HP - New Friends, Airfreight and Monkeys

Can't sleep so thought I would at least be productive and get a post out here.  It's been a wonderful couple of days.  Our new friends Alison (thank you to Kara for introducing us) and Andrea and their families have taken us under their wings and shown us so much about Wassenaar.  Alison and I went on a walk around town, and I now have a little bit better sense of where things are.  Cassie and her dog Ruby quite enjoyed the walk too I might add.

We happened upon a playground, and I was so excited to show Caleb.  When we first arrived last Friday, I had told him that the realtor said there was a park across the street from our house.  He was so excited to get outside and play in the park that we stopped some of our unpacking activities and walked over there.  Much to his disappoinment, the "park" is a forest with bike trails and lots of woods to explore.  Not having our bikes yet, it wasn't exactly what he had in mind when I said park.  So, now we clearly make the distinction between park and playground.  With the bikes here now, he is very excited to explore our forest park :)

Monday afternoon we enjoyed a great time at that playground with both families and all the kids.

 

Andrea was also thoughtful to take us to the grocery store and show us the ropes.  

It was a much more productive experience than our first visit.  They have these very slick hand scanners that you can choose when walking in the store that sort of resemble the scanner one might have used to register for a wedding or baby shower.  After registering your "frequent shopper - bonus" card, you choose one off the rack and use it to scan each item you want before bagging in your cart.  Then after finishing, you simply put the scanner back on a rack scan your bonus card and pay.  It makes the shopping way more fun for the kids and makes the experience more effiicient.   

Tuesday was a little like Christmas morning when the bikes and our other air freight arrived.  Joshua in particular was so excited to get out on our bikes.

His brakes were misbehaving, so we loaded up and headed into town to try and find the bicycle shop.  It only took asking 3 people before we found it.  However, we arrived to see the sign on the door that they were closed for lunch.  HA!  Thankfully we had brought some things to do in our backpacks, so we headed over to Bagel Alley to use their wifi (since we won't have internet at home until the 23rd).  They were extremely kind and welcoming to us, and I enjoyed delicious fresh peppermint tea while the boys sipped hot cocoa and ate chocolate.  Not such a bad way to wait for the bike shop to open.

After getting Joshua's brake adjusted, we headed back to the grocery store to fill 3 backpacks with groceries since we don't have the obligatory saddle bags and baskets yet installed that everyone uses here.  I need to take a picture of these very useful gadgets to post.  

The fun day finished with a trip to monkey park with Andrea's family. Such an incredible "boy heaven."  It is acres and acres of paths including a playground and multiple rope swings, rope lines, zip lines and forts to build and destroy along the walk.  I think we have found another hangout we will frequent!!