Rainbow Pony Party

Emmie's 5th birthday celebration was a rainbow pony party. She selected the design for her cake and helped make the numerous treats to be served. 

Even though it started to sprinkle when the kids arrived, it did not ruin the party atmosphere. The kids ate ice cream in decorated ice cream cones before Emmie opened her presents.  They did their crafts on the picnic table which we fit on the patio and under the balcony. Singing and cake consumption occurred while we let the grass dry up. Despite the high humidity and heat, they all had fun galloping and racing against one another in the various pony games we played.

Everyone had a great time celebrating Emmie's birthday and left with smiles on their faces. Emmie was excited to play with her gifts and enjoy more of her birthday treats in the evening.

Tschüss Kindergarten

Emmie's last week at kindergarten was spent playing on the playground and continue watching the new kindergarten house being built.

This week the construction crew had great organization for bringing the prebuilt walls to the site and dropping them into location. It was very interesting observing how quickly and efficiently they operated for this phase. They had the building constructed within a six hour time period.

Passed 2a with flying colors

As the school year wraps up this week, Adeline has been the recipient of numerous awards. 

She was awarded two certificates from the Bundesjugendspiel. The first one was for placing first in the sprint race. The second one was for being the most athletic girl in her class as she accumulated the most points based on her overall performance.

In addition, she received a certificate for completing the instrument carousel program in the Hofheim music school.

We are very proud of her performance in school. Her teacher has approved for her to be in the third class next year.

Rhein Regional Route

On Saturday, we biked the local portion of Rhein Main regional route along a path that took us through the fields. Adeline likes using her gears to conquer the hills. Bandit is still getting used to being in the trailer, but after an hour or so, he finally accepts he must ride it in it in order to come along with us. There are different sights along the route to stop and see. We stopped and ate lunch at a lookout point. While having lunch, we decided to head over to a tall look out tower. 

We discovered the tower is at a new park they built that also has a restaurant and playground area. Eric and the girls climbed the tower, while I stayed at the bottom with Bandit. The tower also had a glass floor. The girls found it neat to look down where they just climbed up from. 

Go Germany!

Tonight Germany plays in their quarterfinal game in Eurocup 2012. The girls are excited about this as they have gotten into the spirit and have been practicing their cheers. Emmie is cheering for Greece since she really liked their beaches and Adeline is rooting for Germany. 

At school, Adeline was the only one wearing her jersey in her class, where Emmie joined with all of the boys who have worn their jerseys all week long along. 

In the evening, friends came over to watch the game with us. We celebrated with an international buffet of American snacks and had French champagne and German beer to go along with it. 

It was a fun evening and Germany won 4-2. They now have a spot in the semifinals and will play on Thursday evening.

Location Perks

Eric finished up his project in a little town outside of Zurich this week. He has managed to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere of his job location when not in the office these past few weeks. He arrived home with a specialty torte from the town of Solothurn. The torte was delicious and a great finale to this project.

Vorlesetag

This morning, Steinbergschule held their Vorseletag. This is the time when an a student from the older class reads a book to a student who will be entering school next year.  Adeline's class performed this task. Unfortunately, it was raining outside, so it was held in the gymnasium. Adeline and her classmates found a mat to sit on and then the kindergarten students who are coming to school (including Emmie) ran to find someone to sit next to. It worked out for Emmie to be with Adeline along with another girl.  Most of the students had two kindergarteners with them. Emmie agreed that Adeline did a good job reading the book. Adeline informed me her teacher demonstrated how to, but because she read slower, she did not get to finish the book. 

Afterwards the children played games and then visited Adeline's classroom. They also learned that Emmie is not the only sibling from Adeline's class who will be attending school next year. Both girls said it was fun morning being together in the school.