we were hoping to find some in Magdeburg. It did not disappoint. The cathedral was built in 1200 and is the burial place of Otto I. It was beautiful and the fall leaves in yellow, orange, red and brown just added to the beauty.

I have come to one conclusion since our trip. I can't really handle a road trip with over five hours of drive time. It was a six hour drive to Berlin, add in gassing up, bathroom breaks, eating and such and you are close to eight hours. It is just too long in a car for me. Helmut insured me my dad would be really disappointed in me if this were true (He drove us 20+ hours each summer from Dallas to Utah, sometimes straight thru the night without stopping to sleep). Dad, it's true, I can't handle anything over 5 hours. Sorry.

Berlin Day 2

We headed out on foot with map in hand and didn't let the drizzle and chilly temperatures stop us. Our first stop was the Topographie of Terror, a museum about the Gestapo and SS on the site of their old headquarters. They are currently building a new museum, but had an "open air" exhibit set up. Which was too bad since the drizzle had become a stead rain. Helmut likes to read all the placards at any museum, so the kids and I breezed through and then waited for him to finish. Some of the photos were a bit graphic so I thought the less time Sam had to look them over, the better. The museum does sit right next to one part of the old Berlin wall, so we took some time to check that out as well.

Next stop, Checkpoint Charlie. It is a bit kitschy now with fake soldiers offering up photos with tourists for one Euro, but it was still interesting to see.

Then we walked across town (possibly through some ghetto spots) to the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. This huge museum housing full size railway engines, WWII aircraft and boats, was the boys' choice for the day. It was interesting, but a bit big to take it all in during one visit. A connecting museum with hands-on Science exhibits was the kids' favorite spot. They could have stayed there ALL day.

By this time, we were all tired and hungry. We decided we would head to the Bauhaus Archive (the one thing I really wanted to see) and hoped to find some food on the way. Somehow, we walked thirty minutes to the museum and didn't even find a convenience store. As soon as we walked into the museum, they explained the museum was free for the day...because they were unable to show us their exhibit. Bummer. 

We rounded out the day with some tasty German food and then went to the Sony Center to see the movie G-force...I know, super German, huh?

Fall Break

Our Fall Break has been everything I wanted it to be. We started out last Saturday with a road trip to Berlin. We stayed for a few days (more details and photos to come later) and returned home on Monday. We spend the rest of the week sleeping in late and lounging around. I didn't even make it out of my pajamas for two days in a row. We trekked into the forest for our annual Fall Break Photo Shoot. Check. Check. and Check. My kind of school break.

Just a little teaser of our trip to Berlin. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Berlin, right in the heart of the museum district. When we arrived at the hotel in our Volvo station wagon, they politely insisted they would take it down stairs to the car park for us. As soon as we hopped out a Maserati pulled up behind us. I soon noticed a few photographers standing near the valet desk with expensive cameras and VERY expensive lenses (you know, the white ultra zoom ones you see at all the pro sporting events). When we stepped into the lobby, workers were everywhere setting up lighting and a "red" carpet (it was really purple). When we checked in, they informed us that the Ronald McDonald Gala Fundraiser was being held at the hotel that night. An American "celebrity" would be attending, but he couldn't tell us who, or "then he would have to kill us." We were told to be in the lobby at 5:30 for our celebrity sighting. The kids were excited and Little Helmut grabbed my camera and lined up with all the other 30+ paparazzi. A few German celebs walked in, but we weren't impressed. Then the American celebrity stepped onto the red carpet. 

Can you tell who it is? Little Helmut was having trouble getting the camera to focus on the right subject. That pesky videographer kept getting in his way. Let me give you a hint: it is the guy in the middle.

This was the best shot Helmut could get. Oh yah, Kevin Costner. The kids had no idea who he was. We had to run up and tell Little Helmut to start taking photos because this was the American celebrity he had been waiting for. I felt really old when I listed all the movies Kevin has been in and the kids hadn't seen nor heard or any of them. Needless to say, we have a long list of movies to watch for our family movie nights. I am thinking we will start with Robin Hood.

Saturday Shoot

Last Saturday, Samantha and I set out to complete an assignment for my Photography with RAW class. I had to shoot one subject in four different locations with four different outfits. That is a lot of cooperation to expect from a 7 year old, but she was my only option. She actually tried her best and did a great job (a bribe may have been involved). 

We started out by the town church, but there was a funeral procession in progress. Out of respect, we opted for a European looking doorway instead. The canal/bridge was pretty uneventful. Except for the hissing swans, man those birds are territorial. Next we headed over to the Dutch version of a pumpkin patch. Almost as soon as we got there, it started to pour down rain. We quickly turned it into an umbrella shoot. I think it probably turned out better in the end. Sadly the rain didn't stop, so we are still one location and outfit shy of a completed assignment. We are going to Berlin for the weekend, so maybe I can finish it up then.

Here are a few of the shots I got. I have really been trying to nail my focus lately, and I was happy with the results.

 

 

Operation Market Garden

Two Saturdays ago marked the 65th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. For all of you not living with a 14 year old WWII aficionado, I will explain. Near the end of the second world war, the US and British forces planned a joint effort to secure the bridges in Holland. This would help the forces quickly skirt around the German forces and hopefully end the war. It didn't go as planned. The last bridge (coined "a bridge too far") proved to be too difficult to control and many soldiers were killed. 

This drop happened near Arnhem, which is only about an hour drive from our house. We drove down that day for the festivities. It was clear that Helmut was looking forward to going when he didn't even complain about getting up before 7 AM on a Saturday morning. 

We arrived at the freeway exit and were quickly rerouted by some friendly police. They redirected us to a large parking lot where we were to line up and wait for a bus. The bus took us to a huge field in the middle of nowhere, where we joined thousands of other people. We walked as far into the fields as they would allow us and then started to wait. and wait. and wait.

Some of us passed the waiting time by digging in the dirt.

Then out of sky they came. One vintage WWII Douglas Dakota troop-carrier after another. They got half way across the field and then the "troops" began to drop. Hundreds of men dressed in authentic WWII gear jumped with real WWII parachutes. There were so many they looked like jelly fish floating through the air. It was an amazing site. The pictures were hard because they jumped right near the sun, but you still get an idea of what it was like.

After the drop, we headed over to the museum. Veterans had flown in for the weekend and many of them were at the museum. When we arrived, three vets (one German, one Dutch and one American) were sitting on the bench outside. They were marveling at the fact that they could be sitting next to one another so peaceably after such a relatively short period of time. Once inside the museum we met a lady who recounted her memories of the war and the time she spent in a concentration camp. It was such a moving experience to be there will people who lived through it, who had there lives changed forever by the war.

Then I turned the camera over to Little Helmut so he could get the shots he wanted to remember. We got a lot of pictures like these...

and these...

So I will spare you the rest.

Check

In anticipation of this being our last year in Holland, we are trying our best to make sure we do all the "Dutch" things we haven't done yet. First on that list (and the easiest to get done) was to eat at a Pannekoeken Huis. These pancake houses are the IHOP of Holland and a very popular place for the Dutch the eat.

We asked around about which one in town was the best and then set out a few Saturdays ago. We hopped on our bikes and cycled over to the pancake house on the way to the beach. The weather was beautiful and sunny that morning, perfect for eating out on the terrace. This particular pancake house boasted having 102 different varieties of pancake on the menu. I chose the one with cherries and whip cream on top, nothing like a super healthy breakfast to start the day. They came out larger than the platter they were served on and tasted scrumptious. 

So, Pannekoeken Huis, check!

Sadly, Little Helmut had his eyes half closed in the only shot I took of the kids.

Helmut broke from his normal savory breakfast and chose the strawberries with cream.