Our family is feeling more and more at home here.
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| When Stone and I have a few minutes between errands and girls' school pick-up, this is where we go. It is .3 miles away from their school. |
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| On Saturdays we deep-clean the house together (kids are finally learning to scrub toilets and vacuum. I hadn't had the bandwidth to teach them yet, but better late than never!). Then we think of something fun to do. This weekend we went to Mission Viejo's "Up in the Air" community event. That's our kids plus cousin Cate. |
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| We met Opa and more cousins there for bubbles, frisbee-catching dogs, BMX bike stunt-riders... |
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| And Sno Cones!! |
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| Recognize that profile? Erik's Uncle used his face as a model when he was a teenager. The monument is at the Mission Viejo community center. |
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| Then on to Opa's house to clean up his front and back yard and plant new flowers. Since Oma passed away five years ago it's been hard for him to keep up on the yard, and it was looking pretty overgrown and tired. We all put on our gloves and grabbed spades and went to work! And now when Opa sees his fresh new flowers he will remember his grandchildren and great-grandchildren planting them for him. |
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| I was amazed how much fun it was for my kids to dig in the dirt, transport snails, scrub down furniture, haul bricks, etc. They worked so hard and didn't complain once. |
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| Opa and Tara chatting |
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| Soren with his best helpers, Cate and Stone |
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| After we finished the yard, we gathered for a potluck dinner and sat at Opa's feet while he told us about his childhood in the Netherlands and about hiding in the medicine cabinet during the War. About meeting and marrying Oma in the Haarlem Cathedral and about Ed's birth and their immigration to America. It was amazing to hear all these stories after having visited these sites in August... I noticed my kids listening intently and we would nod to each other when we would mention cities and even specific streets - we were just there and so had the framework in which to place the stories. |
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Opa with grandchildren and great-grandchildren
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