Happy 17th Birthday!

JA turns 17 today! She is excited about the upcoming year and all that is going to happen. The picture above is her locker at school. Some friends along with ER decorated it. It was the first time that she had a birthday decorated locker. She even has a birthdate buddy at school! Maybe even a couple.


Here we are in the evening at the house celebrating with cake. I found birthday napkins and plates that had "Happy Birthday" (yes, in English) to bring home and use. There were 3 candles on the cake. It's a Sacher Torte, very rich, thin layers of chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and then a light chocolate filling. The icing is like a chocolate fondant.


ER saw that a hair was by one of the candles. When she pulled the hair, the entire candle came with it. Melted wax had attached the hair to the candle. So while the picture looks as if the candle is suspended in mid-air, it's really not.

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Forgot to show you that JA got her hair cut the end of August. Here it is before it was cut.

And here it is after it was cut. It was about 12 inches long. Much easier to wash and dry.

Two other times she cut her hair she sent it to Locks for Love. She's not sure what she'll do with this cutting. It took her about 18 months, I think, to grow it since the last cut. This cut is shorter then the last one.

You Don't See This in Annandale

We live down the street and canal path from the Dutch National Guard barracks and stables. Civilian stables are also near us so we are use to seeing horses being walked down the street, bike path and canal path.

This afternoon, ER looked out our front window and saw two police SUVs and 2 motorcycle police soon joined by a third. They were not letting any bikes go down the bike path heading up the N44, the bike path near our house that had been under construction for the past month. Something was up.

Suddenly we saw this procession coming down the path:


The walked down the street at right angles to us towards Clingendael. Park.



Dark horses and light colored horses...



At the end of one section of horses was a Palomino which ER found amusing as it was the only one in the line up.

You always know that the procession is over when the police bring up the rear. These are the same SUVs that were waiting for the horses at the bike path.

When MA was driving yesterday, she saw tanks being transported down one of the streets. On the way home, traffic was stopped so two large trailers of horses could be brought across the main road from the road through the woods into the barracks.

Parliament opens on Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday of September. This year the date is September 16. Queen Beatrix will ride in a golden carriage pulled by white horses from her palace in the center of The Hague to the Binnehof, the Parliament building. There she will open Parliament and give the Dutch version of the State of The Union address that also includes the legislative agenda. She does not compose the text but reads what is given to her by the government.

Prinsjesdag is a holiday for the Dutch. They come downtown to line the parade route and watch the horses parade by and try to catch a glimpse of the Queen and her family. The crowd wears as much orange as they can, the Dutch color. Amazing to think that those horses lived so close to us.

Everything's Coming Up Roses!-Catching up on Smithski Happenings

The girls and I returned to The Hague from summer vacation a month ago. Yesterday they began their third full week of school. Already it feels like they have been in school forever. So much has happened:

ER is biking to and from school. ER has decided to go native and bike the 8 km (5 miles) to school. Ends up being almost 9 km because she goes a bit out of her way in order to meet up with friends to have company for part of the way. She started biking on August 25. She has taken the bus a couple times, once because her bike was in the repair shop. She has been blessed with dry weather during most of her bike times. One time, on the way home from school, she rode through a downpour to her friend Eva's house. She left her bike there and I picked her up. The next morning she bussed to school then biked home from Eva's house. She is very good about calling us along the way as to where she is.

"Gypsy" Both girls tried out for the high school musical, "Gypsy," and made the cast with several parts. JA plays Miss Cratchitt, a secretary with 37 lines and the mom of a tap dancing star-wannabe - just two costume changes. The tap dancing is appropriate as JA learned to tap dance last summer for the musical "42nd Street" (with 10 costume changes.) ER plays a Hollywood Blond, a dancing girl at Minsky's, and the mother of a lion tamer. This means, of course, that Mary Ann will be helping out with costumes and feeding the cast.

Class Schedules. JA is taking AP Human Geography, AP Statistics, English 12, Performing Arts (Band and Choir), IB Music Year 2, Dramatic Arts I, and IT Foundations (because she has to take it in order to graduate, normally taken by Freshmen, the only upperclassman in her class and she has to do a PowerPoint presentation on research about colleges with parents grading.) She made 1st chair for the flute section. She also gets to help with 7th grade band as a shadow for her band teacher which involves anything he wants her to do. She is enjoying it which is good since she wants to go into music education.

ER is taking Dutch II, Geometry, Performing Arts Ensemble (Band and Choir - yes, same class as JA), Western Civiliation in Transition, and English 9. First semester she is doing IT Animation, PE and Environmental Systems I for Science. For the second semester, she'll do IT Programming, Health and Chemistry 1. She made 1st chair for the trumpet section.

Honour Jazz Band. ER has started practicing with ASH's honour jazz band on Monday's after school. She finds the music challenging - especially the rhythms. Her first concert is September 10 playing before the high school open house. We'll have our chance to try out our new video camcorder!

On Being a Senior and College Application Info Night. Senior events have started. Senior Moms made cupcakes with whipped cream frosting on August 28. The next treat is scheduled for Sept 10. Seniors received a copy of their transcripts to make sure that the school had all their courses on file to send to colleges.

Then, "On the 12th day of senior year, my guidance counselor gave to me... a schedule to apply to college on time." On September 4 - the 12th day of class - Mr. Loy, the counselor responsible for helping the seniors be admitted to college and university, held an information session for all seniors and parents. He and the registrar explained to us the college application process especially as it applied to deadlines and sending materials to the colleges from the counseling office at ASH. The request to send materials to colleges/universities should be in their office a month before the due date to allow for enough time to compile the file and to send the information in the mail.

JA wants to do Early Action for George Mason, deadline is Nov 1, which means she needs to have her paperwork into ASH around October 1. Catholic U.'s early action deadline is November 15. Mary Washington is a little later, January 15. JA has already started filling out the online application for GMU and ran into trouble. She's applying as a American with a foreign address. She needed a State abbreviation. She found out from Admissions that she needed to put in "FS" for "Foreign State." It is curious that many colleges/universities are sending her information as if she were a International (meaning non-American) student because her high school is in Europe.

Fall has arrived. Fall actually arrived when Terry came back in July. Most of the summer was in the low 60's/high 50's with rain and wind. We had a lovely weekend Aug 30/31 - right before the Dutch kids went back to school. We are also losing about 4 minutes of sunlight each day - 2 in the morning and 2 at night. Today, sunrise was at 7:08 am and sunset will be 8:10 pm. Only tans around are from those who went to sunnier locations for holiday. And it is so Fall - furnace on in the morning; 70s and sunny in the afternoon.

Back-to-School Fair Addendum. Last week when I was doing last minute prep work for the fair, I was playing a lot of Gregorian Chant. When I select chant, my family knows that I am really stressed.

Thinking of you all as you survive Hanna. Enjoy the sun and warmth.

Bait, Hook, Reeling In - Then the Fish Fry

Here's the story why I (Mary Ann) have not posted an entry since August 23.

First background: Back in Annandale, a dear friend offered me the advice to never accept an envelope from Mary S. because it meant taking over an annual event. While in Annandale, I volunteered for Girl Scouts, the parish Women's Group with its variety of activites, and at the girls' schools. I also worked part-time for the John Carroll Society which involved managing different sorts of events, mostly a Sunday Mass-brunch-speaker triad several times a year. I was over involved. When I moved to The Hague, all that went behind me. I was careful just to volunteer to teach 7th grade religious education, go to Girl Scout Committee meetings, help with the costumes when ER was in the middle school musical and just hang out and get to know the moms.

That's how they found me.

THE BAIT: It started last May. At a high school Parent Advistory Group meeting, Martha sat down next to me and said, just in general conversation, "The PTA is really worried that the Back-to-School Information Fair isn't going to happen because no one has volunteered to chair it. There's plenty of people willing to help." I remembered that I really enjoyed going to that fair my first September here, finding out all kinda of information about churches, clubs, businesses, sports that were available to the English-speaking community.

THE HOOK: I had to leave the meeting early. Susan follows me out and says, "Mary Ann, did anyone talk to you?" I said, "About what?" Susan, "Oh, nothing, I just wondered." I suddenly knew what this was all about - I was being targetted to chair the committee for the fair! Someone had figured out that I can do this kind of stuff. Over the next week, I mulled it over, wondering whether or not to say something, mentioned it in passing to Terry without seriously discussing it, prayed about it, thought of who did I know that would help me.

REELING IN: A week or so after that, the parents who went to Morocco for the Middle School Honor Band concert had a reunion dinner at Melissa's house. She put together a wonderful slide presentation of our trip with captions, special effects and music from the concert. We had fun reminiscing, sharing photos and stories. One of the moms, Dana, was moving in the summer. She also was the outgoing PTA president.

As we stood outside saying good-bye, Dana in her soft persuasive Texan drawl, said to me, "You know, we really need a chair for the Back-to-School fair. It's really important for the new families. Mary Ann, would you consider helping out?" By that time I knew I had not just been hooked but was reeled in. How could I say no to Dana who had traveled the road with us to Casablanca and Fez and who was now heading off to Calgary? I said, "Ok." I was reassured that there was a whole binder of notes that would tell me what to do and should not be a problem at all. Several people had volunteered to help just waiting for a leader.

I met with the three former co-chairs. The binder was passed on along with lots of verbal explanation. I took copious notes. I pulled my friends together and divided up the tasks. I needed a couple organized types, a couple creative types and someone around for the summer to pick up mail from the school. Melissa and Martha filled the bill for the organization, Maryann and Diane for the creativity and Lora Lyn was around most of the summer. We met before summer vacation and assigned tasks.

When I returned mid-August, I started putting the details together and discovered that the binder was not as complete as I was led to believe. In the middle of getting the girls organized for school, and helping as a parent welcomer, I was putting together all the last minute details for the fair. The week before, I met with the other principal players, the caterers, security, concierge, my committee. Finally the day, September 6, came - time for THE FISH FRY:

The Sports Hall (gym) featured almost 100 exhibitors from all over the Wassenaar and The Hague municipalities. ASH PTA clubs recruited volunteers. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Churches, dance clubs, sport clubs, women clubs, art clubs, quilt shop, photographers, chiropracters, English-book stores, import stores with products from England and the U.S. The libraries were holding a used book sale. The school store was open for supplies and ASH wear. The athletic booster club had their shirts for sale. You name it, and it was probably there.

While the parents were busy seeking out information, their children had their faces painted, ate popcorn, ice cream and other foods, watched movies, listened to the band "Soundcheque" composed of talented Seniors. Preshoolers could be dropped off for babysitting. Juniors and Seniors needing service hours signed up to lead the activities as well as setting up and cleaning up the sports hall and cafeteria.

I managed the events in the Sports Hall which included demonstrations of dance, judo and martial arts. I even had a little fun. In this picture, I'm the one on the left with the white shirt, red apron and name tag learning how to do a Scottish country dance.

JA roamed around and took these pictures and others. Terry spent the whole day walking around and talking to people.

He said it felt like a John Carroll Society brunch: the week before with its long hours, helping me with last-minute preparations, and then on the event day picking up the odd papers and forms from tables during the clean up.

So many people complimented me on what a great success the fair was, so organized, so busy. There were a few complaints from exhibitors. A few no-show tables. So like a brunch. Even the physical let down once I got home, heading to bed and just wanting to sleep. Bless Terry's heart for making dinner that night and tonight, Sunday, too.

It's over for another year. The up side is that I don't have to worry about being asked to chair any other PTA event.

What's next on the agenda? Girl Scout registration and troop organization this Wednesday! Oh, and cleaning my house.