Knocked out

Adeline's story of how her first top tooth fell out:

So I was in my bed. I went to get up and all of a sudden I slipped and I hit my mouth on the wood rail. Then my tooth just popped out. So I yelled for mommy. Emmie yelled, "Sissy's tooth!" so mommy came running. Mommy said it was unbelievable. Then we all ran to the bathroom. It was bleeding a lot. We took care of it and it stopped bleeding after a few minutes. Emmie looked for my fairy tooth purse and found it. We have not put my tooth in the purse yet. 

ps. I was in my bed because I was tired.

We have been watching Adeline's top teeth naturally spread apart for the past month to the extent she has gapping holes on either side of her two top baby front teeth. Both of her two front top teeth have been getting looser every week, but were taking their time falling out. Eric said that when he left on Sunday afternoon to fly to the US, is the time it would happen. He was right as the first  tooth fell out not even two hours into his flight. Fortunately, he had email access on the plane, so Adeline emailed him the story and attached a picture for proof. We are now waiting on the second top tooth as it is just barely hanging on.

Summertime

Today felt like summer. We enjoyed it with an early afternoon bike ride along the Main River. This time we headed towards Frankfurt. The path was great weaving along the river and through the fields. Unfortunately, we learned it also goes around the industry area. 

We followed the marked path which took us on the bridge and over the river. The girls thought was really neat, but then we realized we were getting farther and farther away from the river. We turned around and headed back to the nearest park along the river for lunch. The sun was intense, so we decided to head back before Emmie started to lose momentum and energy.

We relaxed on the patio the rest of the afternoon as it was quite warm. Bandit even stayed in the shade under the table and on the cool bricks during the height of the afternoon heat. The temperature  reached 85 degrees F with no breeze. It did make for a great evening of barbecuing and sitting outside.

4018

It's official, Eric and I have been married for 4018 days. The girls and I have spent the last few evenings watching the video from that day. It has been really neat watching the excitement through their eyes of our wedding. Seeing all of our family and friends who celebrated with us then and continue to be part of our life is wonderful. I am very grateful for the love and friendships that support our marriage and our family.

We celebrated this anniversary by participating in a "Running Dinner". The progressive style dinner was organized by a few of Eric's co-workers with a few surprises. We only knew our starting location, the times we would change, and that we were responsible for bringing a dessert. 

We started a 7:20pm in the north side of Frankfurt at the first host's apartment with the host couple and two other female colleagues. The  ladies responsible for the appetizer served green asparagus topped with shrimp and meat and an asian sauce. It was very tasty. Promptly at 7:55pm, the doorbell rang. Our chauffeur was giving us a five minute warning before we headed to the next house. At 8:05pm, we climbed into our personal black sedan and were on our way to the next house on the south side of Frankfurt. 

We arrived 15 minutes later than the planned time, but we were still in time for dinner. At this apartment, we dined with a few of the guys Eric had been in training with. The guys served fresh crepes filled with white asparagus and ham along with spinach pasta all topped with gorgonzola sauce. They said they started with their mom's recipe, but then fine tuned it for tonight's event. It was delicious and filling. Just as everyone was finishing up their meal, the doorbell rang. We quickly said our goodbyes and were off to the last house.

At 9:25pm we arrived at our last house. I am not sure of the exact location as I only remember the landmarks we passed in the beginning part of this journey. We enjoyed the raspberry trifle and chocolate brownie bites with two other couples. I was happy the trifle made it as the driver made a quick stop one time and it dumped over in the trunk, but the presentation and taste were not effected. While we were finishing up dessert, the doorbell rang to let us know it was time to head to our last destination. 

The entire group ended up at Hoppers, a cocktail bar, in Sachsenhausen. It was a trendy quaint place in the southern historic area of Frankfurt. It was good to see everyone again we had so quickly dined with throughout the evening. 

The spontaneity and surprises throughout the evening made it a great anniversary night out to remember with Eric. 

Violin Performance

This afternoon was Adeline's violin performance. The teacher had the children play a few pieces using different techniques and instruments. Adeline was very posed as she played the violin and the cello. Even the boy's mothers commented on how well the violin suited her. 

Adeline enjoyed playing the violin, but still ranks the guitar as her favorite instrument she has tried so far.

Spargelzeit

We have had another week of rain, but we have not let that dampen our appetite for asparagus. It is asparagus time here and the fresh spring vegetable is in many restaurant specialty dishes and quickly sells out at the market. It makes me so happy when Adeline requests it for dinner. We have enjoyed the fresh green and white asparagus a few times each week along with some potatoes and ham. Emmie enjoys it the most when she can dip a few pieces of the "sword" into the hollandaise sauce. 

Caterpillar or Raupe

On Tuesday, a Hamburg theater group presented The Very Hungry Caterpillar for an English performance in the morning and a German one in the afternoon. 

Adeline's class attended the morning performance. Her class arrived so early, they had to wait half an hour for the other schools to arrive, but it allowed them to sit in the front row. Since her class is beginning to learn the English language, she only had to translate a few times throughout the show. She had a fun field trip.

Us girls attended the German afternoon performance. When we arrived, Adeline was excited to show us the entrance doors. Not even realizing she, along with Emmie who was following, causally went in front of about 30 mothers with their young children, to touch the door and inform me this was the way in. Within a minute, I had the entire crowd standing directly behind me. When I looked around and saw this, I was not about to head to the back of the group as I already understand how Germans do not understand how to form a single file line. 

It was a good thing I held my ground for Adeline and Emmie to be the first ones in for the show. It allowed them to get seats front and center for the performance. I sat towards the back of the room. The first few mothers with their children who we cut in front of all sat in the first few rows and blocked the view for the numerous children who had to sit behind them.

The performance was creative and brought much laughter. At the end, while the large beautiful butterfly was flying around the room, it landed on my head. The girls thought this was neat that I became part of the show. 

Recess

This week is back to routine as school has started up again. Unfortunately, we have had rain everyday and the even the girls are starting to feel cooped up as recess and afternoon activities are not much fun in the cold and rain.

Fortunately, Eric has sent us pictures from his recess breaks to help us cope with the dreary weather. He has been in Kitzbühel, Austria all week in a training session. He claims he is attending training, but we hear about how the food is good, scenery is great, and the recreational activities they have been doing to pass the time. Seems a little suspicious to me, but I am happy it is good week for him.

Pedal, pedal, pedal

Saturday we finally a had few hours without rain. We jumped on the bikes and headed to the Main River. This was Emmie's first big trip on the follow-me. The same path we take to get to the river, Emmie found to be very interesting as she could now see everything we were passing. She had fun looking at whatever we pointed out along the route and sharing with us the new things she saw too.

We made it to Okriftel and the playground. We stopped for lunch and a break. Afterwards, we headed home. Our outing was planned just right because about an hour later, it hailed and then rained the rest of the evening.

Sunday afternoon, the weather was sunny, but it was raining intermittently. We decided to take a walk downtown. Our neighbors who were also leaving at the same time on a walk commented that we had about an hour before the next big downpour. I agreed with them as I had also checked the radar. Just as everyone was finishing up their ice cream, black clouds started rolling in. Bandit and I ran alongside Adeline who was riding her bike quickly back up the hills as we were trying to stay ahead of the storm. I gave Eric the umbrella as him and Emmie were walking. We all made it home with 10 minutes to spare before the hail storm started.

Wet vacation

The cold spell from Easter weekend turned into a long week of rainy days. Fortunately, we did not have any outdoor plans or activities planned for the second week of vacation. The girls thought it was great to have a pajama day and movie day.

Adeline was proud of the block tower she created with Eric. She had to be on her tip toes to start the marbles at the top. They did a great job as only a few marbles escaped the tower at the end when it had shifted slightly from all of them racing to the bottom.

Adeline's cancelled sleepover with Clara because Clara was sick turned into Emmie's fortune of having a campout in the family room with her sister. I think Bandit had the most fun curling up on the girls' sleeping bags while they watched cartoons.

Happy Easter!

We wish everyone a happy Easter! Though the picture is deceiving with the bright and warm-looking sunshine, we are bundled up and dressed more for Christmas.  It is quite chilly here and we were forced to have our Easter egg hunt indoors this morning.  But the girls snuck outside for some quick pictures as the sun peeked out of the clouds for a few minutes. May you and your family enjoy all the joy His blessings can bring today and the year to come.

Decorating Eggs

We squeezed the worktable in the kitchen for decorating eggs in the afternoon as it was cold and raining outside. This year I only cracked three out of the 20 eggs when I was cooking them. 

The girls had fun drawing on their eggs and then selecting the dye color. Adeline only lost one egg when it jumped off the spoon and onto the floor as she was transferring it to dry. Eric took some sandpaper to his eggs to create a crackle effect. The girls thought this was neat. It was great activity to pass time during the dreary weather.

A new bed

Adeline decided her doll Anna needed a baby bed and then came up with the idea that it would be much more fun to make one than buy one.  (Surprisingly, this needed no encouragement from Dad) So her and Eric set about designing a simple baby bed that they could make together as her first woodworking project.  Eric tried to come up with a design that he could accomplish with the very limited amount of tools he had brought with us.

They started out Saturday morning by heading to Baumarkt (the German version of Home Depot), which has a pretty thin lumber selection.  After finding some pine boards that would pass and picking up various other supplies, they headed home to hurry up and start cutting. It started to rain halfway through the cutting portion, so they had to move everything under the balcony. 

In Germany, Sunday is considered a rest day, and you are not allowed to do anything noisy outside on Sundays (grass cutting, power tools, tree trimming, etc.)  So Adeline and Eric had to make sure they did all of their cutting on Saturday in order to save the quieter activities like sanding for Sunday. Shortly before sundown on Saturday night, the last pieces were cut.

On Sunday, a lot of hard work was done sanding all of the pieces down and preparing them for painting and staining. Adeline thinks cutting is much more fun than sanding.  

The next weekend was spent putting on multiple coats of paint.  Finally, the last major step in this project of stenciling the design was ready to be executed.  There they ran into a little problem that the German tape they used for masking is quite a bit stronger than the American version. After pulling away the mask, there was a ton of sticky residue left behind. After a few hours of hard elbow grease and plenty of WD-40, the bed was finally ready for assembly.  

On Good Friday morning, the pair finished their big project. Adeline is very proud of her new self-built baby bed. 

Emmie quickly gathered her baby blankets to share with Adeline. The two of them made the bed together and then placed the bed next to Emmie's baby doll bed. It was a restful night for everyone.

Treehouse Adventure

The first week of Easter vacation has been rainy and getting colder everyday. The first few days we relaxed and rested. Thursday afternoon we bundled up and the Lotz brothers took us to a treehouse they had discovered on one of their walks. 

The treehouse is located in an open field near a river. It was big enough for all six of us and Bandit. The windows even had working shutters and curtains for decoration. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the bench in the treehouse. Afterwards, the kids played in the treehouse and around the big tree while Melanie and I chatted. On our walk back, the girls were already making plans for another visit to the treehouse. 

and the winner is...

The crazy upsets from Friday during the second weekend of March Madness hurt all of us in obtaining points. Unfortunately, it knocked Adeline and Emmie out of the race for first place as they had no more teams advancing. Unfortunately, leading into the Final Four, none of Eric's picks made it either. In the end, I correctly picked the championship game of Kentucky versus Kansas. I predicted the winner of the Tournament to be Kentucky and it was! 

Wow, what luck I had this year. I filled out the bracket without reading up beforehand on any of the teams and during the downtime I had while the car's tires were being changed, so there was no strategy or basis with my team picks. Initially, Eric joked with me of looking at his bracket and cheating since he was the first one to complete his, but we now know the truth based on the outcome.

I am looking forward to the celebration dinner at a Greek Restaurant. 

Purple Milk

Sunday afternoon, Adeline helped get the drinks for lunch. She opened the milk container and became very suspicious when purple milk started pouring out. Eric and I kept her guessing and sidetracking her on her assumptions about the colored milk as she reluctantly filled Emmie's and her glass. At the table, Emmie was super excited about the milk, while Adeline would not even take a sip. Emmie tried to cheer her sister up by explaining how the purple milk came from a purple cow just like chocolate milk comes from a chocolate cow. I finally told her April Fool's. Adeline perked up and claimed she knew it was me all along who changed the milk color.