Easter

With 5 days off for the Easter Holiday we traveled to the Netherlands to get the kids on the soil of their heritage.  And buy peanut butter.  :) Yes, we are addicted.  Except for me who may be allergic.  Extreme sadness. 
We were only there for a short while but packed our standard amount of crazy activity into every moment!

First order of business was a quick visit to Oma and Opa's apartment.  While it is not set up for these rowdy kids, we wanted to get some photo op's and let the kids see where Opa and Oma are when they are skyping with them from.

Plus Panda was hungry and Oma has bamboo.

We stayed in one of the many vacation parks in the Netherlands.  These are individual guest houses in a park with playgrounds, restaurants and swimming pools.  We were able to pack all these activities in plus fun rides on the go-carts (called "Skelters" here).

Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  If not my top.

And this year we got to share the fun tradition of dying eggs with Oma and Opa! 

Sunday brought the celebration of the resurrection and my phone began buzzing happily with texts of, "He is risen!" and replies of, "He is risen indeed!"
The kids got Easter baskets with the best things ever, Kindereggs!

And who knows what movie these egg cups are from but they are the cutest! 

First order of business, adding stickers to the dyed eggs.

I think the kids most enjoyed subjecting Opa and Oom Martijn to multiple egg hunts.

Well, except for one who didnt seem to be feeling the egg hunt that day!

Oom Martijn thought he had the advantage.....

 but Anneke talked him into getting it down for her!

We were soon joined by Astrid and Simone and the whole family of Huub and Gerty van Hecke met for dinner at a Pannekoeken restaurant!  Yum.  Pancakes are diverse at these places, savory ones filled with meat and vegetables or topped with Stroganoff or pizza style.  Sweet ones filled with apples or pears or chocolate... to name a few.  But what was most special was having Huub's two sons and Gerty's two daughters together. 

Anneke was especially taken with Tante Simone and wanted to "give that girl her coffee".

Emma and Tante Astrid had a sweet talk. 

We had to part ways too soon but are always hopeful that our next visit wont be as long in coming as the one prior....