Texel Camping Trip 2023

In mid-May, we took our second annual long May weekend camping trip to the island of Texel. Three nights at de Krim, with a lot more island exploration this year. 

We arrived Thursday afternoon and headed to Oudeschild to go to the Museum Kaap Skil, which is displaying the perfectly preserved silk dress from the 1600s found in a shipwreck in the North Sea! The museum also had an open-air section and scavenger hunt for the kids. 

The textile of the island adorning the ceiling of the museum was amazing!

From the museum, we drove to the Texel Sheep farm and spent the afternoon petting baby animals in the knuffel hoek (cuddle corner), riding ponies, and watching a herd dog show. 

There was a local ice cream festival happening with one of the local purveyors of sheep's milk ice cream, so we had to drive to check that out! There were some sweet older volunteers teaching felting to the kids and free ice cream. 

We set up camp, surrounded by German campers, and then drove the short distance to De Cocksdorp for dinner, getting the recommended lamb and cheese fondue. 

Evening walk

We spent most of Friday at the resort. The kids woke up and played in the tent until around 8:30 when we ran off to the playground for another hour. We had a successful screen-free trip with them (the grownups had a tablet to watch Netflix at night- shh ;) We took a break from the water park to drag the kids on a nature walk before an Illusionist show that evening. 

After bedtime, I drove to the beach to watch the 10:30pm sunset while catching up with a friend on the phone

On Saturday we attended the BUTE fest at a farm near Den Hoorn. There were a lot of food carts and kid activities, including fire making, bread baking over a fire, and a silent disco. 

After the festival, we drove to the beach for some sun and sand time. 

Late afternoon pool time back at the resort and pasta dinner at the camp site. 

On our last day, after taking down camp, we drove to Ecomare, the island aquarium known for rehabilitating sick and injured seals. 

After a lot of trips away without the kids, it was great to have a lot of family time before the busy end of the school year was upon us.

Maeve is 7!

Maeve is 7! We celebrated her birthday early with a few of her friends at the cooking studio in Oude Dorp. It was a great party for us because we didn't have to bring a cake (they made lots of sweets) and we were told to sit off to the side and stay out of the way of the ladies running the party (in nicer terms than that). The kids decorated chef hats, cut shapes out of fondant to decorate cupcakes, made sausage rolls, enjoyed cake with whipped cream, and ended with making pancakes! Sugar overload! Then they danced the sillies out with 45 minutes of freeze dance. Our big little girl was so pleased. Great success!

Kind Charles' Coronation was happening during the party, so I tuned in.

On her actual birthday, she loved opening her presents. She got really into Sylvanian Friends (AKA Calico Critters) and got some new sets of animals (they are so adorable!) and a house with furniture. 

She wanted perfume and I found some Orange body spray in Seville. She was pretty pumped. 

She requested frozen pizzas for her "special" birthday dinner

What the kids referred to as the "yin/yang" cake, which is what you make when your daughter loves chocolate and her brother (who doesn't like chocolate) in equal measure. 

 Happy birthday, sweet girl, we had so much fun celebrating special you!