Welcome Spring

The first week of Spring for us could have been taken from a book about Spring weather. The weather has been ideal for our activities. The daytime highs on Monday were mid 50's F and  by Thursday afternoon, the high was 63 degrees F with lots of sunshine and slight breeze. It has been nice to have the windows open while I spend my mornings spring cleaning, but with no screens, the little new flies and bees seem to be finding our place a sweet place to buzz around. 

Monday afternoon while Emmie was in dance class, Adeline and I did our homework and ate ice cream outdoors near the cafe where the girls' dance studio is.  When we returned home, the girls found their flip flops and put them on to wear outside and I now have a new task to find larger summer shoes for both of them. 

 On Tuesday afternoon we took a trip to the Baumarkt (Home Depot) to pick out some flowers. While we were there, Emmie also showed us where her class walked when they visited the store. The girls chose their flowers based on color and size as we have a few containers to fill. We managed to get the flowers home and planted with only breaking one stem. Afterwards, Adeline cut the grass for the first time this year.

Adeline enjoyed her Nature program on Wednesday afternoon. She is starting a box with everything she is collecting from her walks. Last week it was pine needles and feathers and this week is it various pine cones. While Adeline was in the forest, I took Emmie and her friend, Marta, to the playground. They were doing sand maintenance around the equipment so we could only stay for a few minutes for a couple of pushes on the swings. The girls liked watching the bulldozer pick up the old sand and dump it into the truck and were amazed at the huge holes it was creating. They did find a grassy hill to run down a few times and play queen of the mountain on our walk back home.

Aside from enjoying the springtime outdoors, Adeline is doing excellent in her class. I have even received feedback from the parents, that Adeline's conversation skills are good and her teacher thinks she is now a little chatterbox at times. In addition, she is still very excited about learning to write cursive. As she gets farther into the school year, I am also learning new math techniques and a new handwriting style, since they are taught different than how I learned them.

March Madness

Our brackets are filled out, so who knows who the winner will be in the Hannon household. The girls' picks were based on numbers, familiarity of location (ie Florida), and just because. Adeline and Emmie favor a strong performance from BYU in their brackets. Emmie also picked a few major upsets, so it should make for some good family competition. 

On Thursday evening, I watched one of the intense games on the computer.  Once Eric got home, we hooked up the system to watch another game on the television. However, we could not stay up late to watch the late night games, so we watched the last few minutes of MSU lose on Friday afternoon. Knowing the score ahead of time completely took away from the game intensity, but it was still a good fight to the end.

 

Friday evening, we watched more games, but this time, Eric watched one more game into the late night. Saturday morning, he showed me the highlights of those games. After the first major batch of games, Adeline and I were in a tie for first, Eric was one point behind us, and Emmie was two points behind us. 

Saturday afternoon, Adeline completed her self- assertiveness weekend course recommended by her teacher for all of the students.  A local organization was hired to teach the children how to be strong and aware of what is happening in their environment. The girls were separated from the boys for this instruction. Over two days, the leaders taught them through various workshops and role playing how to establish their imaginary bubble representing their comfort level in a situation, how they can determine what is appropriate or inappropriate interaction with another individual, and how to defend themselves. We are very proud of Adeline for doing this session and earning her certificate. 

Our Saturday evening was spent on the couch watching games again. We are already tired of the six or so commercials which are repeatedly played; especially Irish Spring for lads as the volume on this commercial is too loud. Eric stayed up really late into the night watching the games, so Sunday morning was a little tough for him. Once moving, he showed me the nail biting conclusion of those games. I am proud of him for keeping quiet while the rest of the house slept.

After tallying up Saturday's game results, our bracket standings are as follows: Adrienne and Emmie tied for first, Adeline in second, and Eric hanging in there.

The good thing is we have been able to insert US geography lessons throughout the games. Before Adeline could fill in her prediction, she located the school on the map. Then after a round is played, while Eric and her are tracking the winners, she has to locate the winning team on the map again. 

It was warm and sunny for Hofheim's Spring festival on Sunday afternoon. After church, we strolled downtown to listen to Hofheim's Big Band play and enjoy the fresh air after spending the past few days on the couch. We also toured the antique car show and answered many questions Adeline had about why cars were built so different then. It was nice to look at some old Mercedes and other little rare convertibles.

Sunday evening, the Lotz family came over to join in our March Madness festivities. Carsten is a UNC fan, so he was happy to partake in our tradition of consuming chili cheese fries while watching basketball. He even made buffalo wings to add to the snack buffet. This was Melanie's first basketball game she ever saw and also the first time she had chili cheese fries. It was a great evening for both families. Afterwards, Eric and I watched the intense Michigan game. It sure was an awesome game, but in the end, the winner was good for all our our brackets.

From Gray to Green

I think Monday's events brought on a few more gray hairs for me, but towards the end of the week, I was happy to be wearing green in spirit of St. Patrick's Day.

Eric spent Monday in his Paris office for work.  Since he was running tight on time, the secretary there offered to call him an 'express taxi' to go to the airport before she left, letting him know that they were fast because they could use the middle lane.  Eric assumed this meant there was some kind of special commuter lane for taxis.  When the taxi arrived, it was actually a motorcycle taxi.  And by the 'middle lane', the secretary meant in her broken English that the motorcycles could split lanes.  So Eric rode the back of a motorcycle with a blanket on to protect his suit pants while his laptop bag was in the saddlebag and his carry-on strapped to the back of the bike from downtown Paris to Charles De Gaulle, splitting lanes the entire way, often at more than 120 km/h.  Needless to say, it was quite a ride.

Monday afternoon, Adeline's hand stitches were removed. This took two different doctor visits as her pediatrician could not remove the third one due to the knot being under her skin. After Monday's dance class, we took a ride to the clinic as they were expecting us  for her pediatrician so kindly called ahead to discuss in German what the issue was. Thankfully, Uschi so kindly accompanied us to the clinic after our ice cream and coffee get together.  We arrived and were immediately admitted. Her third stitch was quickly removed without any additional operations and the cut is continuing to heal.

This week, Adeline started her Nature program at the school. One afternoon a week, she goes walking out in the fields and forest for two and half hours with her fellow classmates and a teacher. Here she learns about the environment around her while they play games and explore the area. Adeline was very excited to share with me the games they played, the natural teepee they started to construct, and even how fun it was was sitting in the forest and sharing her snacks with the other girls.

On Thursday morning, Patti invited me to accompany her to an English speaking ladies brunch in the area to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. (The school put me intouch with Patti at the beginning of the school year as her daughter who is in the third class has been a helper to Adeline by translating in the classroom.) I met a group of six ladies who have been living here for various times. One of them was Irish, so she demonstrated how to make fresh Irish Soda Bread and Irish coffee. She also shared with us the Irish traditions from her family and her husband's family while making the recipes. The hostess set her table with festive green decorations for our gathering and we had a nice time conversing amongst the group and consuming the warm food.

Plugged In

Our activities this past weekend, really gave us a feeling of being "plugged in" and connected during our time here. On Saturday morning, I participated in our church's women's spring brunch, "What NOT to Wear." I volunteered to initially wear my too short T-shirt and faded black capris and then change into my favorite summer blue dress with dazzling jewelry while the speaker talked of how we can conduct a spring cleaning of our own spiritual wardrobe.

In the afternoon, we all went back to church, as we are participating in a six week series led by Pastor Carsten. I am also helping out the children's portion when their parents are in their session. It felt good to have our first session with the children as Melanie and I have a six week series planned to prepare them for Easter as well.

In the evening, we tested out Eric's technological concoction that he worked on throughout the day.  The various connections allow what is being streamed in on his laptop to be viewed on our television and through our surround sound system. We were able to watch a few college division championship games, even with the six hour difference, so we are quite happy as we will be able to view March Madness games.

Sunday morning, we dropped Eric off early at the Frankfurt as he participated in the Lufthansa half marathon while us girls attended church as it was my turn for teaching Sunday school. He had perfect spring weather for running and completed the marathon in 1:50:07, which was his goal. Unfortunately, this race was low rent as there were only two aid stations along the route, no shiny blanket, shirt, or medal at the finish, and only a banana to consume afterwards. But because this is Germany, there was free beer at the end.

By Sunday evening, you could not find a place to walk or sit in our apartment, but it was a good busy weekend. It brought about a great feeling Sunday night, knowing we are taking part in activities we would normally partake in and having fun while we are here since our transition. This upcoming week we will experience more activities which do the same.

Kinderfasching

Monday morning, Emmie celebrated Karneval in her class. She choose to be a princess and was every excited to wear her outfit all morning in class. When we initially arrived to class, she was apprehensive about her friends in their costumes, but when I picked her up a few hour laters, she could list what everyone had dressed up as. She had a fun time dancing and feasting on the class brunch, especially the colored jello.

On Monday afternoon, we watched the crazy Karneval parades in Mainz, Dusseldorf, and Cologne. Again the costumes are very interesting as we saw here locally and this time some of the floats were a great conversation in the way they were decorated. In addition to throwing candy at the crowd, some of the floats were throwing pretzels and small loafs of bread, while others were tossing soccer balls. 

Tuesday morning, Emmie's class celebrated again with a party. She was a happy girl wearing her princess costume again to school.

In the afternoon, we attended Kinderfasching, a children's carnival party, at the local church. The girls had fun playing the games and earning their stamp at the different stations, so they could get gummi bears when their card was filled up. Some of Adeline's friends were also attending the party, so it was a good afternoon filled with pop, donuts, and friends.

We spent the rest of the week, recovering from the excitement of the past few days.

Since cutting her hand, Adeline's teacher has continued to allow Adeline to pick one friend a day to stay inside and play with her during their breaks as she has done since her skiing accident . This has been nice for Adeline having the one on one time with her friends while they play games in the classroom.

Karneval

The weekend was a fun time as we experienced our first Karneval parades. 

Saturday turned out to be a great day as it was in the high 40s and the sun was shining. We even turned the grill on for lunch since it was such nice weather. In the afternoon, Adeline attended her girlfriend's costume birthday party since her birthday is during Fasching. Meanwhile, we took Emmie to a parade in Hattersheim, a town close by. We arrived a few minutes before the parade started. At first, Emmie just stood by our side. By the fourth float, she had a fun time looking for the candy which was being thrown and picking it up. Throughout the parade, Emmie would peek into her bag to see how much she had collected and touch the sides to see how full it was with a huge grin. The costumes worn by the parade participants, as well as the spectators, are quite interesting as some are super colorful and some are quite elaborate in representing historic times. By the time the parade ended about an hour later, Emmie had filled up her backpack with candy and treats. 

When we got home, Emmie had fun sorting her treats and consuming some of them. Emmie is excited about the little bags of popcorn she picked up for our movie theater time.

Sunday after church, we attended another parade in Oberursal. The weather was nice in the sun, so we picked our spot and waited for it to begin. We had a good time with the older couples next to us laughing at the funny costumes around us, plus they also contributed to our goody collection with the treats they collected around them. This time, Eric's treat was a glass of beer from one of the floats and I received a carnation from another float. Emmie took a nap between floats 60-90 and woke up just in time to see the end of the parade. The sun had moved and we were in the shade, so after about an hour and a half and another bag full of candy, we were ready to head home as it had gotten cold and the wind started to pick up.

When we made it back to the car, we all enjoyed a few of the treats collected from the parade while we waited to leave the parking lot. The girls immediately emptied the bag when we got home and then  sorted and counted many hard candies, gummi bears, and lots of little bags of popcorn again. 

Sunday evening was a quick trip to the clinic as Adeline cut her hand on some glass in the trash she was throwing out for me after dinner. Fortunately, it was a clean cut and she only needed three stitches to close it back up. The doctor said in a week the stitches can come out.

Adeline has Monday and Tuesday off from school, so she can rest and recover from this accident.

Better and Bigger

Monday started off rough for me since I was still sick, but every day that passed, I began to feel better. Fortunately, the weather has warmed up to the mid 40's with sunshine, so the days have been very pleasant.

Tuesday afternoon, Adeline had her six year old check-up and her knee check-up in one visit. Her knee is healing really good and she has been able to skip around in the spring air. She is now 122 cm (4 ft) tall. This puts her in the 90th plus percentile for her age group.  I think she may have had another growth spurt between her birthday and now as some of her pants were a few centimeters too short in mid February that she wore when we first returned from the holidays. She weighs in at 20.5 kg (45 lbs), so it is good news she has increased her percentile range from 25th to 50th.

Emmie could bring a toy with her to school on Wednesday. She choose her  favorite babydoll. The teachers loved the matching outfits! 

This week leads up to Fasching, which is Carnival weekend before Ash Wednesday. Our area is huge into celebrating the period before Lent, so the stores are colorfully decorated and the bakeries have clown treats and tasty Berliners (donuts). 

Friday afternoon, we kicked off Fasching weekend with Happy hour at Eric's work. The girls wore their costumes and we enjoyed overlooking the city with some good food and festive drinks.