Day and Night

Within a 12 hour time period, one week ago, I had two more responsibilities requiring my attention day and night. 

The first came as a result of my landlord living above us and seeing his green grass had turned brown. Due to the lack of rain, warm sunny days, and the yard is over the garage, the grass requires lots of water. However, since we live in a country with many rules and laws, we thought you could not waste water by watering the lawn, so I had not been. This was not the case and I was kindly asked to water the grass so it would come back. It is now coming back slowly, so in another few weeks, we should have a green yard again.

The second came to my attention from the teacher on Wednesday as lice was discovered in Adeline's class.  Adeline told me her teacher had not found any when she went through each student's hair and I did not find any the evening she brought the letter home, but the next morning, we found the beginning stages of them. 100 ml of Lice shampoo, 2 treatments for Adeline, 1 full bottle of laundry detergent, and a few hair washes with the lice shampoo for Emmie and myself as a precaution, we are finally lice free as of right now. I think I have done my months worth of laundry within this past week. In addition, I feel like I am one of those monkeys you see on National Geographic grooming another monkey as I sit and go through Adeline's hair since the comb that came with the shampoo did not work because her hair is so fine. 

Wednesday, Eric surprised us for lunch. His plane was canceled out of northern Germany to Copenhagen due to the volcano eruption, so he caught the train back home. He did book a flight from Frankfurt to Copenhagen later in the evening, but we hope he can return without a hassle at the end of the week.

Saturday cannot come quick enough as this is when we leave for our family vacation.  I hope my simple plan of packing a bathing suit and a summer dress works out. It will be a nice treat for us to relax poolside and on the Aegean Sea beaches.

Bundesjugendspiele

This morning was Adeline's track and field day with the school. The kids warmed up for the numerous events by walking 20 minutes to the track and field. The kids then competed against other classmates in a sprint, long run, long jump, and shot put. Adeline ran the 100 meter dash and threw 9 meters for her shot put. She ran 400 meters for her long run against her other female classmates and came in sixth place. They did the long jump during her gym time at school, so it was not done during this time. For their final event, Adeline's class competed against the 2B class in a relay race. All of us parents were very proud of the first class, as no one dropped the baton or fell when they were racing against the older kids.

A surprise visit

Our friend, Ella, sent Flat Ella to visit us this weekend. Flat Ella is Ella's school project based on the Flat Stanley book. Adeline and Emmie had fun showing Flat Ella around Hofheim and the area even though the weather turned cool and was windy with periods with rain for majority of her time here. We sent pictures back to Ella in Michigan with every new experience Flat Ella had. The girls took her to school so she could see how their classrooms are different than Ella's classroom. The highlight of her visit was an afternoon at the biergarten with our friends. 

Signs of Summer

We have gone from a mild winter to a very warm spring and it is starting to feel like summer. The flowers are in full bloom, the bees and flies are buzzing everywhere, and our strawberry plants have little green strawberries on them. 

Tuesday, we had another 80 degree day, so we spent the afternoon at the pool again to help cool off.

Thursday afternoon, Emmie's class had a project at their school. After cake and drinks, the parents made a compost garden outside the classroom window and the children helped out where they could. The girls liked ripping up the cardboard into small pieces. Two large containers were filled with sticks, cardboard pieces, peelings from apples and potatoes, and dirt according to the directions. Then a variety of vegetable and flower plants were planted on top.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's wishing everyone a Mother's Day

That's filled with every pleasure,

And a future that's as happy

As the memories you treasure!

Tea Party

Saturday afternoon the ladies church group hosted a tea party. The girls were very excited to attend this event. Sarah also joined us for a girls afternoon outing. We arrived to a beautifully decorated dining room as all of the table hosts brought their own tea sets and their individual desserts were the table centerpieces. I created a little girls table which had pink cupcakes as their centerpiece. 

All of the little girls were excited to sit around their table and Sarah and I joined Rachel at her table. The afternoon started with all of us singing, "I'm a Little Teapot." The english version has two verses, so we learned a new verse and its accompanying motions. Our event coordinator than informed us of proper tea etiquette, which the little ones enjoyed practicing at their table. We then dined on petitie sandwiches and fruit kebabs along with our tea. The speaker was very thoughtful in her presentation about helping us to discover the true image we see in the mirror everyday. After she spoke, we did a mirror craft to remind us of what we learned. 

We then returned to our table to enjoy the delicious raspberry chocolate meringue torte, Rachel had made while the girls enjoyed their cupcakes. The sunny afternoon was a wonderful time for us girls to be  together. 

When we returned home, Adeline and Emmie were very excited to share with Eric everything we did and learned during the afternoon and there was even one cupcake left for him to enjoy.

Back to school

Spring Break was over me as I had school on Monday morning, but Adeline had one more day off due to a teacher training day. Even though the temperatures were the cooler than the past week,  the girls had a great morning at the Opel Zoo with their grandparents. 

Tuesday afternoon we spent in Wiesbaden. The town is very nice to stroll through and we found the yummy gummi bear store for some souvenirs. We also stopped in Cafe Maldaner for afternoon tea time.  All of our torte choices were delicious. 

Wednesday evening we visited the wine town of Hochheim. We enjoyed our local German meals in the small winegut, Weingut Preis.  Afterwards we strolled through the little old town and into the vineyards before sunset. 

Late Thursday morning, we taxied my Mom and Ray to the airport. Their vacation was over, but we had a wonderful visit with them and the weather was excellent for them to enjoy Germany. 

In the afternoon, we celebrated Marie's 1st birthday with Melanie and her family. The celebration was festive and nice to attend to after just saying goodbye to our visitors.