The Dream is Over.....

The title of this post was supposed to be......WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!

Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be and Spain deservedly beat us 1-0. However we will always remember the 52nd minute of the match when we (Robben) were only a few whiskers away from taking a 1-0 lead, which would have been enough to win it.
There is a fine line between eternal glory and misery......

As soon as the final whistle sounded Noah started crying and screaming...he was just inconsolable...he couldn't stop sobbing for about 20 minutes or so.....his world had fallen apart.....he didnt know that sometimes the Orange lose too......

Now he knows!

Canobie Lake Park

Every year we take the kids to Canobie Lake Park. It's a really cool amusement park... some kind of mini-Disne with lots of fun rides. Grammy has a friend who works at the park.... who gets us free tickets every year. Not bad, huh? let's hope grammy will keep this friend for a long time..... :-)

Water Fun

Ayla and Kathy having fun in the lake.....

Silly Putty

Have you ever heard of 'silly putty'? I hadn't...until recently.Apparently it is something that kids in the US play with. What is it? Still not sure.....it is soft, like pizza dough, chewy, guey, sticky, snotty, etc....
This is what it looks like....

Carlos Tevez?

Noah loves to watch the pros on TV and to copy his favorite players.
The latest thing is to put on a head band and to wet his hair, just like some of his favorite World Cup players....

4th of July

We had a nice and relaxing day on Independence Day.... we went to the beach, hung out and had a typical US BBQ dinner..... and of course we watched the fireworks! Very nice day!

NYC

Forgot to add this picture from New York. This is one of my favorite photos.....love the contrast of the dark construction and street lights in the front and the bright manhattan skyline in the back ground.

Going to the Big Apple

Noah and I went to New York City for a 3 day trip to see Matisse Bloem and his family. Matisse and Noah were best friends in Jakarta, but unfortunately they moved to NY last year.
From where we are in NH, it was about 5 hours drive to NY, but with a gameboy and a dvd player it was even for Noah 'I hate long car rides' Sietsma do-able!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon in Jersey City. This is just across the Hudson river and it has an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. The boys instantly clicked again and it was like they had never been separated. Best friends again!
After our arrival Liesbeth took us for a ferry ride, a walk and we enjoyed the stunning view of Manhattan and Statue of Liberty. At night we had a nice dinner at the apartment with Maurice.
Friday was one fantastic day! In the morning Holland beat Brazil..against all odds....in the quarter finals of the World Cup 2-1! We were all so excited!
After the match we took the subway to Manhattan. Looked at the WTC site, we had an outdoor lunch at a park, played soccer, watched another amazing world Cup quarter final match ( Uruguay-Ghana)in a pub, played more soccer in Central Park, had dinner at a nice pizza restaurant and came back at the apartment at 10PM. July 2, 2010 had been a day to remember!
The next day we slept in, the boys played a bit more, we watched the Germans slaughtering Argentina and headed back to NH.


Best Friends!


We have missed Liesbeth and the Bloems so much!



9-11 Monument




Having lunch in the Park




Ghana were 1 kick away from first ever African team in the World Cup semis......Unbelievable Climax!





Strolling in Manhattan



Imagine.....Boys playing in Central Park...the place where John Lennon was shot...

The Crazy Gang

Voila some pictures of the crazy gang of the family ........Kathy, Noah, Ayla and lots of dogs!

Red Sox

Kathy and Jim had a great surprise for us last week......tickets for a Red Sox game at Fenway!
Wow.....that was soo cool! We loved it, but the Red Socks were pretty poor and lost 6-1 to Tampa

Summer Fun

The weather has been fantastic since we arrived in the US. Since Aunty Kathy's pool is closed this summer, we often hang out at a nice little lake in Derry to cool off. It has a small beach, a deck, a raft and a grass field..... Perfect for families with small kids.

WORLD CUP FEVER continues.......

Holland are still in the World Cup! In the 2nd round we managed to beat Slowakia, the team that surprising beat Italy in the 1st round.
We won, but we still didn't play that well. We will have to play a lot better if we want to beat tournament favorites Brazil in the quarters.
In the pictures you can see us wearing our special 'TroWoCuPas'......Tropical World Cup Pants. A friend of ours in Jakarta started a little business selling those pants for all countries in the World Cup....Pretty cool, huh?

Going Japanese !

A few days ago we all went out for Japanese food. Maria ( Sue's youngest sister) was here too with her husband Adam.It was one of those places were they cook right in front of you. Food was delicious and the kids loved the cooking show.





Aunty Kathy and Noah being silly....as usual...