Don't forget!

When I don't blog, I forget stuff. Fun stuff (or really almost everything) As I was loading the past month's pictures onto my computer, I came across a few fun things we've done, and that are worth remembering.

Sterling has surprised me this week. The biggest Dutch grocery chain (Albert Heijn) constantly has some type of collecction action going. Every time you spend XX dollars, you get some small item. It can include little figurines, or keychains. Mostly it's worthless crap, but their latest action actually has some educational value. For every €10 spent, you get a packet of 4 animal cards. Each animal is part of a category such as "the biggest eater" or "can stay under water the longest". The first few times I got these cards, I would just hand them to Sterling without thinking much of it. I don't shop at this store enough, to really collect them. One day Sterling found out there was a collector's book, and used his allowance to purchase the book. It was sadly empty and pathetic looking. The very next day, I just happened to go to the store with the kids, and remembered that often kids will stand in the store and ask customers if they collect the cards. Sterling immediately got excited and stood at the check out line while I shopped. He was like a hawk. He asked each and every person, and didn't care if they said no. After just 30 minutes he managed to collect 15 packs of cards. This stack helped him fill up his book a bit more. But now he was hooked. Instead of asking to play at a friend's house after school, he asked to go to the grocery store to haggle the customers. He was very successful again, and now has his book filled about halfway, and a large stack of doubles as well. Having doubles isn't necessarily a problem, since just about every kid in his school collects the same thing. The trading happens at school.

I honestly wasn't expecting him to get SOO excited about collecting animal cards. And when I initially saw the book, I thought it would be too difficult to appreciate all the tidbits of info, since it's all in Dutch. How wrong was I !! And I'm so glad it's keeping him away from the video games.

I recently bought the kids a soccer ball, and Joe likes to take them to play across the street. There's a little field there, which is kind of far, yet super close because I can easily see it from my living room window. As the family was playing soccer, another little chihuahua came out. Body is about the same age as Coco. They ran around, playing, biting, and pouncing. It was fun to see Coco take the role of pack leader. Normally she shrinks away from dogs (which might have a lot to do with the size difference).