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Brian & Martha Fitzgerald
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Updated Friday, April 25, 2007

Meidoorn School Greenpeace activities

For Montessori Day, each class chose a charity to learn about and do something for. Doon's class chose Greenpeace. They visited the Greenpeace ship Sirius, held a sponsored race and an auction, joined the Green Team and raised 751 Euros!

Crocus Vacation

Crocus, Snow

The end of February marks a week long school vacation for the kids, and dad took the week as well. And I mean TOOK the week. I haven't had a real break since last summer, Christmas having required constant attention to the Greenpeace whale expedition in the Southern Ocean.

So we all jumped out of bed on the first Saturday of the break and went off to Muiderberg to hang with Jenny and family for Natalie's birthday. Dinner in a 16th century restaurant where Dylan fell fast asleep.

Sunday morning, Doony and I were off to Snow Planet, an indoor ski hill near Amsterdam, where he took a snowboard lesson. He loved it. Wanted to stay and snowboard some more. So Dad made a deal, that if he taught me what he learned in his lesson, we'd both stay for a couple hours. So my first day on a snowboard, my teacher was Doon. The words "Ducks" and "Water" come to mind. We had a blast.

The bus we boarded back to Amsterdam didn't actually take us back to Amsterdam. By a happy accident, we got on going the wrong way, and ended up at the beach at Ijmuiden aan Zee. So what the heck, this is what vacation is FOR, right? We hung out at the beach and contemplated coming out sometime to rent a sand sailer -- wheeled sailboats that were ripping along the water line at what looked like breathtaking speed.

We kept up a similar pace for the whole week. Playgrounds, swimming pools, laser tag. The spring weather is schizophrenic at the moment, we've gone from howling storms to t-shirt weather to snow. It was a great, concentrated little break from routine.

Xmas 2007


What a great day. Marth outdid herself turning the tree into a magical glittering gift-engulfed conifer. My pumpkin pie came out with one of the finest crusts ever. Doon got his Wii (and Dad gets to play with it),

Dylan got a drumkit

and in a world largely less lucky, we all got a day of well-fed and snugly-housed overconsumption and peace.

Twinkle Twinkle

Dylan has been waking up in the morning singing this. Yesterday I grabbed my phone and caught it with the sound recorder.

V-R-O-O-M spells...Summer photos!

Here's a slideshow of selected photos from this summer's holiday at Cayuga Lake. Sunset boat rides, clams, cottage on the lake, old friends, guitars by the campfire, Darien, Pat rockin out, Uncle Jim and Aunt Sal, Dave and Lisa's cooking, old family photos, Annie acing the music trivia, Mom Muldoon's hospitality, John Roony's sandwichs, Margaret's spank fest, Favorite Aunt Molly's just all around awesomeness: a lot of stuff just doesn't come through in pictures. Thanks everybody for making this one great vacation.

Fun, fun, fun

Queen's Day: the neighborhood transposed to the Jordan

We had a great Queen's Day this year. Our entire neighborhood packed up all our spring cleaning remains into Ludo's van and headed down to the Jordan to monetize garbage, which is what Queen's Day is all about: one person's trash being another's treasure.

We did well, selling off unwanted books and toys, but the biggest entrepeneur of the day was the Doonster. He had me cut a hole in a piece of plywood the night before, then stuck his face through it on the crowded street shouting "Sponge Throw, 50 Cents!" The deal was you got three goes to get a wet sponge in his face. If you won, you got a bag of popcorn. Now the entire batch of popcorn probably only cost a euro, so he made his investment back in two takers: and he had many.Ludo and Jeroen

Then he hit on a little scam picked up from the other kids: betting total strangers 50 cents that they can "jump higher than that building." Doon had 20 takers, gullible or charmed, on that one, hauling in 10 Euros for jumping a foot in the air and beaming "That building can't jump!" Oh my, am I raising a future Internet Scam King?

Update: Marth spoke to a Chinese journalist who wrote up a short feature and sent it to us. Mom Muldoon sent it to Kazue in Japan, who had a chinese friend translate it. Read it here.

Today Doon and I are just back from camping in Limburg for his friend Charlie's ninth birthday. Great times.
Kidz

Dylan hugs for Doon

Doon protests

He says he got the idea from a cartoon. I threw away a pogo stick that had been in the garden unused for years. Next thing I know, Doon has made up placards for himself and Dylan, and I'm finding out what it's like to be on the receiving end of a bit of activism.

A few recent snaps

The days are just full.

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Brianfit's Kids, Cats, Xmas photoset Brianfit's Kids, Cats, Xmas photoset


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