April 17th was Ben's 4th birthday, so we decided to make this trip a "Birthday Weekend" for him. We'd been trying to figure out what to do for his birthday since we don't know any kids his age here. As it turns out, our friends Missy and Alex have a 3 year old daughter, so we thought it would be fun for them to play together for the weekend.
It's a 5 hour drive from where they live in Germany to Zandvoort, where our hotels were, so we offered to have them stay at our place, which was about at the halfway point. They got to our house about 8pm on Thursday night, and Ben and Audrey immediately hit it off. They ran around the house yelling and playing like they'd been friends for years. Ben's a social kid, and has really missed his friends back in Alabama. Audrey was the first kid his age who spoke English that he's been able to play with since we left, and it was obvious how much he missed it. The two were inseparable all weekend.
The next morning, with only a 2 1/2 hour drive, we slept in, had a big breakfast, then hit the road. Before we got to the hotel, we first stopped at Clara Maria Cheese and Clog farm outside of Amsterdam. It's a dairy farm where they make their own cheese, and sell souvenir clogs that they make there. We started with a tour of the place, first seeing how they made the clogs. William, our guide, got the kids involved. Audrey was the main helper, so she got to keep the clog, with her name engraved on it. After that part, we walked through the area where they made the cheese, and most importantly, got to sample them. The kids couldn't get enough cheese, and we walked out with a few wheels. Before we left, we walked over to the area where the cows were, and the kids got to see and pet a one day old calf.
After stopping for lunch at a nearby restaurant/playground, we headed to the hotel. It had been a long day at that point, and was almost dinner time. We were staying at different hotels, so we all just ate dinner separately, walked along the beach for a bit, then called it a night.
The next morning we met up near our hotel, and drove to the Keukenhof. Shanna and I had been there 10 years ago, but at the time, not much was blooming. This time there was more. The kids had fun running around the flowers and windmills, but they really had fun when we found a playground and petting zoo inside. There was a sheep that was as tall as Ben that kept "baaaing" at him when he got close, and it both scared him and made him laugh hysterically. There were pigs, chickens, goats, turkeys and rabbits running around, and the kids had so much fun petting them.
The playground had a picnic area, and we brought our lunch. After having sandwiches and poffertjes (little Dutch pancakes), we headed over to Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans is a stretch of Windmills that have been relocated from around The Netherlands. When a Windmill was going to be decommissioned, it was moved here and renovated. They all served different functions. Some were used to ground spices, others provided power to machines that made clog production easier. In each one, you could buy things made from whatever the Windmill had been historically used for. Cookies in the spice grinding mill, clogs in the clog making mill, and so on. For Shanna and I, it was our second time here. We had come there on a Belgium/Netherlands vacation in September 2013 (click here for the blog post), one month after we found out Shanna was pregnant with Ben. So it was amazing to think that four years later, we were back here not only with Ben, but our second child, William, as well. We took a picture in the same oversized clogs we did 5 years ago, but this time it was us and the boys.
That evening we drove back to Zandvoort and had dinner at a restaurant with a big playground before calling it a night. The next morning we had one more place to visit. Shanna had always wanted to visit Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a series of Windmills along a canal that was built in 1740. The windmills turned pumps that kept the canal level manageable, to prevent flooding of the area.
When we got there, Shanna took out some things for the kids to wear. Ben loves Batman, so Shanna got three sets of Batman capes and masks for them to wear. Needless to say, three Bat kids walking around the Windmills was an attention getter. People would stop and just laugh. They especially laughed at "Batman and Batgirl (Ben and Audrey) holding hands, running around". We took a 30 minute canal tour that was nice since the kids were contained. We could just sit and relax for a bit without corralling three little kids.
After we were done, we had one last lunch together, and headed home.
Over all, it was a fun weekend. We hadn't seen Missy and Alex in years, so it was good to catch up with them, and to meet Audrey for the first time. Ben hasn't stopped asking about her. On Ben's first day at Belgian Kindergarten a few weeks ago, he asked if "his friend Audrey was going to be there". We'll definitely be doing lots more trips with them over the next five years, it was fun for both us and the kids.
To see all the pictures, click any image above or here
