Happy Birthday to Emma

It was Emma's birthday today and we went to her party. Nils flipped out over the gummy bears decorating his cake and left me the rest- thanks Nils! The party was all girls and our two boys. They shut down into shells and played either alone or with us. That's okay, I think there was a lot of pink going on. I've attached a photo of Maria dancing with the boys.

I also carved our pumpkin today. Hopefully it will last until Halloween. I read some tips that should help prolong the life of a carved pumpkin- we'll see if it works.

Jay is looking at his reflection in the window right now (it is night) and saying "hello other Jay. Hello other mommy." Good night!

More Photos- of the kids while I was gone

Here are some photos of the kids while I was gone. Michael went with Carsten and his kids Katarina and Alexander to the zoo one Saturday. Nils climbed whenever he could. Check out how fat that goat is! You can also see Nils eating his new favorite- Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut bread spread). He usually doesn't eat the bread just the Nutella. Whatever we do we can't get him to eat carbs! He is all about Atkins- he loves fish, eggs and meat.

I also have some photos here of right after I got back. Jay loves to dress as an animal so I got another Halloween costume to add to his dress-up closet. Now he has a lion as well as a frog. You can see him here as a tiger-frog (they roar and swim) giving Nils horse rides on his back. And we got tiger paw slippers too! Of course they really are slippers since they're so slippery. We have to get some kind of sticky bottom on them I don't think they'll go for different slippers now.

Once again, I tried to upload a video of Nils and Jay running around with their tiger slippers. In it, you could hear Nils asking "can I see?" a couple of times. I watched it just now and Michael came into the kitchen asking what it was- the squeals and screaming sounded like someone was hurt! But they're having fun definitely not hurt. Too bad I can't get this function to work.

Photos from My Trip

I have attached some photos from my trip here. Thanks Sacha! First are the photos from my dad's birthday. I was sitting next to my nephew, Christian. Man, can he eat! You can see me piling the food onto his plate. I am very jealous of my sister, Rita (Chris' mom). Her kids eat everything. Maybe I should send my kids there for a month....

I also attached some photos of my precious other nephew, Soffian. He is absolutely perfect. I got to hold him after my decontamination period (three days after landing) and a thorough hand scrubbing. He is doing really well and Linda and Sacha are loving having him home.

I really enjoyed my time home being able to enjoy my family without any distractions and being able to spend my father's 75th birthday with him as well as getting to meet the newest member of our family!

I'm Ba-ack

Blogger in Chinese was too annoying to figure out how to post again, so I waited until I got back. Of course, my computer is now missing the CTRL, ALT & print keys (how did that happen? Nils!), but at least I don't need them to post.

I returned yesterday morning and jumped straight into my usual routine. In fact, last night was Parents' Night at Jay's kindergarten, so I had to wait until late to go to bed too. Nothing like your usual routine to force jet lag out of you... although I never had time for it in the first place!

It was great being home. Little Soffian is so social and responsive. It was a lot of fun playing with him and singing. He's a real sweetie, and definitely has a great Buddha belly! I'll have to post photos when I get them (hint to Sacha!). It would have been nice to stay a couple of days longer, but reality was waiting for me back home. It sounded like the kids had a good time with Michael all week. I think they may have eaten a lot of toast.

Anyway, that's it until I get the photos from my trip up. Of course, there may be yet another festival with face painting sometime soon too! Ha ha ha- I got flak that there sure a lot of festivals around here. :) d

Hello from the US!

Geez, Blogger on my dad's computer is in Chinese. I hope I can figure out enough to actually post and not destroy anything. The font is all wrong, but I can't figure that out until I get back to my English version of Blogger.

I am on a mini-vacation in the States right now all alone! Michael is home with the kids and I am visiting for my dad's birthday and to finally meet and snuggle little Baby Soffian.

Flying without kids is amazing. I always figured I would sleep if I flew alone- nope. I slept for all of 20 minutes int he beginning. As it turns out, the constant announcements about the weather, barometric pressure and the lotto numbers are just as annoying when you don't have anyone you desparately need to nap with you. So I watched movies and geeked out on Sudoku.

Hopefully I'll be able to post photos of me with little S while here. And hopefully Nilsa and Jay won't get jealous when they see them!

Pumpkin Patch

Another pumpkin day! Yesterday, the kids went to a fall event, Pumpkin Patch. There was pumpkin carving and drawing (no paint this year), cookie decorating, making ghost lollipops and, the kids' favorite, a mini-playground. We sampled some soup and apple cider and bought some pumpkins for carving at home later. After I buy a carving kit. Year after year, I try to do it with regular knives and it just doesn't work!

Oma and Kurt are here for a visit too. Yesterday afternoon was beautiful, so we went on a walk to the river to throw pebbles. It is a favorite pasttime for the kids. On the way, we ran into our neighbors. Their son is in the same Kindergarten class as Jacob and they were on their way to do the same thing.

Kartoffelfeuer

Jay's Kindergarten had a potato fire on the river to celelbrate the harvest (Erntendankfest). Each family brought either a salad, bread, or dip. The Kindergarten sold sausages and supplied the potatoes that we grilled on a fire.

The kids all had fun playing and throwing pebbles in the water. Of course, Nils did not sleep a wink that day until we left for the bonfire at 16:00. It was chilly, but fun. And the kids were a lot better (safer) around the fire than I thought they'd be- it was great.

Here is Nils eating a big sausage. When he saw Jay and the other kids eating theirs like that, he didn't want to share or get pieces of Michael's anymore- he had to have his own.

You can also see Jay here hugging his teacher, Andreas. He has another teacher, MacKenzie, but I didn't get a photo of her. They're really great to Nils too. You can see Andreas helping Nils throw potatoes into the fire. Jay liked helping with the wood. Afterwards, we all smelt like bonfire.

A Pumpkin Adventure

Has it really been so long since I've made an entry? I meant to post earlier, but there has been a lot to get done around here- sorry.

Last weekend, we went to a special pumpkin place for kids. You could climb and play on this huge ship made of hay and pumpkins, go through a corn maze (maize maze- ha ha), and more. We only did the ship- the kids weren't as into it as we thought. The prospect of pumpkin cake cheered them up and we went to the cafe instead.