Roller coaster day

 Tuesday was a roller coaster ride for us- emotionally and physically. The morning started quite early with the farmer starting his old model tractor and leaving to go out to his fields, but it got me up and a few loads of laundry started. Then a 10am phone call from Emmie's kindergarten principal informing me Emmie lost her place in school and was now on a waiting list. This recently came about due to the recent families moving in and the city telling her the students were to be ranked by age and not when they applied. After a thorough discussion, she informed me there is another kindergarten around the corner from them that has openings. I finalized our conversation confirming their school dates and we would be in contact about Emmie still attending should a student not return in the fall. I immediately called the other school, but the principal was not in. I then emailed her inquiring about Emmie attending her kindergarten. 10:30 am I get a call back from Emmie's kindergarten principal informing me she just received information that a student will not be returning, so Emmie will be in the Sunflower group and the city will be sending us the enrollment package.  It is only 10:35am and I have been through the whole circle of emotions in getting Emmie into a school. Emmie is so excited to start school when she is 3 as she will be just like her big sister. Bike riding past Emmie's school in the late morning to the store and hearing her happily point out  her school to Adeline, made my morning frustrations quickly go away.

In the afternoon, our neighbors invited us along with them to the Kriftel park (this is also where the pool is). We each hopped on our bikes with our kids in the bike trailers and downhill we went. She showed me a new route to the park which was much easier than biking through the streets when Eric and I ventured there a few weeks ago. We met her friend and her son there who was learning English in kindergarten. He told his mom he wanted to say something but he only said bye when we were all leaving.

The park is made up of a few play stations and they are not what you would find in a US playground by safety standards- maybe at an old time amusement park. The 1st station  had 2 tall and steep slides. Adeline was brave to conquer them both by herself. I thought she maybe should have kept her bike helmet on just in case she went up and over the sides. I went on the slower one with Emmie  and then Emmie sat on Adeline's lap one time. The next station had a large mushroom that spun which the girls could hang from. They had fun until their arms got tired. Adeline spotted the zipline and could not resist. It was quite quick and long (about 50m) for the ride. On Emmie's turn, she hung on very tight and tried to cross her legs on the circular seat and just grinned from ear to ear all during her ride. The group then moved over to the dragon climbing structure for a few turns on the ropes and monkey bars. Finally, we ended up at the swings, large rope climbing structure, sanbox/ digging area and in-ground trampoline. The sandbox/ digging structure had pulleys with buckets set up high on a platform for the kids to fill and empty..or otherwise give kids passing by underneath sand showers. The girls loved jumping on the trampoline along with the other kids.