Eelco in Japan

Two weeks ago Eelco made a short trip to Japan. Despite recent developments there most of the country is deemed safe. After approval from the Japanese Country Chair Eelco and a colleague were allowed to travel to Japan and attend a so called pre-Production meeting at a pipe mill.

Due to flight schedules etc they had some spare time in Tokyo and did a little Sight seeing Japanese style - meaning all sites of the whole city in a bus trip of a couple of hours. The tour was also the only sign of the recent events as the Bus was only filled with 8 tourists. The Guide explained that normally they have 3 full tours / hour and now only 1. Also she normally worked 3 days a week and now only once a month so tourism is suffering.

 Knowing Eelco he would normally taken the time to read each and every sign and be able to repeat every little detail. Doing a tour Japanese style there was little time for that. The above is the 'Sake' Collection wall of one emperor. Apparently the next one made a Wine wall on the opposite side. 

looking at the pictures i realized again how pretty Japan is. Very tidy, beautiful parks, no crime (to tourists), good food! After the sightseeing it was time for the 300km/hr bullet train to Nagoya

And the meeting - it apears to have gone well judging by the faces. But who knows as facial expressions are nothing to go by in Japan. By the way Eelco is wearing a Japanese 3XL below.

Four Cousins

Cousins Tjibbe & Jeppe were over in the states the past couple of weeks, weahaa! Rick & Jeppe immediately found each other being reasonably close in age and hence interests. Jeppe was clearly the older of the two and would read to Rick.

 Or explain him his movies.

But as soon as more difficult games were at hand the help of Tjibbe was happily enlisted like here in Gatorworld in Orlando with the waterguns.

Tjibbe & Kaatje also happily spend time together.

 And Bernadette enjoyed the sight of it all here at the George Ranch - and actually ended up on some pictures rather then making them all.

After buying some new cowboy boots everyone got them dusted with real cowboy dust at a real ranch with real cowboys.

 Jeppe and I, we had a lot of calls to make to Buzz and sometimes to Zurg (Toy Story) about all sorts of matters ranging from phones, to beans to ice cream and Dolhins. Here at the Docks in Galveston.

 Tjibbe & Eelco discussing Dolphins on a harbor tour. Rick in the meantime attempted to feed the fish his snacks (which also happened to be fishies) and his cup....

 At the Beach on Galveston Island. One warmer blooded cousin (or some would say with a little more padding) lasted a little longer in the water and missed out on the cuddling session with Ber.

 As you can see, all in all the visit was a big success!

Easter Egg Hunt

An Easter Egg Hunt is a real sport, and if you are 21 months old it may or may not be an understandable one. Rick and I had been practicing at home by me hiding plastic eggs in the living room and Rick finding the 1st, starting to play with that one and forgetting about the other 9. Somehow the effort did pay off though as at school Rick did manage to fill a basket (of course all the girls at school found 2x as many eggs as the boys) and did know what an easter egg was and that they were filled with goodies.

2 Days later Rick got to do it all again with his cousins in Dutch.

 Rick proved a quick learner and was enthusiastically shouting out 'Paas-Ei!' in Dutch this time around (copying his cousins)

Not being overly ambitious after about 3 or 4 eggs Rick was already pretty pleased with himself.

 Afterwards whilst the big brothers were coaching one another through the easter egg decorating process....

...the younger cousins enjoyed their loot.

Not sure in the end who enjoyed it the most in the end. I would love to be the Easter Bunny every weekend!

Magic Kingdom

Two weeks ago we went to Orlando to meet up with Eelco's brother & his family there. Of course the attraction of all the amusement parks there also conquered us and so we went to the Magic Kingdom (Disney World) for a day.

You have to be at least a little impressed by the attention to detail in the park. Everything is 'in theme' and everyone and everything is happy (what's there or who works there - no judgement here on the reality factor -;)

The parades in the park with the little ones were very nice. Rick was too in awe to dance along and even with Three boys we were equally interested in the Princess Parade. Rick & Eelco next to uncle Wybe Jan and cousin Tjibbe.

 Kaatje enjoyed us mainly - here with Auntie Bernadette.

 All the fun rides were too action packed and too fast and short to take any pictures but we did attempt a group picture at the end of the day. So we asked some stranger to take a picture of ALL of us.....

Nice picture but something was missing.......so we needed another attempt.

The boys did great but were pretty exhausted at the end of the day. Kaatje also again proved to be a real trooper.

Queensday

April 30th is Dutch Queensday and also here in Houston it was celebrated with a big family party. To show our support to the ladies who organized it all we made somewhat of an effort to dress up.

 Queen Kaatje borrowed Trix's Golden Carriage for the day.

 And Rick emulated the Dutch TV show ' Boer zoekt vrouw' (Farmer seeks wife) into 'Prince seeks Princess) and brought Lady Di / Kate type princess engagement rings to support his 'hunting efforts'.

Rick was very happy that the whole event turned into a major pool party later on and as you can see Little Maartje and Mees where also happy with the big slide.

 Rick won the award for 'best King of the day', not sure at all he realized what it meant

 Kaatje was not eligible to compete - as she was too young - but the 'Gouden Koets' (the carriage) was a HUGE success and Kaatje looked Royal and content all afternoon.

1st 'Real' Haircut

Rick's hair was getting very long again, and with the heat starting to build up here by the day I wanted to relieve Rick of a too sweaty head and took him for his first real haircut (not my previous DIY type job).

Rick was pretty pleased as the seat was a car (with keys in the ignition) and a video was put on for him to watch. Can you tell by the end result the hairdressers nationality??? 

Fortunately it dried up quite nice and Little Rick appeared to have aged into a real little boy within a 15 minute period!

Ready for Madness

Last week I was packing for Orlando. Orlando is to amusement parks what Vegas is to Casinos. With Seven major theme parks (Disney, Universal studio's, Seaworld etc) you know the place is a bit of a mad house, especially in the Easter weekend. So Kaatje was prepping accordingly....