Off to the holiday bungalow we go; this time, opting to stay at De Eemphof which is conveniently located near Amsterdam and less than an hour drive away from my in-laws. Given the proximity, we rented a big enough bungalow to house 8 people which allowed us to receive overnight visitors over several days.

Regardless if the bungalow is in Centre Parcs Drente or Laandal De Loomerbergen, they all LOOK THE SAME.

While I like the location of Centre Parc De Eemphof as well as the size of the bungalow which we rented, I was not too impressed with the overall experience. I felt that not only was the Market Square and the Kids’ Entertainment Centre inconveniently located and quite far from where we were, the choices of restaurants and food were limited and the items stocked up in the supermarket were pretty much disappointing. I remember the supermarket at De Heuttenheugte, Drente had much more to offer.

We stayed for a week in the bungalow and rented a buggy for us to lug the kids around in the name of convenience. We also continued to keep our days loose as the weather became a little bit more unpredictable for any outdoor activities. Still, we managed to while away our time with the kids with activities in and around the park, getting them busy with activities that were available at the Kids Club and even taking the kids out of the park altogether to go to the Zoo.

On days when we had to stay in because of the rain, we managed to lure some ducks to our backyard and encouraged the kids to feed them stale bread; simple and mindless activity but for the kids, that seemed like it was the most joyous things to do and something they thoroughly enjoyed. While feeding the ducks, I remembered that Squirt got over-excited and instead of feeding the ducks, he actually picked up the stale bread from the muddy ground and then then stuffed them into his…….mouth! Several times too.

Sigh.

Tucking the kids to bed became more of a tedious thing to do, and because they both shared a room, it meant that they kept up playing together for at least a good 2 hours (on bad days) before they both drifted off to dreamland. Once asleep, the incredible silence from the surrounding forest can be so peaceful, yet deafening.

All chilly, rainy and windy outside, I had my personal music collection on my iPod mini playing in the background while burning wood in the fireplace provided some warmth and a sense of cosyness amidst the cold air. I still recall the view of the woods from the balcony as I sat on the couch…and, I remember thinking to myself that the sight jolted feelings within me I would not forget in a long time to come.  It was an experience to remember.

Before we knew it, the 7 days were over and it was time to head back to The Parents, and by now,  fondly known as “Mama’s Hotel”.

It has been decided that it was time for Squirt to start going to school the first thing on a Monday morning right after we got off the plane from Europe just only a few days prior. Jet-lagged or not.

Unlike Spud, Squirt is slightly a little bit clingier than her sister has ever been, is always a little bit more cautious of new environment and would prefer that we stay close to him. Perhaps, because of that, we had thought that Squirt would likely be crying his eyes out when we leave him with a bunch of strangers in a strange place.

But he surprised us – there was no crying or whining of any sort whatsoever. In fact, Squirt merrily said goodbye to us even before we had the intention to leave and quickly joined the other kids whom he hasn’t met before in his life! He literally started bouncing up and down with smiles strewn all over the place, and not once did I detect a look of confusion on his face. He actually did not care at all that we were leaving. For a first day at school full of new, strange faces, Squirt was one hell of a happy kid. Not too bad at all!

Already on his first day, he came home with a note written on his book by his teacher stating that he got a bad cut on his finger. (I checked it when he was sleeping and thought that the wound looked pretty nasty as the skin on his thumb was completely stripped off. Yuck.)

As I found out the next day, the reason he managed to hurt himself  was because he got busy playing with the sliding door and then got  his fingers stuck somewhere in between the door. (of course!) The teacher did seem quite apologetic, but honestly, it was hardly a surprising fact to me. Considering his crazy obsession with  doors and being compelled to either open or close them every 2 seconds, I believe getting his fingers stuck is something that is just bound to happen one of these days! Hopefully, the little Squirt learnt his lesson of not playing with doors. Ever.

All in all, though – a great start to the first few days in school for Squirt!