amsterdam

amsterdam was a week long play for the kids and no vacation for me and joe at all. when you have two little kids, forget doing anything really interesting. forget museums. forget nice restaurants. forget walking around just browsing. everyone also came home with a cold and makayla's been out of school for the last two days because of a high fever. nice. anyways, here's some pictures to recap fun our kids had.

fun #1: while i was out doing quick shopping, ethan managed to burn his hair in the kerosene lamp you see in the middle. i came back to the restaurant to smell the burn and look at his singed hair. thank the Lord nothing serious happened. he was apparently trying to reach for something on Makayla's plate when joe's sister noticed funny smell. poor auntie was all frazzled - trying to put out the fire by hitting on ethan's head. thank you!

fun#2: gigantic underground play area in amsterdam. we went to this place twice in one week. kids loved it so much, they were sweating in middle of the winter.

fun #3: rotterdam zoo. there was a rainstorm on that day - the parking lot was EMPTY! we got the closest parking space in the whole lot. okay, i guess that doesn't mean anything when there was no one there. . . . but we RAN to the aquarium area and had fun nevertheless. we didn't get to see a single real animal - but lots of fish.

and apple pie and ice cream.

i'm not sure if it was before or after the zoo but ethan and makayla started to communicate each other with a growl. when they don't like something that each other are doing, they immediately break into some kind of a bark or a growl. it's very alarming and quite frankly disturbing. as you guys know, makayla and ethan can squeak pretty loudly so it's no pretty sight.

here he is again, growling. my lionboy.

these are shark eggs - neat, huh?

fun #4: another big indoor playground near joe's parents place. it had this HUGE slide. it was even scary for me to go up and come down. it was four stories high. they loved it.

okay, enough about the kids. fun #5: shopping and eating for me! got some new fabric and browsed through my favorite street in amsterdam - lots of cool design stores! cheese from the market - brought back a bunch and managed to stink up the whole suitcase. yum.
decadent chocolates.fun #6: chinese food - it deserves it's own catergory b/c it was just too good. the first dim sum and dinner we had, i was in heaven. i don't have a picture of it b/c i was too busy eating. so much fresh seafood! this picture is the lobster we had in amsterdam. makayla wouldn't stop eating peking duck and demanded more pancakes. in fact, joe's parents had to take her out last night of our stay to get more peking duck since she wouldn't stop talking about it.
thank you mama and yeye! (ethan is clutching his lucky money envelope that he just got from them) makayla also insisted on carrying her own money and asked even at the airport where her money was. she doesn't seem to trust that we'll put it in her college fund. . . . i guess we can no longer spend it on new gadgets for ourselves- she is too aware.