Daddy just came home after taking the two kids to school this morning with a gift for me, all wrapped up, for Mother's Day. He was told, by Mme Claire, that it was too fragile for Pit to carry home himself. Daddy wondered if it was too fragile to carry, how did Pit make it? I may not have mentioned before how "perfect" all of Pit's and the other kids' crafts are and how we see Mme Claire working carefully away at them most days, on her own.

It reminded us how we were trying to pack Pit's St. Nicolas into our Christmas box when he said, "Be careful with my craft that Mme Claire made!" Another time, he handed me an Easter basket with chocolate eggs inside and I asked him if he made it. "Did you make that!!?" And Pit responded, "No, Mme Claire did."

Since both kids started with Mme Claire at that school, I have been reiterating ever since that crafts don't have to be perfect. Often they want me to do the crafts but I tell them that it is art and can be anything they want it to be. I think Frunty has been cured...still working on Pit who is hesitant to do his own cutting as it might not be straight.

The boys enjoyed dipping their artichoke into their little bowls of oil & lemon & vinegar. It was fun to watch them take the leaves off one by one and find the heart in the centre. It's artichoke season and when I was at the market last Sunday, I picked up a bunch of artichokes which we enjoyed today at lunch.

The truth about Coconut Oil
In summary, our choice of fats and oils is one of extreme importance. Most people, especially infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in the diet rather than less. But the fats we eat must be chosen with care. Avoid all processed foods containing newfangled hydrogenated fats and polyunsaturated oils. Instead, use traditional vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil and small amounts of unrefined flax seed oil. Acquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat egg yolks and other animal fats with the proteins to which they are attached. And, finally, use as much good quality butter as you like, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome—indeed, an essential—food for you and your whole family.

Organic butter, extra virgin olive oil, and expeller-expressed flax oil in opaque containers are available in health food stores and gourmet markets.

Afterschool we went to the park to play which is something we do when it is warmish and not raining! Then we went home to do homework and I made a super, yummy, rice and coconut milk hot chocolate with multi-coloured marshmallows. Kids loved it. Me too! They giggled so hard at one point that Pit had tears in his eyes and me, what music to my ears! He was really laughing at his brother who was making funny faces and sounds in French! What a ham!

Windmills, tulips, playing on the beach...we had a wonderful two days in Holland with the Simpsons, our British friends, throwing in a stay at Sassenheim's Casino Hotel and a picnic by a canal among other fun adventures.

Worried the boys were humoring us, we were overjoyed to see them enjoying the tulips as much as we ladies did! I was really spoiled when Daddy presented me with a big bunch of gorgeous tulips...pink, purple, cream, red...they are sitting on our table now as I write.


We had amazing weather so spent more time at the beach, playing and even a bit of jumping in the waves! Cold but fun! Luckily the Simpsons brought a tent as day two was windy.

We finished our time together with a brief visit to Amsterdam and a Rijstafel at Bojo's in Leidseplein. After we said our good-byes, Daddy drove us around to some of our old haunts and where we lived. It was fun. Two beautiful, sunny days in Holland. Tulips and windmills and the bonus of the beach...I didn't want our time to end!

We're relaxing after a wonderful picnic lunch in the Dutch countryside. Our picnic spot is at the edge of a canal in the middle of tulip fields. Cycliists pass by and wish us an enjoyable meal and the occasional boat glides by. 500 metres beyond the fields, we see  regular double-decker trains transport people between The Hague and Amsterdam. Stealthily, a Great Crested Grebe pops up from underwater where it has been searching for food. Earlier, the boys admired the rows and rows of yellow, red and cream-coloured tulips but they quickly tired of being photographed. We're lucky with weather: mostly sunny with a light breeze and highs of 20 celsius.

This morning Frunty was trying to make a birthday wishlist. He wanted to count the months until his birthday so he was asking us what season this was. Season? The Mommy corrected him and said they are called months. He starting counting with "avril" spoken as if it was an English word. Another correction, "It's called April not avril". Now that he had his vocabulary he counted April, May, June. Yeah! He got a sheet of paper and drew pictures of a skateboard, pokemon figurines, and pokemon cards.