Helicopter Tour over the Tulip Fields in Flevoland

Crossed one off the bucket list yesterday. First helicopter ride! And over the tulip fields. What an experience! When I saw the tours advertised back in February, at a reasonable price for a short trip up and down, I couldn't resist. We talked our friends Courtney and Karl into coming, in part knowing that we'd need someone to watch our kids while we went up and visa versa. It was such a beautiful day! The only disappointment was that the tulips peaked early this year so there were many fields already "headed." We even saw a field being headed as we made the 1+ drive North and I wanted to yell out the window, "No! Wait!" The helicopter guys said that in the next 1 or 2 days, all of the tulips there will be headed, so at least we caught it in time. 

The area of the tour was a town called Creil in Flevoland. This was the furthest North we've been in the Netherlands yet. The area all used to be ocean, but the Dutch dredged the ocean, created a massive dike and voila- land for farming and tulips! The whole area runs along the massive Ijsselmeer and is lined with modern windmills. Just a beautiful all around. 

There was a mini tulip festival set up at the site of lift off with a variety of tulips, a food tent, bouncy castle and craft vendors. This would have made it easy to watch all 4 kids (ours plus Courtney and Karl's two) for the short time that we would be up in the air. However, due to an event where kids were doing dance moves on a trotting horse that was happening at the same location, they had to move the launch site. So Courtney and Karl had to take all 4 kids on a tractor-bus to meet us when we landed at the new field. Always an adventure! 

A fun place to frolic

Soon after we arrived, it was our turn to take off! A few comments about this being our "Bachelor" date, outfitted with ear protectors, duck under the propellers, buckle in and up we go!" It was a tiny helicopter. Modern looking on the outside, ancient looking instruments on the inside. Definitely a shaky ride wondering if the pilot had complete control at times. All of the green fields were once tulip fields that had already been headed. The brown fields are for growing grain. 

Excited!

One big attraction they created this year was a Mondrian tile-esque field seen below. At the end of the day, we stopped there to take our up close and personal pictures in the fields.

 And now for a LOT of pictures of the fields from above. Sorry, just couldn't narrow them down!

Back on firm land, we watched while our friends took off. As they were boarding the helicopter, their older son turned to me and said, "Is Mommy coming back?" So sweet!

Life as the parents of 4 under 4. No thank you. 

Back at the festival, we stopped for lunch, watched the horse event and treated the kids to 1 euro pony rides.

Dancing to Timberlake "Can't Stop the Feeling"

Final stop at the Mondrian field. So happy there were still some gorgeous tulips to see and capture pictures in front of.

 Recreating last year's tulip picture, which hangs prominently in our downstairs bathroom on our "Birthday Calendar." Love and hate to see how he's grown!

Photographing tulips is a serious business!

These two monkeys, not so serious!

It could not have been a prettier day!

Hard to resist the drive by photos of fields on our way back home.

A header poised and ready.

Already cannot wait 'til tulip season next year!!

Koningsdag 2017

Another Koningsdag under our belt! Happy Birthday to the King! We had heard that Vondelpark was the place to be in the morning if you have kids, but didn't make it there during years 1 or 2. The free selling market is only open to kids in Vondelpark so most stalls consist of used clothes, toys and books. You'd think I'd be psyched about this, but I just wasn't into shopping. Maybe a part of my desire to get rid of stuff and not accumulate any more. Well, Jude was still into buying toys and we filled his pocket with 5 cent pieces and told him he could buy one thing (aren't we mean!). Luckily, kids set up all sorts of games kids can play so Jude still had a lot of fun. Even more so when we met up with his pal Coen and a few other friends. It was also fun running into other mom friends along the way. Amsterdam truly is the city with the village feel. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong and some kids really impressed us. Like these, posing like those street performers you see, decked out in the colors of the Dutch flag. 

And these, amongst many kids selling hot drinks on the cold day. The forecast looked cloudy and cold, but no rain so we were seriously disappointed in ourselves for not knowing better and not having an umbrella when the eventual rain fell early on! By the afternoon, the sun was shinning bright for the us all though!

And these, pay money to pelt eggs at the "Donald Trump" (we saw two of these sets ups in one small section of the park). Meanwhile, we watched as policeman shut down a stall where people paid money to throw darts at the printed faces of the King and Queen. They do have limits. 

And these, karaoke singers. Pete was feeling MJ's "Beat It."

And these, pay 20 cents to put your hand in a box and pull out someone else's trash (I mean treasure). 

Friends scored us the best find of the day. Complete knight costume for 20 cents. Then Jude insisted on a horse to ride, which set us back a whopping 3 euros. 

And we scored this hat for 2 euors. Each year I feel like I don't have appropriate orange clothing. Shirts and sweaters are useless since it is always so cold. So now I am determined to get an orange scarf and hats for all of us for next year! 

 Pete recreating the photo he took with his friends who visited during our first Kings Day.

After the free market, we went to our friend's house near Museumplein for lunch and for the kids to "rest." So we put both boys together in one room for nap time and watched what unfolded on the video monitor. Too much cuteness to handle and no sleeping of course. These two pals will be sharing a room when we go to Texel in a few weekends so we hope it works out better there!

We walked towards the center in the hopes of getting some food on the busy Utrechtsestraat but there was no way we were making it through the crowds with the strollers, so we just crossed the Amstel and took the metro home. The party wasn't over though. A drunk American dressed as the king was on our subway car and entertained Jude the whole way home- blowing bubbles at him, having him blow bubbles. Loved it! Jude tells us, "that wasn't really the king. He was a pretend king."

So a relatively tame, but fun Koningsdag for us and the kids!

Also this week, Maeve and I enjoyed signs of spring around our neighborhood...

And I drove to Utrecht to have dinner with my genetic counseling colleague, Meghan. She showed me the Nijntje Pleintje monument for "Miffy."

 Beautiful spring colors along the Oudegracht (old canal).

 The Dom tower, largest church tower in the Netherlands.