Steinberg Kindergarten

Monday morning was Emmie's first day of kindergarten. She was very excited to be going to school. We all walked her to class in the drizzling cool weather. Upon entering the school house, she was happy and ready to go into the class to play. I showed her and her teacher, Sabina, where her snacks where in her packback and then we all said our goodbyes. 

We returned two hours later to find her standing near her  coat and packback almost in tears. The adults did not realize she was out of the classroom. After asking her what was wrong, we found out a little boy went on a play toy, walked past her, and then spit on her. Eric immediately started conversation with Sabina about what had occurred and then had Emmie point to the child. The teacher  quickly responded and the little boy came and apologized to Emmie. 

Sabina said Emmie was independent and played quietly. When we were walking back home, Emmie informed us she played with puzzles and another girl did not want to share a babydoll with her. She also said how she ate her morning snack of blueberries all up, but only had 2 pretzel sticks. When we questioned her if she wanted to return to school, Emmie said yes, so it must have been a good morning for her.

Upon returning home, Emmie opened her schultüte to discover the little treats and fun goodies which had been stuffed inside of it. We then celebrated with a lunch menu specifically choosen by Emmie: hotdogs and french fries. In the afternoon, Brigitte and Atisha came over to celebrate the first day of school by having rootbeer floats with us. This was the first time they had these and they enjoyed them as much as the girls did.

In the early evening, we went to the Rhein Main Therme. Click for Rhein Main Therme pictures The  indoor pool, spa, and fitness center was a perfect activity for the cool rainy day. Emmie enjoyed the children's pool, while Adeline had a blast going on the water slides.

Last weekend before school starts!

Friday morning we spent in downtown Hofheim, enjoying the things the girls like to do as I did errands. It was nice not having to drive too. I enjoyed once again walking as driving all week to camp was stressful.  The girls picked out their bakery treats, played on the toys, and choose their favorite ice cream before we headed back home. 

In the evening, Eric watched Tinkerbell on the German local station with them while Melanie and I went nighttime shopping at the mall since they were open till 10pm. Melanie and I had fun picking out items to go in the girls' schultüte for their first day of school.

Saturday morning, we rode our bikes around town doing errands. Adeline received a schultüte from the local grocery store. The girls were excited to come home and discover the fruits, snacks, and games they had put inside of it. I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out for another bike trip.

This time we rode into the hills. After one hill with a grade of 5%, I walked my bike up and down the hills as they were too steep for my comfort level on the bike with Adeline. We managed to go from our town, up and over to the town of Lorsbach. After our picnic at the park, Eric found the sign that said Eppstein, 4km this way or 7km that way. He choose the 4km. Once again, up and over another hill, so Adeline and I were walking in the forest while Eric and Emmie were bike riding. We finally arrived to Eppstein. 

In Eppstein, we found the an old castle to explore. Click for castle pictures The castle was initially built in the 10th century and throughout the years has been addded on to and demolished in areas. We all climbed the 134 steps to the top of the lookout tower. This tower was only 25m high, but at one time it was 33 meters high. We had a beautiful view of the town and Taunus Hills. On our way home, we took the longer route home through the valley, and I could manage biking the small inclines along this route. The route home brought us directly to the center of Hofheim, so we stopped for an afternoon ice cream treat.

Sunday morning at church, Adeline along with the other campers sang the song, "Who He Says I Am." Melanie and Hanna joined us and we were very happy they could come. The children did a wonderful job singing the words and doing the actions that went along with it.

Adeline said she really had fun singing. Afterwards, they had a slideshow of camp throughout the week, so the entire congregation could see how much fun the children had. The kids were then released to their Sunday school classes and the service continued on with the sermon. Adeline really loved kids camp and is already looking forward to next summers camp. 

This week begins school for  Emmie in Kindergarten on Monday and Adeline in 1st Klasse  on Tuesday.  It is hard to believe the summer is over as it has gone by so quickly.  Our family schedule will now revolve around the school calendar for many years to come. We wish both girls lots of  happiness and enjoyment in the classroom and in their activities as they begin the new school year.

Saddle Ridge Ranch

Monday morning, we arrived safely at Saddle Ridge Ranch. The church was transformed into a cowboy ranch for Kids Kamp. We all received sheriff badge nametags when we checked in. Adeline joined the Posse group which consisted of grades kindergarten thru second. There were about 12 kids in her group. 

For the first day of camp, it was just Emmie and Titus, the Pastor's youngest son, in the toddler camp.

This morning and every morning started with songs, prayer, and a little video they watched about 4 kids at a western ranch. Emmie enjoyed watching the video with all of the running horses. Adeline made a craft and had trail mix of Honeycomb, Chex, and Cheerios cereals with apples and m&ms for her snack. Her group then went to the bunkhouse (another themed room)  for their bible story and small group activities. Camp day concluded by gathering again in the church and ending with songs, reviewing James 1:5, and a skit from the high school girls discussing the lesson of the day. They each got a cowboy hat at the end of  Monday's session.

On Tuesday, the girls awoke and quickly got ready as they were excited again about returning to the ranch.We had a detour to the doctor's office as Emmie needed documentation she was ready for kindergarten next week. We met the very nice local doctor and after a few measurements (96 cm ~37 inches/ 14.4 kg~31.5 lbs), check-up, and 25 minutes later we were on our way to camp. We made it in time for the last opening song and then the girls went to their respective groups.  Adeline informed me the bible study is told by one leader in English and the other leader in German, so she is hearing more German dialogue. She also played ranch games of knocking down the empty cans, horseshoes, and ring toss. The girls both enjoyed the haystack snack which was a butterscotch rice krispie treat. 

Third day of camp and the girls are starting to sing the songs they are learning. Adeline completes her picture frame craft. Adeline was happy I could watch her play the games again today as she knocked down 4 of the 6 cans. Snack today was belt buckles (aka sugar cookies) and the kids would have each eaten a half dozen if we let them. Emmie did the picture frame craft today. The girls received a bandana at the end of today's session.

Thursday is the last day of camp and the girls are a little tired so I plan breakfast in the car for them. This works out as we hit a traffic jam due to construction on the way to church. The energy is low in the morning gathering but throughout the day, the happiness and energy level is back to normal. The kids complete their last craft of a cowboy boot. Adeline had fun making her bunkroll snack. It is a ham slice covered with cream cheese and then rolled around a pretzel. Emmie had a tent and her camping gear in class today. Titus and her had a fun camping and safari adventure today. To end the camp, the kids watch the final episode of the kids they have been following all week do their horse stunts and then rehearse the song they will sing on Sunday in church. 

As for me, I plugged in at camp where ever help was needed. Monday, I played with Emmie and Titus. On Tuesday, I helped in the kitchen and learned that the snacks chosen throughout the week were chose with great consideration since many German kids may or may not eat the finger foods such as trail mix and rice krispies since they are not familiar with these snacks. Wednesday, I was the snack lady and was very popular since it was cookie day! I also had to wash many tupperware cups though as in Germany, we do not use disposal items if there is enough normal dishes to use. Thursday, I watched over the toddler room as this time there were a handful of little ones from age 2-4. 

Saddle Ranch Ridge was fun for everyone this week. It helped us  get more familiar with the church and its surrounding area and get acquainted with some of the  church members  The half days of activity were wonderful for the girls as it allowed them to socialize with other children and be busy. It also helped me to get them on a schedule for school as it starts next week.

Adeline leads the way

This weekend, Adeline took us on a hiking adventure. She wanted to show me the church her and Eric biked too. Saturday morning, Adeline became our  guide through the forest as we walked up the hill to the church and then onto the look-out point .

At the church, we walked around the grounds and enjoyed the view of the town.

Our house is towards the right side of the image 

At the look-out tower, the girls were not allowed on it for safety reasons, so Eric climbed the 127 steps to the top. He said it was a great view and I agreed with him that it probably was, but would wait to see the pictures. When Eric returned, the girls played on the playground and we had a snack as the biergarten was not open yet.

On our way back home, we came across wild pigs and goats. Hofheim has them penned in a large cage in the forest and they are cared for by the city.  There were also numerous blackberry plants along the route, so the girls enjoyed stopping every so often to pick a handful or more to eat when they spotted the plants. Adeline is learning to read maps, so she guided us back home using the city map when we descended from the forest into the city.

Sunday afternoon, we strolled around the grounds of Rettershof. It is a historic area that has been restored and is owned by the local city, Kelkheim. Click here to see images of Rettershof After seeing the horses and the small castle, we enjoyed fruit strudels, ice cream, and refreshments in the biergarten.

The week will be busy as the girls are attending Kids Kamp at church. The camp is half day, so it will help in getting them adjusted for school the following week. Please pray for safe travels for us to and from camp on the autobahn this week and the girls learn and grow in the Lord this week.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

The past week has brought about two interesting things we have experienced.

In church on Sunday,  a real loaf of bread was served for communion. The pastor broke the large loaf apart and large pieces were passed throughout the congregation for individuals to pull off a small portion. Eric thought they cannot serve stale crackers to Germans with how picky they are about their bread. We both agreed this sweet bread was tastier than crackers and thought it was probably cheaper than crackers, too. 

After church, we arrived home to find good and dismantled furniture in the one parking spot. My guess was someone got evicted since it was the end of the month and they were clearing out the apartment. Later in the afternoon, a few trucks  stopped by to sort through it and by night there was a truck every hour or so stopping as we could hear the noise outside our windows.

On our walk to town Monday morning, I noticed there was more furniture, rugs, and other household items in various driveways, parking spots, and on the sidewalk. By Monday afternoon, there were over 10 small delivery vans driving up and down our street searching for furniture.  I saw my neighbor, Brigette, who informed me that our area has a furniture trash day 3  times a year and people from Poland, Hungary, and Czech, come and pick up the items before the German garbage truck comes on Tuesday to collect it. Our state, Hesse, is the only area that does this within Germany. Throughout the rest of the country, people can only dispose of furniture once a year and/or they have to pay a large fee. After she informed me of this, I noticed the same 3 or 4 vehicles would drive past every 15 minutes. It should be noted, some vans had father/ daughter teams, husband/wife, or 3 guys piled in and while one drove , the other crew members were out the window searching every space between the them and the houses looking for items. I was so nervous the rest of the day as this was not good timing of bringing home my new car to be parked on the streets with these vans zooming around.

I decided to put a satellite dish and it's parts (attachment hardware, remote control, receiver,etc) out in the evening. Someone returning to the US gave it to us as they thought we could use it, but I think they did not want to take the time  to dispose of it when they left. It was not on the sidewalk for more than 3 minutes, when  a truck drove by, stopped, realized he could not back up his truck due to the parked cars, so he parked his van and came walking back down the street to look at it. I made sure he took everything it came with as I did not want to figure out how to get rid of it. He then asked me if I had any bikes, tires, or wheels. 

It was quite the entertainment watching items slowly disappear from the lare pile across the street. It was also interesting how numerous local people were walking around searching through the furniture piles for good finds. By Tuesday morning, there were only a handful of pieces left for the garbage truck men to pick-up from what started as a large pile on Sunday.

The rest of the week was calm and cool. Wednesday, we had a high of 60 degrees.  It has also been raining periodically, so it feels more like fall here than summer.  Hopefully we can get out to enjoy the weekend, as they are predicting sunshine and 70s.

New car

After 6 weeks of paperwork and completing vehicle assembly at the plant, our Audi A3 has officially arrived at the dealership. Friday morning, Eric spent time at the dealership finalizing the paperwork. Eric did manage to get his initials on the license plate. We could not drive it home the same day due to their procedures and process of delivering a vehicle. 

We arrived at the showroom Monday afternoon and our salesman pointed out our car. It was in the middle of three cars lined up amongst the other autos on display. He was finishing up another appointment, so we immediately hopped in and started exploring. Adeline helped install the license plates and I completed the paperwork with a trip to the cashier. Our salesperson then throughly stepped me through the interior and exterior features of the vehicle since the menu and owner manuals are in German. Finally, I was able to drive my new car out of the showroom with only 10.4km on it. 

Bike trip

We made it home safely from vacation on Sunday afternoon. As we had thought might occur due to the high volume of holiday traffic, the autobahn closed when we were less than 2 hours into the trip home due to a high speed accident. We were very thankful we were not part of it; plus we were early and traffic was still light, so the detour did not did not lengthen our overall travel time.

The week has been busy unpacking from vacation and getting things in order again. Fortunately, the weather has cooled down to low 70's and rain, so it makes it easy to stay indoors and do chores.

Saturday warmed up and was sunny, so we went on a daylong bike trip. With the help of a map and signs, we started on the bike trail along a creek that flows through our town and made it to Flörsheim, a town along the Main River. We journeyed along the little river which empties into the Main River and through small towns, stopping to play at the playground, have a picnic lunch, and refresh at a biergarten along the way.

Adeline was a trooper as she did not bike the last 4km out of our 29km round trip journey. It was after our stop in Hattersheim for ice cream, she decided it was time to rest her legs. Our thighs and butts are a little sore, but we had a fantastic summer day enjoying the outdoors.