Cold

This past week we have experienced the numerous definitions for COLD. The temperature outside has dropped and we are wearing our heavy winter outdoor apparel again. 

Adeline's knee is still swollen, but with every day, it is improving. Nurse Emmie is doing a good job assisting me wrap Adeline's knee so it gets better. Although, I threw her for a loop when I put quark on Adeline's knee to help with the swelling. My German friends recommended it to help reduce the swelling, so I thought why not try an easy remedy. Towards the end of the week, Adeline was walking to school, but did not participate in any sport activities.

I set up a tent in their bunk beds while they were at school one day. They had fun having a picnic and camping out in their room  to help pass the low activity afternoons.

Thursday morning, we did wake up to the snow falling and collecting. The sight brought much excitement to the girls. The snow came down for over five hours and created a nice environment. Since it was a wet snow, it did not last very long for the girls to play out in it and was all gone by Friday morning.

Saturday afternoon, I organized a game time at ICF. There were about ten families who participated in this activity. We had games for individuals to play with a few others like Yahtzee and Uno and then a group game time of games like Bingo and Beetle. I was surprised that I had to explain Bingo to a few people as they had not played this game before. The afternoon of fellowship with some yummy snacks was a good time for the dreary cold day.

Emmie has been napping almost everyday this past week and many children have been absent in school, so her body is fighting off a virus. Her body reacted by her eye swelling on Sunday morning and my body reacted with severe cold symptoms. Late Sunday morning, after some medicine and warm washcloths, her swollen eyelid reduced in size. Unfortunately for me, my cold was just starting to ramp up. Eric ordered Chinese for lunch and then we watched Superman for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Couch Potatoes

Monday was a busy day for us but then the week slowed down. The girls handed out Valentine's to their classmates who thought they were really neat since this is something the Germans do not celebrate here. 

Emmie's kindergarten class hosted an international brunch on Monday. 

The assortment of dishes brought in pleased everyone. Emmie's favorite dish was a vegetarian pizza as she helped herself to two more slices after her initial one.

In the afternoon, while Emmie attended her dance class, Adeline and I visited the doctor. He evaluated her knee and confirmed there was no major damage, plus gave us some prescription cream to apply twice a day to help the swelling go down.

Aside from Monday's events, we spent the week lounging around the apartment. The girls have had fun with creating a movie theater, beauty shop, and other various destinations within our apartment to keep them entertained while Adeline's knee heals.

As for me, my week has been a little more busy in getting Adeline to her classroom and back home. I only  messed up one time in picking her up from school.  On Friday,  I thought her school day was longer, but her teacher so kindly called to tell me the day was over. 

The temperature was chilly and the skies were gray, so we spent our weekend on the couch watching movies and playing Wii. It was a restful weekend for all of us after last weekend's events.

Happy Valentine's Day

From our heart to yours, we wish you a scrumptious Valentine's Day!

-The Hannons

Weekend of Riding

This weekend brought about many different rides for us in our weekend outing with Eric's company. Friday afternoon, us gals enjoyed our train ride to Munich. I was very happy we had reservations as the train was full with many people who were also heading to the Bavaria area for skiing. The timing worked out great for Eric to be done with work and us to arrive in Munich. We were on our way to the Alps to ski, even if the current temperature was 45 degrees. What an awesome sight traveling on the autobahn and suddenly around a bend, you see the mountains in front of you.

We arrived in Lenggries and checked into our hotel right in sync with his co-workers.  A two room suite was reserved for our family. Eric joined up with his co-workers for the evening festivities at the Alte Mulistation, a restaurant at the base of the mountain. Adeline, Emmie and I strolled around town for a market stop and then to have dinner as the evening weather was enjoyable to be out and about.

Saturday morning, we woke to a great view from our balcony. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel with some of his co-workers and then were the first ones to leave to go skiing.  First, we had to rent my skis and then we went to the Brauneck Mountain ski area.  Some of the lifts were closed because of no snow, but the bunny hill had snow. Adeline and Eric went up the tow rope first for Emmie to watch. Emmie then went with Eric, did not like it and cried. We enrolled her in ski school. 

Emmie was fitted with shorter skis that had gummi bears on them and rode the magic carpet for the first time. She was all smiles about this experience. Within 15 minutes, she was taking the magic carpet and starting to descend the little hill all by herself. 

On Adeline's third trip down the hill, Adeline was zigzagging back. Unfortunately, the icey snow and new skis did not make a good combination for Adeline as she fell at the bottom of the hill trying to stop.  A half trip up and down the bunny hill for me as I heard the screams of  knee pain from her as her legs were twisted like noodles. Numerous people came to our assistance as we waited for the ambulance. Adeline and I took our first trip in a Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (ambulance) to the Bad Tölz hospital. Emmie completed her class and ate some gummi bears while Eric packed up our skis before joining us.

X-rays revealed no bones had been broken, the orthopedic surgeon said all major ligaments were still intact, and she just needed time for the tendons to heal from stretching. Her knee was given some ointment and wrapped to  reduce the swelling. We are so thankful God protected her in what could have been a serious injury. Eric handled the insurance and payment information since they could not locate our provider in their system on a Saturday.

Even though we missed meeting up with Eric's co-workers for lunch at Panorama Restaurant am Brauneck, we still went to the restaurant for our lunch. We carried Adeline to the gondola and enjoyed the ride up the 1500 meter mountain. The view was great and since it was a sunny out, Adeline and Emmie finished their drinks outside on the terrasse, while Eric went skiing.

Adeline, Emmie, and I took the gondola back to the mountain base and went back to the hotel. Eric called a few minutes later to say he was on the other side of the mountain of where we agreed to meet when he was done skiing. He informed me the top was ice and due to some of the lifts being closed he could not make it back and here was his address of where he was at. With the help of the navi and few phone calls, we found Eric. He said the mountain top was like ice and very steep and then the middle was muddy due to the warm temperatures.

In the evening, we all relaxed as it had been a long day and enjoyed our family time together.

After we found a delicious bakery for our breakfast and lunch treats on Sunday morning, we returned to the ski area where we picked Eric up at. We enrolled Emmie again in ski school with a longer magic carpet. Initially she was fine, but after a few times on it, we had to coax her, so this ended her first weekend of skiing.  Eric bought a pass for a few rounds of skiing even though more lifts were closed since he toted his skis around Europe for this weekend. Adeline and I had some beverages in the restaurant at the mountain base while they were skiing. 

 We packed up and headed for home after making the most of a ski weekend with warm temperatures and little snow. As we drove north east to Frankfurt, the temperatures dropped. When we left Lenggries at noon it was 51 degrees and every half hour the temperature kept dropping. We stopped for a traditional bavarian dinner in Aschaffenburg and it was 41 degrees. The three local ladies we stopped to advise us on a place to eat, took us to a fantastic local restaurant as the food, beverages, and atmosphere were just what we needed to finish off our weekend on a good note.

Band-aid Week

This week we have experienced many indications that spring is coming. The weather this week has been sunny and warm. The temperature was above 50 degrees on Tuesday. Some low lying flowers have bloomed in the gardens and the birds can be heard chirping away in the morning.

The spring air also brought bumps and bruises. On Monday, Adeline and Emmie were racing down the sidewalk after school. Unfortunately, Emmie fell and scraped her knees on the brick sidewalk. In dance class later that afternoon, Adeline scraped her arm on the balance railing when she was twirling around.  Tuesday was not another good day for Emmie either. We were at the park and proceeding to stroll around the pond, when she took off on her bike, hit a bump, lost control, and scraped her chin in 3 spots on the wooden handlebars. We have gone through numerous band-aids and ointment cream in helping these wounds heal. 

Friday afternoon, we will take the train to Munich and then Eric will pick us up in a car to drive to the Alps. We are excited about the weekend skiing trip in southern Bavaria in the town of Lenggries.

Daddy Daughters Date

Eric took Adeline and Emmie to Hofheim's Altes Rathaus Cafe on Saturday. Upon entering the cafe, they first viewed the display case of over 12 plus different cakes and tortes before selecting a seat. Adeline ordered a cherry crumble cake and Emmie picked out a rhubarb torte. Both girls had a big cup of hot cocoa to accompany their treat. When Emmie's torte arrived, she immediately consumed the whipped cream topping; however, when she tasted the rhubarb, she did not like it. Eric ate Emmie's rhubarb off of her torte and then she resumed eating the cake portion of it. The cafe was only part of their outing while I was in teacher training at church. They also visited the market, playground, and the Wendels. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at a Familienkonzert. Hohfeim hosted a concert for children which consisted of storytelling from a portion of a book about Mozart as a 6 year old and then followed it with piano music. The pianist first read a few pages from the book and then him and his partner would play a dramatic piece on the piano. They did six continuous sets like this. It was a unique way to keep the children interested with the story and then the music. It was a nice family outing. 

This week I start my next session in the German class series, so it is another adjustment week for me. The weather forecast is indicating it will be a warm sunny week for this time of year. I am looking forward to a week of temperatures in the mid to upper 40s after our snow and ice days last week.

Changes

We finally got into our routine since the holidays and they changed Adeline's school plan for the second half of the year. This week, I forgot about her schedule changing, so I was there to pick her up too early one day and then another day, she came home and surprised me as I was not expecting her for another 45 minutes. She is enjoying the two simultaneous sport sessions on Tuesday afternoon. As for me, I am enjoying the later start on Thursday morning.

In kindergarten on Monday morning, the dentist visited Emmie's class. Emmie was very excited to receive a tooth stamp for being a good patient. The dentist did send home a note about tips for weaning a child of their pacifier. I wish she did have a pacifier  we could just get rid of, but her thumb is something we cannot just toss out.

In school on Tuesday, Adeline started learning cursive. They are introducing cursive along with printing some of the letters. She is very excited about this as she likes the fancy writing. In addition, they have been given a new math workbook as  they are now learning math with double digit numbers.

Wednesday morning we had snow on the ground. This is the first snowfall since we returned. The girls were very excited to play in the little bit we got during their school breaks. They tried to build a tiny snowman in the afternoon, but the snow was too wet.

Thursday morning brought about anxiety and excitement. Ice covered everything except the middle of the streets. Even though Emmie fell twice on our journey to school, the girls found it fun to be skating on the sidewalks. I walked in the street, but many parents were driving their children to school, so I used the fences and bushes as support when I could. What is normally a 15 minute round trip for me took over 35 minutes with the icy conditions. It all melted by mid-morning, but the girls are now asking to go ice skating.

We are enjoying Emmie's stage of dressing up. Everyday for the past week or so when she has gotten home from school, she has put on a dress with the crown and her sparkling shoes. It is interesting how Adeline finds this not as exciting anymore and tells her, but then I remind Adeline that she did it too when she was her age. After that, Adeline finds her Spidergirl costume and becomes the superhero who rescues the princess.